[GoinSalt]

I noticed at the lfs that they sell something called "bowl rock" or "Texas Holey Rock". It's filled with all kinds of nooks and crannies.

I was wondering if this could be used as base rock with LR put on top. Would the dead rock eventually be taken over with the coralline algae and other things coming from the LR or should I just avoid this stuff altogether and just go with regular base rock?

Nate

[Poseidon]

Got a picture? Some rock that can be used in Fesh water is not good at all for salt water tanks... ANd those names don't ring any bells so I don't know exactly what type of rock you are talking about.

[salttanker]

I would go with the base rock just to be safe. I just ordered another 30lbs. of base rock from hirocks.com for $50.00 which includes shipping. Just a thought..


Mike

[GoinSalt]

Originally Posted by salttanker

I would go with the base rock just to be safe. I just ordered another 30lbs. of base rock from hirocks.com for $50.00 which includes shipping. Just a thought..


Mike

Do you know if the base rock from hirocks is just "kinda dead" lr -- like fuji, et.al. -- or is it completely "dead" rock?

It looks like a better deal than buying actual fiji "base rock".

Nate

[salttanker]

It is dried out "Live" rock from Hawaii, but most people use it as a base, then add live rock on the top, which will then eventually have growth on it. It's just a cheaper alternative. Once I get my other 30lbs., I will have a total of 60lbs. base, then I will get 40lbs. of live rock for my 90G. It looks really good IMO.

Mike

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by GoinSalt

I noticed at the lfs that they sell something called "bowl rock" or "Texas Holey Rock". It's filled with all kinds of nooks and crannies.

I was wondering if this could be used as base rock with LR put on top. Would the dead rock eventually be taken over with the coralline algae and other things coming from the LR or should I just avoid this stuff altogether and just go with regular base rock?

Nate

That's probably mined limestone from a local quarry. It's coral skeletons that are millions of years old so it's the same composition but it could have impurities. It seems to be quite popular in Germany because real live rock costs a fortune over there.

The advantage is that it's cheaper than live rock. The disadvantage is that it is much denser and will not support nearly as much bacteria as good, porous live rock. Another disadvantage is that it could possibly have picked up some impurities over the ages -- just a possibility to be aware of. You might want to choose only the white pieces and definitely avoid anything too colorful because the color comes from minerals.

The aquacultured live rock in Florida is quarried limestone that is chopped up into chunks and then placed in the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of years to age and acquire some life. I think they're mining a lot of it out of Haiti now, too.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by salttanker

It is dried out "Live" rock from Hawaii, but most people use it as a base,

Mike

It's probably quarried limestone, which is what all the tropical islands use for road construction, airport runways, even houses, etc. In the Maldives they even mined living reefs just so that they could build a bunch of new airport runways.

It is illegal to collect live rock in Hawaii and it is illegal to import it into the state or export it out of the state. So the only thing they could be shipping out of Hawaii would be limestone from a quarry -- live rock that has been "drying out" for tens of thousands of years at least. Maybe it's relatively porous like the stuff in Haiti that is mined only a few hundred meters from the beach.

One of the potential problems with getting this sort of stuff from Hawaii is the possibility that it will contain impurities from volcanic erruptions. If you get some of this, ask them to avoid any "colorful" pieces. Every Hawaiian island was an active volcano at one time or other so it's only natural to expect that lava has flowed over everything from time to time.