live rock leaches phosphorus

[rdang]

i live in Florida, and there is a lot of live rock that is aquacultured limestone.Lime stone is a heavy rock, and it leaches phosphates. it's okay in fish only tanks, but obviously not good for corals. does anyone else know about this because it seems like a lot of people on here are buying this rock!

 

[AdeptMrSniffles]

I brought back 6 small pieces of Limestone LR from my vacation at Long Boat Key, it's in between Sarasota and St.Petersburg. They've been in my tank for about a month and my water condition hasn't changed. On the other hand my entire tank isn't stocked with it so I don't know what the affects of 20+lbs of the stuff would do.

 

[rdang]

One pet store here sells it, and the other doesnt. The owner that doesnt has it all in the flower bed in the front of the store. Its a lot cheaper to sell because it doesnt have to be flown in, but its also less pourus and a lot heavier and more expensive to buy even at a cheaper price per pound. The owner sounded like he new what he was talking about. I had already bought a rock from the other store, so i brought it to them. They said, " yeah thats limestone." "You can keep it if you are only going to do fish it will be okay." So i took it back and they gave me my money back.

 

[yote]

Actually,that limestone is fossilized coral.99.9% of the rock in my 125,came from Flordia.No problems with phosphates(phosphorus) at all.
It sounds to me like that store suckered you into a sale and gave you some false information.

 

[rdang]

maybe it doesnt leech phosphates. :dunno: It would make sense though. The world's supply of phosphate comes from Tampa, and they get it by mining lime stone. I see your tank is doing awesome though! It is at least twice as heavy as fiji rock though, and its the same price per pound! :mrgreen: The fiji rock is more porous too. :bounce:

 

[yote]

But most Fiji rock is also harvested off the reefs,where the rock that comes from flordia is aquacultured.
The Flordia rock is mined from an inland quarry and hauled out on barges and dropped a couple of miles from the reefs.
Plus the Florida rock I can cherry pick it and get the pieces I like.Some of it is heavy,but a lot of it aint too.

 

[mike surtees]

Hi, The density of any live rock, no matter where it came from, should be such that when it is immersed in your tank, it displaces as little as possible, biologicaly this is the best. Unless it is bleach cleaned and left to dry for use as an ornament, it will allway's have things that are iether dead or waiting for rebirth.[egg's - spawn etc ] Therefor phosphate will be released and it needs to be aborbed . I used highly porouse coral rock that had been bleached & dried, I put it into RO water several times until my TDS reading went from 600 down to 3 - 5tds. Then I put it in the tank and automatically seeded it. It took a while befor life started, but now 6mth later it is lovely rock, and my phosphates are purely related to the amount i feed the fish, Phosphate is held deep within most rock, unless you take it out prior to putting it in the tank, then it is a lenthy buseness to absorb it, even if you do use Rowa-phos etc. Regards.

 

[dcantucson]

+1 Mike
Nice explanation.

 

[sen5241b]

Much of my LR is collected off beaches -- all dead coral skeletons and much of it from Florida. Never had any problems with it.