Live rock opinions!

[Subsea]

found it. this was back in 2018

unboxing:

and this was the scape I cam up with. never really loved it. lots of biodiversity on the rock bit it was heavy and dense.

Good looking stuff. I was always impressed with diversity of colors, particularly bryozoans. Even years later, I would move some rocks around and voila, yellow ball sponges or orange bryozoans.

 

[Devaji]

anyone know if Rchard @liverock has been diving and able to ship on more airlines?

 

[Midrats]

I've used both TBS and KP and prefer the latter. Less barnacles and crustaceans yet plenty of diversity. It also ships right to your door rather than having to go to the airport to pick it up.

 

[laverda]

I love all the life that comes in on live rock. Even the pests can be interesting. I kept a tiny teddy bear crab for a long time. I thought it was amazing how its hole in the rock just got bigger as it grew. How do you think it did that? It was smaller than my pinky finger nail the first time I spotted it and grew to 2.5" or so.
I just wish shipping was not so expensive. I would buy more today.

 

[HuduVudu]

Just order last week from Live Rock and Reef. Twenty pounds straight to my door with UPS overnight. The rock was collected the day before. It was so fresh that it smelled like oysters and no hydrogen sulfide. There was literally no die off. I had 5 majanos that were removed. No mantis shrimp (so far, could be eggs) no crabs. I got 3 small LPS. My wife started feeding them all. The two that were in the tank with my new butterflys got their mouths pulled out, but the other that was in my established tank is doing awesome and getting big. Two gorgonians, that are doing well. Put those in my established tank because it has the better light. Tons of halameda, red grape caulerpa, and brown macro. I got some taxinoma and removed it. Lots of bivalves and orange and red sponge. Unbelievbly good rock. Check out my build thread to see some pics.

I have some really awesome pieces of Tonga from back in the day, so my new tank is a mix of it and the live rock.

EDIT: I forgot the coralline, so many variates and so beautiful.

 

[Devaji]

Just order last week from Live Rock and Reef. Twenty pounds straight to my door with UPS overnight. The rock was collected the day before. It was so fresh that it smelled like oysters and no hydrogen sulfide. There was literally no die off. I had 5 majanos that were removed. No mantis shrimp (so far, could be eggs) no crabs. I got 3 small LPS. My wife started feeding them all. The two that were in the tank with my new butterflys got their mouths pulled out, but the other that was in my established tank is doing awesome and getting big. Two gorgonians, that are doing well. Put those in my established tank because it has the better light. Tons of halameda, red grape caulerpa, and brown macro. I got some taxinoma and removed it. Lots of bivalves and orange and red sponge. Unbelievbly good rock. Check out my build thread to see some pics.

I have some really awesome pieces of Tonga from back in the day, so my new tank is a mix of it and the live rock.

EDIT: I forgot the coralline, so many variates and so beautiful.

I bought some rock from them IDK maybe 5 years ago drove down to SLC when they had a shop there. most of the rock was just wrapped in newspapper not much live but amazing shapes wish I had kept that rock. did get some promo deco but was heavy a hell and flrt like a live bowling ball.
i'll check out your thread for the pics

 

[samnaz]

+1 for gulfliverock.com

to this day one of the best decisions I’ve made in my reefing career. You will not be disappointed!

 

[Fish_Sticks]

found it. this was back in 2018

unboxing:

and this was the scape I cam up with. never really loved it. lots of biodiversity on the rock bit it was heavy and dense.

Any idea what the cool orange things were? Orange mushroom sponges?

 

[Dkmoo]

when I set up mine it went pretty quick and didn't really have to wait for a full cycle:
1) live sand
2) dry marcorock for the DT, aquascaped right away.
3)bought bacteria bottle
4)borrowed a few live rock from local reef community and put in the sump
5) started stocking 1 week later.
6) returned live rock a few weeks later and turned the sump space into chaeto fuge.

 

[TDEcoral]

I’ve ordered from KP Aquatics twice and have been happy each time. IMO, their rock has better shapes, more holes/crevices, and more porosity. With live rock you may get some pests, but it's worth it when you're not struggling to keep corals alive a year from now (speaking from personal experience). I just recently transferred all my corals from a tank that was set up with dry rock to a new tank with KP live rock and in just a few weeks my corals look better than they have in a very long time.

 

[Subsea]

Any idea what the cool orange things were? Orange mushroom sponges?

Bryozoans are primitive sponges.

 

[CanuckReefer]

One thing I will say is maybe try one or two pieces of quality Tonga if you can get it. Not the entire scape but, I've got one really nice large piece in mine, couldnt think of my scape without it. Just my opinion.