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RobB'z Reef
2500 Club Member
Thanks, it's highly likely I'm going the KP route. Be ordering in the next two weeks or so.
KP vs TBS?
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KJoFan
Valuable Member
In case you hadn't come across it yet, this shows the rock I got from KP Aquatics:
KP aquatics live rock
Just picked up some LR from mop aquatics and figured I’d walk everyone through the curing in case they had any question or interest. So initially when setting the tank up I had purchased some lr from saltybottom which was gulf rock. I only got rock rubble and honestly it was pretty awesome stuff...
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RobB'z Reef
2500 Club Member
Just burned thru the thread. So how long did that cycle end up taking? You feel in the end it went well for your tanks?In case you hadn't come across it yet, this shows the rock I got from KP Aquatics:
KP aquatics live rock
Just picked up some LR from mop aquatics and figured I’d walk everyone through the curing in case they had any question or interest. So initially when setting the tank up I had purchased some lr from saltybottom which was gulf rock. I only got rock rubble and honestly it was pretty awesome stuff...
KJoFan
Valuable Member
The cycle for the original rock I got shipped to my door in wet paper took probably two weeks to cycle. I cycled hard despite twice/day 100% water changes so I ended up losing a lot of the hitchhikers and coralline because I cycled in an unlit container.
I wanted the full experience so opted for additional rock sent fully submerged. The first shipment still had the good bacteria that is so important after it was all said and one and I did use a few pieces of that. The rest of my scape was made up of the colored stuff I got in the second shipment.
I left it all for about a day in my new tank before I added my fish and corals and never saw any real cycle within the tank.
Long story short, I probably would have been ok with just the first shipment of rock but I was paranoid I'd lost the good bacteria and missed the full experience of having live rock. If I had it to do over again I'd have went the fully submerged route from the start and been done with it.
So when I started my tank with the lr (both from sbr and KP), it was cycled in 10 days. I kept reading levels for 2 additional days and they remained consistent. Can’t say enough good thing about the entire experience with KP, communication is instant and delivery was at my front door in less than 12 hours.
My post where I walk through everything was done with the rock wrapped in news paper. I had minimal die off, maybe 1-2 crabs but both pencil urchins survived along w various other creatures. Obviously fully submerge will mitigate any die off but the price will be reflected.
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RobB'z Reef
2500 Club Member
Thanks so much guys, this has been awesome information and I have much more peace of mind moving forward!
hoju74
Active Member
I'm also going to order in the next couple weeks. How often and what % water changes did you do ? If I cure in my 120g, how often and what amount of water changes are required ?
My plan is to ship in the wet paper towels also.
My plan is to ship in the wet paper towels also.
I just got 25 lbs premium live rocks form KP and picked up Tuesday, selected the ship in water option. The price is similar to ship wrap in newspapers(at least for this order), I would suggest this option if you can. Philipp, is very considerate and try to keep the weight to the minimum, as SouthWest have a minimum charge($55 to my airport or $1.05 a lb). I think I paid less with this option compare to the newspaper wrap option. The rocks came in looking really good with lots of life and coralline(purple, green, orange, red/pink); there were 4 urchins, lots of crab & shrimp, worms. It’s curing now and checked the ammonia after 1 day and it’s at less then 2, I think the ammonia could be lower if I didn’t leave it out of water for about an hour while prepping for more water. Also, Philipp is very communicative even when they don’t have a number listed( was concerned about this before ordering) but he’ll respond to your email pretty quickly. Highly recommend and will order again!
Mike N
Valuable Member
Glad it worked out for you. Did you happen to take any pictures of the rock and hitchhikers?
I didn’t take pics of the hitchhikers, I follow what they suggested on their site, soak in 1.040 salt water for about a minute or two to get them off. I don’t want to kill them, put them in my currently empty frag tank for now.
I know the title says KP or TBS, but I had an order for TBS and it was just taking too long to get the rock. Richard was great to work with and I will order from him in the future, but I ended up with Gulfliverock. com.
I asked for submerged and air freight. It arrived yesterday afternoon (a bit longer transit than I would have liked). One of the boxes was leaking, but the rock is great so far.
Again, 24hours in. It went into a fully cycled 32g tank that is used usually for observation. It will stay there for minimum of 2 months. I have a badge on it and so far has not budged past 0.
Saw a baby mantis, but we will see what all emerges.
Here are some picks. (I asked for smaller pieces for top rock, not base 50lbs.) This was for diversity and to control my hair algae issues.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-210g-coming.385161/page-6
I asked for submerged and air freight. It arrived yesterday afternoon (a bit longer transit than I would have liked). One of the boxes was leaking, but the rock is great so far.
Again, 24hours in. It went into a fully cycled 32g tank that is used usually for observation. It will stay there for minimum of 2 months. I have a badge on it and so far has not budged past 0.
Saw a baby mantis, but we will see what all emerges.
Here are some picks. (I asked for smaller pieces for top rock, not base 50lbs.) This was for diversity and to control my hair algae issues.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-210g-coming.385161/page-6
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RobB'z Reef
2500 Club Member
I welcome all experiences and inputs! Thank you for sharing yours!
They look amazing! I was looking around for live rock to add to bio diversity, I selected KP because their rocks look cleaner and are less dense . Gulf got some good reviews and some not so good, their rocks are generally much dense and heavy base on search info. I was looking into TBS too but seems I already got KP and they are both in the Florida area, will look into Gulf if they are from the same part/area as KP & TBS, if not will probably try another small order to add another strain of bio diversity.
Mine are not too dense. Probably two of the collection were. I specifically asked for less dense rock. Maybe that helped. Being picky. 
I will probably try KP and TBS in future for added diversity too. Just for fun. My husband loves me spending our money when I am out of work.
I will probably try KP and TBS in future for added diversity too. Just for fun. My husband loves me spending our money when I am out of work.
This is correct, this is now an option for them.
I can only speak to KPA vs TBS, having ordered the former (before they had the wet option, whcih I would have exercised) and thought of ordering the latter.
There are a few differences:
1. KP aquatics uses a stock of quarried ancient coral rock (presumably from quarries deep in Florida, the same kind of places MarcoRocks gets their rock from). It's fairly heavy, don't know about its porousity. TBS may have some of that still available, but they've also started using Walt Smith 2.1 rock, which is artificial rock designed to be easy to stack and aquascape.
2. KP's rock is in the Keys, TBS is obviously in the bay. The KP location is near a true coral reef, the reefs in TB are not really coral reefs. (I got one or another Porites SPS, probably Porites porites on my rock, which survived the curing process) TBS's bay location also seems to be at least a bit murkier at some times, and probably inherently more subject to land runoff, meaning it has a potentially somewhat different balance of organisms.
See video of both locations on a different post I made.
Quality "Live Rock" ?
When I'm looking for rock I don't worry about the life on the rock. I found much of the stuff will die during the curing process. I look for how porous the rock is to minimize the weight of it as well as the unique shapes it may have.
www.reef2reef.com
(as an aside, I was told ARC's rock is hard and not-so-pourous. YMMV)
Mastiffsrule
Where ever you go, there you are, so be nice 2 you
Hello,
Since you mentioned all experiences I’ll throw in mine for TBS. Everything you need to know is in my 90 throwback build. I basically used their rock and set up a 90 fully stocked overnight. No cycle. It has all the original fish (except 3 damsels that were lost from aggression) My only down side was all the gorilla crab hitch hikers I got. But that’s not on them, them discuss it in their site
Since you mentioned all experiences I’ll throw in mine for TBS. Everything you need to know is in my 90 throwback build. I basically used their rock and set up a 90 fully stocked overnight. No cycle. It has all the original fish (except 3 damsels that were lost from aggression) My only down side was all the gorilla crab hitch hikers I got. But that’s not on them, them discuss it in their site
