Quality "Live Rock" ?

[BigKid4788]

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.

 

[BMan]

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.

Hmmm... Tell me, how do you do that when ordering rock over the phone ?

 

[BMan]

They asked me about my tank and my experience. I told them the tank was a 28 gl JBJ Nano. With 17" square dementions. They asked how I was going to place the rock (one central formation or two bookend formations)
I questioned whether or not 30 lbs was enough. They said they would try to select less dense pieces and make sure the weight equaled several pieces with a couple being flat. They also said they would add 10% for water weight.

 

[hartin461]

How did the rock order pan out?

 

[BMan]

How did the rock order pan out?

Well there was all the trouble shipping via ground 3 day transit and all the die off....things have really started to recover nicely. There is actually a lot of life that survived shipping. Small feather dusters, barnacles, clams embedded in the rock. Limpets, verious snails (good kind), pink, purple and red coriline algae. Macro algae (red and some green). A few bristle worms ( most died in transit). Some spaghetti worms (I think they are called. One emerald crab ( red version). Some white sponge, sea squirts. Coapods.
I removed two Corkscrew anemones. (Very small). Another has popped up and I haven't removed it yet. It's growing fast. I may leave it alone. Not sure yet.
I'm pretty happy with the rock. I could do without the macro algae but I'm not totally aginst having some.

 

[hartin461]

Looks great...thanks

 

[Mike N]

Well there was all the trouble shipping via ground 3 day transit and all the die off

Describe the smell you experienced when you opened that box ;Vomit;Vomit;Vomit;Vomit;Vomit

 

[BMan]

No. Not exactly. But it was not a sweet ocean smell either.

 

[Ryengoth]

I bought my Fiji from liveaquaria.com but I got LFS and the Fiji rock to seed my tank. All kinds of dusters, yellow and black sponges, limpids, stomas, collonistas and lots of bristle worms came on-board. The rock comes alive at night as much as the tank does in the day. I've also dumped amphipod and copepods twice. Aiptasia, asterinas and green algae are the only three things I wish wasn't around. The tank does fine with them since the tang constantly grazes anyway and the asterinas keep the coralline from taking over. The aiptaisa was under control until the copper banded butterfly got wedged between a powerhead and the edge of a rock. If you want a chunk of one of the rocks let me know.

 

[Ryengoth]

Most of the coral is closed up because I just cleaned the detritus out and they hate the high flow.

 

[greg11]

Premium aquatics Fiji back in the day..that was the best

 

[PedroYoung]

I love the rock I got from Mitch at Livestock USA http://www.livestockusa.org/ROCK.html#rockpricejava. He's mostly a wholesaler, but the rock I got from him was awesome, air freighted straight from Bali to LA, then transhipped to me. Not cheap, but my ammonia never got above 1 ppm when curing, and was cycled in about a week (rock is boxed straight out of their ocean-side raceways). I got a box of "shelf" and a box of "regular" for my 75 and had too much rock.




1 yr later

 

[VR28man]

KPA in my experience is very personable and come from a long line of reef conservation. I am sure they can accommodate any demands you may have. For instance, they advertise many nano size items that would require far less than 60lbs.

I also have rock from TBS and enjoy the diversity from different regions. I do have the advantage of both being in my back yard, so to say.

I'd be interested in more details about the difference, especially between the Tampa rock (TBS, etc.) and the Keys/Miami rock (ARC and KP Aquatics).

It seems to me that all the vendors have essentially the same method ("rent" a plot of sand, put a lot of rock there and harvest it as needed). Tampa's a little bit colder, allegedly, than the Miami/the Keys and the geography and visibility conditions are different. So therefore the life is slightly different (or rather, the balance of benthic inverts is somewhat different, since I think the life in the two regions is roughly the same, just different proportions due to temperature, terrain, current, amount of runoff in the bay vice the keys which has a seagrass bed and the Everglades between the barrier reef and the mainland, etc.)

TBS as I recall keeps its rocks at around 50-60 ft (looks much deeper than KP's site). They have a lot of videos on youtube, and there are some posts about this on RC. Their live sand is taken directly from the site (something the vendors below can't do because of some regulatory issue) Honestly, their online marketing is excellent, and I like that they will ship the rocks in water to preserve as much of the life there as they can.

They also are generally using Walt Smith 2.1 rock, which is allegedly very stackable, a plus for many reefers.

Here's a trip out the live rock farm, with gopro-on-a-string footage of the farm, and a demonstration of how stable the rocks can be:

Here's video from a fairly clear day at the farm, with further explanation about the rock's stability and his belief that it attracts benthic life better than quarried rock:



ARC apparently has an area not too far off Miami beach, looks like 10-40ft from the aerial photo. I'd expect more photosynthetic hard corals (e.g. Siderastrea, etc.) and fewer NPS organism like sponges, tube corals, etc.
[video of their aquaculture site unavailable]

KP aquatics also has an area in the keys, looks like 30-45 ft.

[Post-facto ETA: I went with KP aquatics ]

 

[becks]

If I could have got the tampa bay live rock, I would have it looks amazing

 

[d2mini]

When I restarted my tank just about 2 months ago I went with TBS again.
Rock and sand went straight from the bags into the tank. Nitrates registered within 24 hours and I was putting coral back in the tank within a few days of setting it up.
This shot was taken a week or two ago.
A less than two month old tank with SPS, LPS, clam, several fish and critters all doing well.

 

[VR28man]

Forgot to add, this vendor sells "premium" live rock, air freighted moist, from Walt Smith in Fiji, and monthly from Indonesia. It won't have as much life as tbs, since tbs rock is shipped with water (and with generally shorter flight time), but if someone wanted a pacific biotope or some such that's another option.

https://www.livestockusa.org/ROCK.html

 

[Sharvey103]

I have used Tampa Bay in the past. Had a few bristle worms and other hitchhikers in it but loaded with amazing life. Just need to "cure" it some before populating the tank.

 

[brett_schn]

Dry rock!

 

[Maritimer]

I'd be interested in more details about the difference, especially between the Tampa rock (TBS, etc.) and the Keys/Miami rock (ARC and KP Aquatics).

It seems to me that all the vendors have essentially the same method ("rent" a plot of sand, put a lot of rock there and harvest it as needed). Tampa's a little bit colder, allegedly, than the Miami/the Keys and so therefore the life is slightly different (or rather, the balance of benthic inverts is somewhat different, since I think the life in the two regions is roughly the same, just different proportions due to tempeature, terrain, current, etc.)

TBS as I recall keeps its rocks at around 50-60 ft (looks much deeper than KP's site). They have a lot of videos on youtube, and there are some posts about this on RC. Their live sand is taken directly from the site (something the vendors below can't do because of some regulatory issue) Honestly, their online marketing is excellent, and I like that they will ship the rocks in water to preserve as much of the life there as they can.

They also are generally using Walt Smith 2.1 rock, which is allegedly very stackable, a plus for many reefers.

[ETA video. The KP aquatics aquaculture site came up very big in thepost, and I don't want to give the impression that I'm favoring them. ]

ARC apparently has an area not too far off Miami beach, looks like 10-40ft from the aerial photo. I'd expect more photosynthetic hard corals (e.g. Siderastrea, etc.) and fewer NPS organism like sponges, tube corals, etc.
[ETA: video of their aquaculture site unavailable]

KP aquatics also has an area in the keys, looks like 30-45 ft.

[I'm thinking about this alot now because I'm going to be ordering rock for my tank soon. ]

I am too . . .

Watching their videos, there are two things that catch my attention: The water at Tampa Bay's site is green - that at KP's site is blue; the most common fish at Tampa Bay's site seem to be black sea bass (which we also have in Connecticut), those at KP's site seem to be grunts and large angelfish. I'd have to think that the life that collects on the rock will be different at a similar level.

As far as I can tell, both vendors produce an excellent product!

~Bruce

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

When I restarted my tank just about 2 months ago I went with TBS again.
Rock and sand went straight from the bags into the tank. Nitrates registered within 24 hours and I was putting coral back in the tank within a few days of setting it up.
This shot was taken a week or two ago.
A less than two month old tank with SPS, LPS, clam, several fish and critters all doing well.

Best not to let the kids know it's this easy.

Ps
WOW that's a sweet tank!