Limestone?

[Donya]

I have semi-plans for a 20gallon. But, I don't want to use 100% live rock from the store. I have reasons for wanting limestone in the tank (snails again), so I'd rather do the bulk of rock as limestone and a few LR pieces from the store. Technically both should be chemically the same. What do you guys think about using mainly porous limestone rather than coral-based LR, and seeding with a few cured LR pieces?

 

[Fish Fingers]

If the limestone was porous I can't think of any problems with it. I know a lot of people us ebuilders lime to buffer their top up water, and I can't see this being any different to having in the tank. I'm not sure though, maybe it would cause problems, you should probably get someone else's advise first! Why are you wanting to get limestone? If its for buffering why don't you just use base rock and buffer your water with calcium carbonate based sand?

 

[Navarre]

I dont see why you need limestone for the snails? Liverock works perfectly well as far as i can see. their shells will form easily withthe sea water and its additives along with limerock.

 

[crazyelece]

Limestone works well. Most use lace rock and if I remember right it is just a specific type of limestone. I just don't like the look myself as it doesn't look like a natural reef to me but thats my opinion. I used about half and half when I did my tank and it works well for base rock.

 

[Donya]

I dont see why you need limestone for the snails? Liverock works perfectly well as far as i can see. their shells will form easily withthe sea water and its additives along with limerock.

One of the species I'm studying had populations that supposedly follow limestone deposits. The shells are extreemly thick and I don't think anyone has actually found an upper bound for the amount of calcium they use. The more I put in, the quicker they grow. It is partly an experiment in that regard, but I would also like to see the curing process in a little more detail.

 

[Ed4567]

In my opinion, in normal saltwater, limestone is going to do very little to maintain calcium (or alkalinity) at natural levels, since seawater is already supersaturated with these ions.

Maybe the snails are found close to limestone because they benefit from the conditions that lead to the formation of limestone (rather than benefitting from the limestone directly)? It seems logical if they have very thick shells, they would be most suited to conditions that are likely to lead to precipitation of calcium carbonate which also causes limestone to be formed.

 

[Donya]

It is also possible that they may actually rasp away at exposed limestone. They do this with CaCO3 deposts that I get periodically above the waterline. They will actually venture into salt deposits to do it.

I wondered about the possiblity of conditions fo limestone formation, I doubt that is the complete explaination for occurance near limestone. Limestone presence doesn't mean the conditions are still producing limestone, since it often gets eroded & disolved when at/near the surface (e.g. Karst topography).