Marshall Island Rock Discussion about Radiation

[livinlifeinBKK]

Ok, I thought that’s what you might have been referencing. Biodiversity of the coral triangle in general, rather than specific bacterial biodiversity of Indo live rock.

I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time in that zone over the last 25 years, from Nth Sumatra, through East Nusa Tenggara, PNG and the Solomons.

Best live rock I’ve handled while diving for a feed with the locals has been on the Bismarck Archipelago in PNG and NE coast of Santa Isabel, Solomons. Incredible looking stuff.

Oh ok! No, I wouldn't make a blanket statement like that... I'm sure it varies. I was just referencing the average because I was really surprised when I found that out.

 

[Falreef]

It would have to be a really hot source to cause any issues. I was a nuke mechanic on subs in the Navy, though granted that was 25 years ago now. Any rock directly exposed to blasts will be excavated and stored most likely at this point. The level of exposure to subsurface rock in neighboring areas is likely negligible.

Could be wrong as I haven't looked at any studies though.

You do know how massive these test explosions were. Highly unlikely they excavated and relocated and isolated all the rock, coral, coral skeletons, sand. And how massive was the amount that was ultimately scattered.

 

[Falreef]

"Toxic" has to be given a very specific definition if you're curious about that. What does the word mean in context? Toxicity generally refers to the LD50 value with a lower value representing high toxicity at a lower dose. It seems to be either used incorrectly or with a different meaning.

If something is radioactive, would you have contact with it, house it, handle it, have it in your home, exposure yourself, family and friends to it if it had an LD50 that is low? Or would you only want rock that is none. Has never had any radiation exposure?

 

[lilzbra]

Parts of the Marshall Islands are more radioactive than Chernobyl and Fukushima, study finds

edit: this is just a small sample of what is out there. Do some digging if you really want to see video of the detonations and how large they were compared to some of the ships in the radius. Some of the stuff they did during those tests are pretty graphic and inhumane... just a warning if you start to go down the rabbit hole.

 

[Rp8]

Why assume…let’s test it!!

Aquarium Live Rock - Fiji Live Rock, Tonga Live Rock, Tonga Branch Liverock, Marshall Island Live Rock

Buy live rock for saltwater aquariums and live rock for reef aquariums online. Live rock from around the world,including Fiji,Tonga,Marshall Island,Australian Namoli.

www.aquariumcreationsonline.net

 

[lilzbra]

Why assume…let’s test it!!

Aquarium Live Rock - Fiji Live Rock, Tonga Live Rock, Tonga Branch Liverock, Marshall Island Live Rock

Buy live rock for saltwater aquariums and live rock for reef aquariums online. Live rock from around the world,including Fiji,Tonga,Marshall Island,Australian Namoli.

www.aquariumcreationsonline.net

Are you sure they are still in business? The footer of the website:

(c) Copyright 2002 - 2006 Live Rock

This seems too good to believe and the website looks like something from back in the early days of the internet when we could order that stuff online!

Worth checking into though, maybe they just never updated the website?

EDIT: my hunch is correct, clicking around on the site produces 404 errors and other bad links. It is just up for historical purposes only... I do remember that site though from the early 2000's. No one would ship that rock for free at those prices these days! Even if they could export it!

 

[lilzbra]

However, for those of you wondering what the rock looks like take a look at some of the pictures on that site, and you will see what we are talking about in terms of biodiversity!

 

[Tired]

If something is radioactive, would you have contact with it, house it, handle it, have it in your home, exposure yourself, family and friends to it if it had an LD50 that is low? Or would you only want rock that is none. Has never had any radiation exposure?

I hate to break it to you, but everything is radioactive. Some of it from man-made sources, most of it natural. You're radioactive, and so am I, in infinitesimally small amounts. There is no rock on this planet that's never had radiation exposure.
It's not the existence of radiation you need to worry about- you may as well try to avoid the presence of temperature. It's large amounts of harmful types of radiation.

 

[lilzbra]

Marshall Island was the traditional go-to place for the best quality live rock available in the Pacific. It is created from ancient coral skeletons which gives it extreme porosity as well as keep the actual weight low. You could, for example, buy a 50 pound box of Marshall Island live rock and it would take up the same volume in your tank as 80 pounds of much more dense Fiji live rock. Marshall Island live rock also was some of the freshest rock available due to the short travel time and limited cargo space available. It never sat around and collected flies.

After the collection of all reef substrate (including live rock) was banned in the Marshall Islands (the ban had nothing to do with the aquarium industry, it was due to over collection of reef substrate for use in roads and runways), people turned to the Kingdom of Tonga for high quality live rock. Tonga live rock shared many of the qualities of Marshall Island live rock but was still dense and heavy. The best part about it was the variety of shapes.

Source

 

[Rp8]

Are you sure they are still in business? The footer of the website:

(c) Copyright 2002 - 2006 Live Rock

This seems too good to believe and the website looks like something from back in the early days of the internet when we could order that stuff online!

Worth checking into though, maybe they just never updated the website?

EDIT: my hunch is correct, clicking around on the site produces 404 errors and other bad links. It is just up for historical purposes only... I do remember that site though from the early 2000's. No one would ship that rock for free at those prices these days! Even if they could export it!

Dunno bro! Just did a quick google search!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Are you sure they are still in business? The footer of the website:

(c) Copyright 2002 - 2006 Live Rock

This seems too good to believe and the website looks like something from back in the early days of the internet when we could order that stuff online!

Worth checking into though, maybe they just never updated the website?

EDIT: my hunch is correct, clicking around on the site produces 404 errors and other bad links. It is just up for historical purposes only... I do remember that site though from the early 2000's. No one would ship that rock for free at those prices these days! Even if they could export it!

Agreed those were the prices you paid to get it after it made it stateside back then.

I used to order it directly from the importer that was in the back of AFI magazine or through ebay in the freewheeling days of the early/mid 2000's.

The last order I got was jan-feb 2008 through ebay from Tonga, shipped cargo air freight via Philippines airlines to LAX. If I knew 5 years later when I broke down my fowlr tank that ALL of the ring of fire rock was banned for collection, I would of kept that rock and dragged it around. I gave it to a friend (my importer) that's still in the hobby, today, luckily. So I may see again en masse before I drop dead!

 

[radiata]

Oh, Cheese! This must explain why a lot of my fish glow in the dark...

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Oh ok! No, I wouldn't make a blanket statement like that... I'm sure it varies. I was just referencing the average because I was really surprised when I found that out.

If you’ve got the time and enjoy that part of the world I can highly recommend the B2B Adventures YouTube channel. Sailing through Indo atm posting some very nice content on the reefs and remote islands.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

If you’ve got the time and enjoy that part of the world I can highly recommend the B2B Adventures YouTube channel. Sailing through Indo atm posting some very nice content on the reefs and remote islands.

I live in Thailand and have a friend in Bali who is actually in the coral and fish export business...would be awesome to check out his operation first hand

 

[taricha]

some nice conversation here about this topic, however I still have not seen anyone offer up a piece of Marshall Island rock for testing.

If anyone in the thread pops up with Marshall Island rock, I have a small radiation counter I could lend.

 

[lilzbra]

If anyone in the thread pops up with Marshall Island rock, I have a small radiation counter I could lend.

I have access to a high quality Geiger counter. One of my retired engineering buddy's hobbies is going around checking the radioactivity of things in our area and where he vacations. Just need some rock to test!

 

[RedoubtReef]

ooh nice. Cool idea.

having played with my geiger counter and a few radioactive sources, I think it'd be really unlikely to have any concerning level of radiation, but maybe just enough to be interesting.

I don't know, I had a ton of Marshall rock in my first set up and this happened...

 

[StatelineReefer]

If anyone in the thread pops up with Marshall Island rock, I have a small radiation counter I could lend.

Both @fishguy242 and I have Marshall Island rock from 2003 and earlier. I'd be interested to know how bright the flash would be if we got too much too close together

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

If something is radioactive, would you have contact with it, house it, handle it, have it in your home, exposure yourself, family and friends to it if it had an LD50 that is low? Or would you only want rock that is none. Has never had any radiation exposure?

In all honesty, we're exposed to radiation all the time in our daily lives. I wouldn't mind having detectable radioactivity in my home. It's probably there naturally anyway just as it almost certainly is in your home.

 

[StatelineReefer]

If something is radioactive, would you have contact with it, house it, handle it, have it in your home, exposure yourself, family and friends to it if it had an LD50 that is low? Or would you only want rock that is none. Has never had any radiation exposure?

... Smoke detectors are radioactive.