KP Aquatic live rock question

[SuaSponte]

I keep seeing people mention the bottle trap...do you just poke holes in a plastic bottle, bait it with some food & sink it in the tank?

Pretty much! I use a bottle trap similar to the one illustrated by Brian Plankis in the following Cirolanid Isopod primer: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/bp/index.php (see The Ultimate Capture Technique section of the article).

 

[Reef man 89]

I also just got some of their rock but all live critters were dead. I'm in New Hampshire so not a long trip from Florida. Otherwise I was happy with it.

I live in NH and I’m about to order 60 ponds from them. How did you have your rock shipped to you by plane or ups? Was it shipped in water or just wet paper?

 

[Midrats]

Next day air. It was wrapped in wet paper. Most of the good stuff survives, while unwanted crustaceans do not. I'm very happy with it.

 

[Reef man 89]

Next day air. It was wrapped in wet paper. Most of the good stuff survives, while unwanted crustaceans do not. I'm very happy with it.

Did you pick up at Manchester? If so was it hard to find the cargo facility?

 

[RMS18]

KP is the only live rock I've used. I just placed an order for another 15lb for a frag tank. I do examine each rock and look for any bad hitchhikers. I have only pulled off Bristleworms, and some crabs I was unsure about. I also do break large rock up incase i can't get a good enough look into some of the holes. FL rock is better than caribbean as no aptasia. I have a ton of cool sponges, orange, red, clear, black. Tons of feather dusters, all kinds of pods and small worms, scallops etc.

 

[Midrats]

Did you pick up at Manchester? If so was it hard to find the cargo facility?

FedEx to my door.

 

[piranhaman00]

Im looking at starting a new tank with KP aquatics "uncured" live rock. After the rock is in the tank and the die off and ensuing nitrification process takes place, is the tank suitable for corals?

I recently started a tank with only dry rock and immediately after cycle added corals, lost two of my favs I know thats not the right process but I thought I had a handle on params. Obviously something with live vs dry rock for corals is present.

TLDR; Does using this live rock make the tank stable faster for corals?

 

[SMSREEF]

Im looking at starting a new tank with KP aquatics "uncured" live rock. After the rock is in the tank and the die off and ensuing nitrification process takes place, is the tank suitable for corals?

I recently started a tank with only dry rock and immediately after cycle added corals, lost two of my favs I know thats not the right process but I thought I had a handle on params. Obviously something with live vs dry rock for corals is present.

TLDR; Does using this live rock make the tank stable faster for corals?

My last tank was started with dry and I had nothing but problems until I added live rock and live sand(not the bagged stuff, but from the ocean with all the critters).

Adding the live stuff with all the different life in it makes the biome and food chain more capable to supply corals what they need. This food web makes the tank’s food supply for the corals more stable. This assumes your parameters are stable with dosing.

I would add live rock/sand and let cycle to get ammonia down after any die off. Then add fish, inverts and a couple test corals. Maybe some Macroalgae too. This would complete the food chain.

this looks at only nitrogen, not phosphate, but it would be

Fish and some omnivore inverts eat food and release ammonia.

Corals and macroalgae use some ammonia. Bacteria use rest of ammonia and convert to nitrite, then other bacteria converts to nitrate.

Corals eat bacteria and Microalgae uses nitrate.

Veggie inverts eat microalgae and release ammonia.

Corals and macroalgae use ammonia.

 

[Butcher333]

After trying the dry rock to avoid pests, I ended up with Dino’s. I bought 30lbs of KP and it arrived at my job the next morning. I placed it in 5 gallon buckets immediately. At home I placed the rock in a 10 gallon with a skimmer and let the ammonia climb. Then I removed a huge peanut worm, a few bristle worms, a fire worm. 3 really pretty bright yellow worms I learned were bad. (I placed about 8 shot glasses full of the water from this to my display and within 24 hours Dino started to get eaten by something. I took photos of this process.) Then I flushed and refreshed the rock with fresh saltwater. I added PNS ProBio to try and halt any more ammonia damage or build up. A short while later I added it to my display. All of the coralline algae came back almost right away. I wish I had used KP instead of dry rock. I intend to follow the same procedure next time with this rock. The dry rock I started with still has no coralline. It’s weird.

 

[Midrats]

I have to somewhat retract my statement of being very happy with KP rock. While the diversity of life on it is incredible, the most recent batch I received has quite a few Aiptasia rearing their ugly heads. Not enough to go the berghia route yet, but I want to nip them in the bud sooner rather than later. F Aiptasia makes them multiply. After using it I see tons of new ones popping up everywhere. Will an ORA filefish turn on my @Battlecorals ? Are peppermints less likely to go after SPS? Will all the worms and critters in the rock just eat the berghia if I go that route?

 

[PghReef]

I have to somewhat retract my statement of being very happy with KP rock. While the diversity of life on it is incredible, the most recent batch I received has quite a few Aiptasia rearing their ugly heads. Not enough to go the berghia route yet, but I want to nip them in the bud sooner rather than later. F Aiptasia makes them multiply. After using it I see tons of new ones popping up everywhere. Will an ORA filefish turn on my @Battlecorals ? Are peppermints less likely to go after SPS? Will all the worms and critters in the rock just eat the berghia if I go that route?

Are you sure it's aiptasia and from the rock and not some other source you could have introduced? How long after you used the kpaquatics liverock did you notice aiptasia start?

I only ask because aptasia are not in the keys. The are many other anemone species, some look very similar, that do not spread line wildfire and cause problems in our tanks. Also if you added corals or other sources of life aiptasia could still really hitchhike in on that.

 

[PghReef]

There are the anemones I on kind on my rock. About 2 or 3. Posted here for ID and found to be juvenile rock anemones. Stay small, don't move, don't reproduce like crazy, and are actually purchased separately all the time.

 

[Midrats]

Are you sure it's aiptasia and from the rock and not some other source you could have introduced? How long after you used the kpaquatics liverock did you notice aiptasia start?

I only ask because aptasia are not in the keys. The are many other anemone species, some look very similar, that do not spread line wildfire and cause problems in our tanks. Also if you added corals or other sources of life aiptasia could still really hitchhike in on that.

100% sure. Apparently they are in the Keys now, and if they are not these look exactly like any other Aiptasia I've ever seen in my 30 years at this. They are reproducing just as fast too. There was nothing else in the newly started tank when I first noticed them.

 

[VR28man]

First, aiptasia species of various sorts can be found worldwide.

It's alleged that the pest-in-aquarium species is a pacific species, generally Aiptasia pulchella, which is commonly used as a lab model organism due to its hardiness and ease of breeding. The various Florida species are allegedly not anywhere near as much of a problem. (I doubt there's any research that would even pass a middle school science fair behind most of those sentences).

I've seen apparent aiptasia-like things on KP live rock, but I don't know what the source is (many different potential vectors). Wherever they came from 2 of 3 could be cured by removing the rock, cutting out the anemone and spot bleaching. I don't think I spot bleached the third, and after removal it came back, but none of them (got to the point where they could?) proliferate.

ETA: nevermind.

Exaiptasia - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Midrats]

I left the couple I saw alone for quite some time and I wasn't seeing any new ones. It wasn't until I used kalk paste and then F Aiptasia that they started multiplying. Removing the rock isn't an option unfortunately. What is the second best option?

 

[hoju74]

I was worried my KP rock had aiptasia, but it turned out to be curly q anemones. There’s only two and don’t seem to bother anything. They’re pretty big now though.

 

[Butcher333]

Mine didn’t have a single one. Interesting.

 

[fishface NJ]

My order didn't have any aiptasia.

 

[Midrats]

A previous order from a couple of years ago was aiptasia free. This most recent order has new ones popping up every day. I guess a Berghia order will be forthcoming. I just hope the Berghia will survive, the rock is loaded with all kinds of worms and critters, not to mention my elongate dottyback that might want an expensive snack. He's a tiny little guy, maybe he won't be interested.

 

[ScottB]

A previous order from a couple of years ago was aiptasia free. This most recent order has new ones popping up every day. I guess a Berghia order will be forthcoming. I just hope the Berghia will survive, the rock is loaded with all kinds of worms and critters, not to mention my elongate dottyback that might want an expensive snack. He's a tiny little guy, maybe he won't be interested.

Berghia did a really thorough job cleaning out my display. I had too many wrasses and too much flow in my frag system for them to work there.