Texas Holey Rock as Live Rock?

[MSUschmidt]

I'm used to seeing Texas Holey rock in Cichlid tanks, but I've read people have been using it and I see it for Sale at the LFS.

Does putting Texas Holey Rock become Live Rock like adding Base Dry Rock??????

I just got a 55 Going, now I'm going to get a 125 going which I'm going to build in a Basement wall. When I do that, I was thinking of adding some Texas Holey Rock, but don't want to if it's not going to become live.

Anyone use and have any success with this?

[Spork3245]

You can use it but you need to do an acid dip to remove phosphates otherwise you'll pay for it down the road.
Any/all rock should AFAIK, grow algae and bacteria on it given enough time.

[Timfish]

I've been using local honeycomb and flagstone for almost 2 decades in my tanks. All I do is hose it off well. As the surface is gradually dissolving when exposed to rain I'd be curious how it would be picking up phosphates but irregardless I haven't seen algae problems associated with using it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDJQEeQXyIk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uf5IyXvajg

[MSUschmidt]

I've boiled dry rock before, that has always seemed to work. Think I will just do that again to be safe, can't hurt right?

[billdogg]

I'm with Tim. Rinse it and use it. ~75% of the rock in my tank right now is Holey (Lace) rock

[MSUschmidt]

Cool got any pics????????????? Does it eventually become the typical brownish / greenish dull color like Base Rock?

[Spork3245]

I'm with Tim. Rinse it and use it. ~75% of the rock in my tank right now is Holey (Lace) rock

Texas Holy Rock and Lace Rock are two different things AFAIK. I have both in my tank as well as pukani.
Texas Holy Rock, again AFAIK, carries a TON of phosphates, doing an acid dip breaks them down. I dipped all my initial dry rock when starting my tank, the pukani made the acid mix bubble a bit, the lace rock had no bubbling occur the holy rock turned it into a bubble bath. I could be wrong about the phosphate thing but I remember being told to hit it with an acid dip otherwise I'd be in algae hell 6 months down the road. It's been 11 months and no hair/turf algae to speak of, my holy rock is coloring nicely (slowly, but nicely :)).