Hi there, I'm a newbie to the forum and I'm glad I found something local. I am setting up a new 60 gallon tank for African Cichlids and was interested in getting Texas Holey Rock. I have found some on-line but it certainly isn't cheap. Does anyone know of anywhere local that this type of rock might be available? If not is there a good substitute that is available locally. I'm not interested in lava rock though. Also are there any other freshwater stores other than Big Al's in this region?
Cheers.
SK
Hello SuperKillie and welcome to OVAS !!
Take a look at our Sponsors' section in the main Forum page, there are over a dozen stores in town, and the Forum will let you get in touch with them via posts or private messages.
I personally like La Niche a lot, their customer service is top-notch and they have the healthiest plants I've ever seen. In fact the entire store is just immaculate ! They usually carry a fair selection of rocks although not as big as BigAl's but they come and go, like anywhere else. The store is in Gatineau, google it up, it's worth the drive (although it would be a good idea to call before to make sure they have what you need).
Also have a look at the For Sale (http://ovas.ca/index.php?board=63.0) and For Free / For Trade (http://ovas.ca/index.php?board=62.0) forums; we have a lot of members regularly trading stuff and you may just get lucky and find what you need for a fraction of the price you'd expect to pay in-store.
Check it out !
Any supply of Texas Holey Rock you find in Ottawa will be just as expensive as what you see online. As the name implies it only comes from east central Texas and shipping it makes it very expensive.
When I had a cichlid tank I bought about 50 pounds of lace rock from Fish Tails in Orleans. They are an OVAS sponsor so having a membership gets you a discount. They brought in a whole box of it for me and it seemed to be enough for my 60g short tank. Great stuff for cichlids IMO. Some pics of that setup are here:
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=38405.msg230082#msg230082 (http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=38405.msg230082#msg230082)