# lime stone



## Mark Evans (13 Feb 2009)

is this stuff a no no in aquariums? i think no, but not sure


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## Ed Seeley (13 Feb 2009)

It will raise your hardness but apart from that it's fine Mark.  With large water changes and tap water you probably won't notice too much difference.


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## Mark Evans (13 Feb 2009)

Ed Seeley said:
			
		

> It will raise your hardness but apart from that it's fine Mark. With large water changes and tap water you probably won't notice too much difference.



that would be brilliant if thats the case   

thanks Ed


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## Themuleous (13 Feb 2009)

Yep, just raises the GH.  Think cichlid people use it for that very reason.

Sam


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## George Farmer (14 Feb 2009)

Themuleous said:
			
		

> Yep, just raises the GH.


Also KH/pH.

Like Ed says, regular large water changes should prevent it going too high.

One issue you may find - CO2 injection results in carbonic acid, that dissolves the limestone, resulting in more pH/hardness, so you may need to inject more CO2 to compensate, as harder water doesn't hold CO2 so well...


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## GreenNeedle (14 Feb 2009)

When I started Celestial Glade I used some large limestone rocks from the Garden to hold the redmoor down in the first 5 weeks.  I didn't have fish or inhabitants for those 5 weeks so I didn't test but I did notice that there were a lot of small 3-4mm 'chips' that had come off it as weak seams had dissolved etc.

There are still some chips in there, they just seem appear every now and again even though I've tried removing these fragments when I see them.

AC


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## Mark Evans (14 Feb 2009)

but seeing as the set up should be no more than maybe 5 months....it should be ok right?.  i kinda know the answer as Clive kindly advised too. the acid/erosion is something to watch out for i know


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## gratts (14 Feb 2009)

Purely out of interest, what would happen if you were to dip the limestone rocks in a varnish like polyurethane, prior to adding them?


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## Ed Seeley (14 Feb 2009)

gratts said:
			
		

> Purely out of interest, what would happen if you were to dip the limestone rocks in a varnish like polyurethane, prior to adding them?



They'd look all shiny and horrid!   

Seriously the porous and uneven nature of the rocks would mean it would be almost impossible to completely cover them and once some water leaked in through a pin-hole gap it would probably cause the varnish to lift off and come away from the rock, especially if the rock was reacting slowly with the acidic tank water.


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## TBRO (3 Mar 2009)

I accidentally installed coral sand (essentially lime stone before it becomes a mountain) which was a grevious mistake my carbonate hardness and pH were really high (12 and 8.5 respectivley). The fish were not happy and you get a film of limescale on the surface. CO2 and water changes don't seem to help as there is a massive buffering capacity in all that calcium carbonate. The more Co 2 you put in the more it will buffer and the pH won't budge. Seems to also prevent the CO 2 dissolving well, as soon as I removed it (albeit after stripping the tank down) the plants were pearling like they had never done before - In short I would stay clear of calcium carbonate in all it's forms.


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## JamesC (3 Mar 2009)

TBRO said:
			
		

> Seems to also prevent the CO 2 dissolving well


I find this very interesting and agree that it is the case. I talked about this before and was shot down for it. Recently I did and experiment with a tank with very low KH of 1 and one with a high KH of 15. Kept CO2 bubble rate exactly the same and found the one with the low KH had a lighter green in the drop checker than the one with the higher KH. Not the most scientific experiment I know but does seem to backup what I thought

Thanks for posting this.
James


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## aaronnorth (4 Mar 2009)

JamesC said:
			
		

> TBRO said:
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I had limestone in my tank, but then i switched to borneowild driftwood and i noticed no difference in the colour of my DC nor the amount of pearling that was occuring. Kh dropped from 12dkh to 8dkh

although that is probably not enough to determine any results from it


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## vauxhallmark (5 Mar 2009)

JamesC said:
			
		

> TBRO said:
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Was it a standard solution in the drop checkers, or water from the tanks?

Cheers,

Mark


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## JamesC (5 Mar 2009)

It was a standard KH4 solution. It was the same tank. One week with low KH water, emptied and filled up with high KH water for a week, and then emptied again and filled up with low KH water.

The difference wasn't that great but still noticeable.

James


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