Making live rock in NC

[Sweetaz]

I live on the intracoastal waterway in North Carolina, and am thinking about throwing some Marco rock in a mesh bag and tying it to the dock. I wondering if the types of life I would get from the mid Atlantic NC water would be useful in a reef tank?

 

[PiggyPuffin]

I'm thinking it depends on the temperature of the reef tank you want to keep. The vast majority of tropical species are restricted by winter water temps along the Atlantic coast. Certainly will be interesting to hear from members with more practical knowledge of what would survive.

 

[cracker]

I'm very interested in this experiment .
Do You have an average of salinity & temp ? Are You near an inlet ? Is there a source of fresh water near?
I'd think these would effect the types of life. As for the bacteria I'd think not so much. Be interesting to hear what others think.

 

[Captain Quint]

I live on the intracoastal waterway in North Carolina, and am thinking about throwing some Marco rock in a mesh bag and tying it to the dock. I wondering if the types of life I would get from the mid Atlantic NC water would be useful in a reef tank?

Interesting.

I never did but it is a unique thought/experiment. We do have some cool stuff about 10 miles out. Not sure about our local Intercoastal Waterway near docks/piers though.

There is some awesome place here for peppermint shrimp though.

If you do, please post your findings.

 

[Seamore2001]

I think you'd have better luck in the summer, but will be interested to see what you find. I might recommend setting them up in a separate tank for a while to observe what life you get.

When I lived in MA I would raise my mooring chain and attach the ball and pennant for my mooring in May. By July the bottom of the ball and the chain would be covered by crawling and encrusting life which I'd scrape off every few weeks. Folks that never winterized their moorings would sometimes have the ball nearly sink under the weight of all of the encrustation. I'd imagine that if you could get your rocks out on the seaside, or at least near a cut, that they'd be quickly covered by Spring.

 

[jda]

Test the water first. You could have a lot of terrestrial phosphate so close to shore. If so, then the rock will bind a bunch of it.

 

[Muttley000]

I would think the intercoastal would be pretty dirty

 

[Turtlesteve]

I can't imagine growing anything but oysters in the intercoastal.

This brings up an interesting question. I know Florida issues permits for farming rock, but do other states care or have any relevant rules on it?

Steve

 

[Sweetaz]

Test the water first. You could have a lot of terrestrial phosphate so close to shore. If so, then the rock will bind a bunch of it.

You bring up a good point. There is a big tobacco field right next to my dock too.

 

[jda]

After you test the water, see if whatever grows on it will survive in a tropical environment. If not, then the dieoff could introduce more dead organics into your tank.

 

[VSVP bet]

Im from CT and I used rocks from a local stream to start the cycle on a freshwater tropical tank of mine. I got all kinds of creatures on the rocks (insect larvae, inverts, you name it). I collected the rock during summer, and the water temp was 70-72, the aquarium I had was around 75. Some of the freshwater invert species started breeding, and as I only had a few catfish in the 75 gallon aquarium, I ended up not ever having to feed the catfish, they sustained themselves on the creatures that had an established population.