Cheap cheap Dry Rock

X

xThe Fletcher

Everyone needs to go to Whiz Q stone in Fort Worth and pick up some tufa rock for adding more rock. Tufa rock is limestone based and is very brittle and extremely porous. I was able to pour a full cup of water on the rock without it flowing off the sides. They were out of lace rock because of a shortage but had 4 tons of tufa. Tufa sells for $0.50 a pound!! Amazing! I'm cycling it now in another tub after a nice vinegar bath. Looks great and is definitely better than $2.29 for lace rock at DNA. It's so porous that I was able to carve some caves or holes for frag plugs. Great rock.
 
I got 5 pieces of it there about a month ago. I soaked it in tap water for a couple of weeks, and am soaking it in saltwater now for a couple of weeks. Should I soak it in vinegar for some reason?

Thanks!


David
 
The only reason I soaked it in vinegar was to dissolve the outer coat of the rock that had been exposed to stuff. I didn't really see much off a difference though. Not a whole came out. If I were you I'd check the phosphate levels in the tub to make sure it isn't leaking anything. Great quality. So far my 60lbs are doing great.
 
David,

Please be sure to post back when you actually use the rock in your tank. I trust your judgement on its use.
I wouldn't do any vinegar soaks unless you think some portion of it would need to be dissolved in order to increase the pores that should be inherent in the rock.

Thanks!

--Howard

@DFW wrote:
 
I have no first hand knowledge in using this rock, so please do not trust my judgement on this! I will add one rock to see how it goes, probably in the coming week. If that seems to work ok, I will add another a week, or 2, later. I have already made some aragocrete that is much more porous than this tufa, but I like the drillable nature of the tufa better for my present purposes. My diy rock tends to want to come apart with a lot of hole drilling as I am doing with this project.

I had not thought to soak in vinegar, and have no plan to do so.


David
 
@denierlexiese wrote:
David can you tell us your results. I picked up some too. Thanks! said:
Thank you for asking, but I have not placed any in my tank yet. I hope to put one, or 2 pieces in the tank this week.


David
Click to expand...
 
I've had about 60 pounds of tufa cycling with 10 pounds of live rock for a couple of weeks now. I've had the ammonia and nitrite spike and the nitrates are starting to creep up. I'm just waiting for ammonia to go back down before I add it to my display. It's so porous that I was able to carve out caves with a chisel and a hammer.
 
Nice, I started the tap water cycling a few days ago. Dumping the 30 gallons of water each night and running power heads to get the mud out of the crevices. Thinking about adding a couple pieces to the display in a week or so. Should I cycle with saltwater before I add it to the DT?
 
What I did is a rinsed them all with a hose and then let then sit in a tub of tap water for one night to let them leach if they were. After that I let them dry out in the sun and then put them in a tub of saltwater with a couple pounds of live rock, a heater, air pumps, and powerheads. I've been watching the cycle now and it's been about two weeks and I'm starting to see nitrates go up and ammonia go down. Looking good!
 
I actually had someone that had intended to come to MACNA last year ask me to go there & get them 50 lbs of this rock for them, but they ended up not able to come so I never went and got it. Place is not far down the road from us. There are quite a few tanks out in the world that use this rock with no issues, so you shouldn't have any problems with it.
 
I finally put a piece of this in my tank. I think that I am really going to like it!

[attachment=0]pegged rock 4 24 13.JPG[/attachment]
 
I've had the tufa in my tank now for about a week and I haven't seen any ammonia at all! Very happy with this alternative. I have about 40lb of extra tufa live rock for sale. Haha it was so cheap I bought a lot.
 
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