manmade rock disintegrating

[Ray Laneville]

Hi,
I started my first tank in February. I bought some cheap man-made rock from amazon when I set it up. Now I realize that was a mistake as the rock is crumbling apart. I glued the pieces together with some putty I bought at LFS, that worked fine but the rock is slowly falling apart into silt, especially when my pencil urchin gnaws at it. I don't have any recent pics, here's what it looked like at the beginning.

The smaller rockpile on the left came loose last night, my pencil urchin knocked it apart, rock fell on him and took down a couple frags I put there.

I need to replace the rock, I was thinking of re-doing the left side first, then worry about the larger piece. It's going to be a pain because I need to evict my BTA which just started to host a clownfish.

My question is, is this common with man-made rock or did I just pick the wrong ones? I'm not sure if I need to buy live rock at LFS for 8-10 bucks a pound or is the dry rock from BRS ok to use? I just do not want to repeat my mistake. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Joshua2598]

If you are to change the rock, do it slowly because of the beneficial bacteria

 

[MTBake]

I never used man made rock.

I can recommend marcorocks.com as a replacement though. I've always been happy with what I get from them. The cut shelf rock is really nice for building caves.

 

[Ray Laneville]

I never used man made rock.

I can recommend marcorocks.com as a replacement though. I've always been happy with what I get from them. The cut shelf rock is really nice for building caves.

Yes, this is what is sold at BRS. Looks nice, I just wanted to make sure I didn't run into the same problem down the road. Thanks for the advice

 

[Ray Laneville]

If you are to change the rock, do it slowly because of the beneficial bacteria

Yes, I have 2 sections of rock, was going to replace them one at a time. That should let the bacteria spread to the new rock. Plus there is bacteria in the sand

 

[TheHarold]

Reefcleaners!!

 

[Ray Laneville]

Reefcleaners!!

Their Florida reef rock looks good at a good price. Anyone use this Florida reef rock from reefcleaners?

 

[Leslie Tabor]

Are you doing bare bottom? If not, you could always leave this rock in the tank, kind of hide it? Then you have more filter/bio capacity. Just a thought.

 

[Ray Laneville]

Are you doing bare bottom? If not, you could always leave this rock in the tank, kind of hide it? Then you have more filter/bio capacity. Just a thought.

I would but it's falling apart into silt. Whenever something disturbs it it makes a sandstorm

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I would but it's falling apart into silt. Whenever something disturbs it it makes a sandstorm

Oh yeah sandstorms suck. I have them constantly now from my Bella gobies so I am just used to it. I do miss the crystal clear water. Totally understand.

 

[TheHarold]

Their Florida reef rock looks good at a good price. Anyone use this Florida reef rock from reefcleaners?

I use it ALWAYS for myself and the occasional client. Zero leaching from it, I can add it to a display and it grows coralline rather than algae like Pukani does.

 

[Ray Laneville]

I use it ALWAYS for myself and the occasional client. Zero leaching from it, I can add it to a display and it grows coralline rather than algae like Pukani does.

sold! I'm going to order some now.

 

[Scurvy]

Their Florida reef rock looks good at a good price. Anyone use this Florida reef rock from reefcleaners?

Im in the midst of a new build and have both reefcleaners base rock and Marco shelf. Together you cant tell the difference other than the shelf rock is flat. Ill be smashing a few pieces of the reefcleaners into smaller pieces to get some unique shapes. It was pretty boring in that regard.

 

[TheHarold]

sold! I'm going to order some now.

I am no photographer.... but this is an area of a 300g I just set up with it. To make columns I drill a 1/2" hole through it and put in an acrylic rod.

I actually have 20 lbs more that arrived a few days ago on my doorstep to make more columns- you reminded me haha

Also, the proof of that it grows coralline before algae. I frequently add reef cleaners rubble to my DT to add platforms for acropora. It just colors up without going through the weird algae phase that Pukani did.