Bali/Maricultured Rock base no good?

[Pitcom]

I was just having an interesting discussion with a LFS owner and wanted to hear from others on this issue. Apparently an issue has been arising from some of the Bali and maricultured rock base used for alot of sps we buy. The problem is that sudden death starts at the base of the colony for no apparent reason. After numerous ideas the found that after breaking open the rock base it smelled worse than raw sewage. On each effected colony it was the same, the rock base smells rotten. This is after they have been in tanks for a couple of years. The LFS owner is no reccomending that if you buy one of these corals with these base rocks uses (especially the hollow ones with the plastic plugs under them) to cut of the sps colony and glue to your own live rock piece. i find this to be an interesting finding and would like to hear if anyone has experienced this.

 

[Hypertek99]

Are the rocks black when you crack them open??? They are dead sponges and can cause corals to die. A lot of people have found them in their Aussie acan rocks.

 

[Pitcom]

Hey Hyper, I'll have to inquire. It's never happened to me, but i was showing pictures of my tank and when they saw the rock base i had on some of my sps is when the discussion came about.

 

[dbabiak]

Hey Anthony was this ECA you were talking to? I spoke with Terry about my Bali colonies dying awhile back. I stopped buying things from Bali b/c they all died from the ground up. They are the only corals I've had this problem with. Interesting stuff, I wish I would have checked the rock but I just chucked them all after they died.
Dan

 

[Pitcom]

Are you talking about those cone shaped rock looking things the sps come on or actual live rock?

I'll take a picture of one. They look like live rock but they arent. If you break them open they almost look like concrete. Alot of times they have string in them too. But yeah almost always they appear to be live rock shaped in a conical fasion.

 

[Reef Goddess]

Hmm.... I've never found any of the maricultured sps that I've purchased to have this problem, and I've purchased at least 500+ over the years.
The only coral I've had that trouble with is large ricordia rocks because they come with a lot of dying sponge. Even the epoxied mushroom rocks etc have been clean.

Maybe it was a bad batch or something. My maricultured sps rarely bleach and its usually due to the 2 day transit not bad rock.

 

[Pitcom]

Hey Anthony was this ECA you were talking to? I spoke with Terry about my Bali colonies dying awhile back. I stopped buying things from Bali b/c they all died from the ground up. They are the only corals I've had this problem with. Interesting stuff, I wish I would have checked the rock but I just chucked them all after they died.
Dan

Hey Dan, no this was Mike from Frazer Zoo. Happy new year bud.

 

[gflat65]

IMO, it's always a good idea to remove the base, anyway. The dead sponge is one reason, but reducing the likelyhood of pest eggs through QT is the main reason I cut them off.

 

[Pitcom]

IMO, it's always a good idea to remove the base, anyway. The dead sponge is one reason, but reducing the likelyhood of pest eggs through QT is the main reason I cut them off.

Thats a good idea. When i set my new system up i think I'm gonna do some things differently, this being one of them.

 

[JGoslee]

IMO, it's always a good idea to remove the base, anyway. The dead sponge is one reason, but reducing the likelyhood of pest eggs through QT is the main reason I cut them off.

I agree completely. I always cut the base off all maricultured sps.