Liverock.
Once upon a time, that word meant that someone had gone down to the sea, returning with a fragment broken from some long-ago reef, which had lain on the bottom for decades, collecting a corona of living things. That's a limited resource, though, and we've learned to work around that. We've learned to seed fossil reef skeletons with bacteria, and even to make our own "rock" from various forms of cement.
To me, "liverock" still means life I can see, not just bacteria. When Zoey's Reef began, I ordered a couple of boxes of "Pukani Air Rock" from a major vendor, expecting instant marine life. What I got was dull grey rock, full of holes but with not one living macro-life-form in sight. Over the years, I was able to add a few things - micro brittlestars, Stomatella snails, spaghetti worms, purple coralline ... but never really got that experience of looking into the tank and just _not_really_knowing_ what I might see.
Went out across the 'net, looking for the real stuff. Decided pretty much right away that Pacific rock is coming too far, too many handlers, too much aviation fuel to be affordable for what's likely to reach the journey's end alive. Sadness, 'cause the Pacific has got some cool stuff. Took a look South, to Florida. There's rock coming from three general areas; The Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Florida Straits off of the Keys.
What kind of rock did I want? What kind of habitat did I want to create?
I looked at rock from the Atlantic - pretty in pink, but as far as I could tell from the site's images, the coralline algae coverage was the only selling point. Meh. <shrug>
I looked at rock from the Gulf of Mexico. _Much_ more diversity of life on the rock from here, and Tampa Bay Saltwater has _amazing_ reviews, a welcome presence in the reefing community, and great videos of his site out there on the 'net. The water there is clear with a green tint to it, perfect for cultivating sponges and a few hardy corals, and there are plenty of happy-looking fish there - but it's not a reef. I looked at the Keys, too - and the water there is a different color. It's blue, like the water around reefs. It's not as nutrient-rich as the Gulf, which might indicate that the animals bathed in it won't be looking for big plankton meals I can't easily provide.
I chose rock from KP Aquatics, and near the end of Summer, was just about ready to pull the trigger on 60 pounds of the stuff ... when the Atlantic hurricane season kicked into high gear. Hurricane Irma would slam into the Florida Keys as a Category 4, and rage up the length of the Florida peninsula.
It took almost two weeks for Kara and Phillipp (KP) to get a decent look at their home. It was a couple more weeks before they could announce that they were back in business, and two more before they were going to make the trip to Ft. Lauderdale Airport with boxes of rocks. On Monday, they dived to their aquaculture site and chose 60 pounds of Miami Oolite which had been simmering at the bottom for at least a couple of years. They rinsed off the loose items, wrapped each piece in salt-wet newsprint, bagged it, boxed it in two styro shippers, and by Tuesday evening, the rock was transferred into the care of Delta Airlines. Overnight to Atlanta, through the morning to Westchester County Airport in New York State, it arrived at about two-thirty . . . . and I couldn't break away from the print shop where I work during the week. Everyone seemed to be having a prepress crisis. End of day, and I'm off to the airport ... which was uneventful, save for the traffic to and from.
Home at last, and the light above the left side of the reef switches to blues ... I'm going to have to move quickly to get this stuff placed!
Open the boxes...
Only the barest hints of what treasures might lie within! My son and I quickly unwrapped the rock and placed it into the tank ... sixty pounds adds up to a pretty decent amount of rock, on top of what's already there, now ... how can I make this look decent?!
While placing rock, we found two gorilla crabs - lords of the sump, these two. We also found three red Mithrax and a small pistol shrimp, which hadn't survived the journey - they would have been welcome residents. Additionally, a couple of tiny (<3") eunicid worms were spotted, along with another gorilla which probably hopes someday to be as big around as a small pea. They're in there somewhere . . . (Well, I know where one of the eunicids is ... it lost a battle with the elegance coral.) There are a few plants of
Pencillus - "Merman's shaving brush", though they're looking pretty rough,
and a couple of very small
Halimeda, and there are several specimens of what I believe to be
Sargassum hystrix:
The rock is about 40% covered with coralline, and I could feel sponges under my fingers as I placed it. Two large worm tubes were found while placing the rock, one may hold a decent sized peanut worm ... or a feather duster who's lost his crown, the other holds only a surprise. Several smaller dusters are also evident. Most of the coralline is an orangey-pink color, and fluoresces nicely in a true pink, but there's a little wine-red and a few splashes of taxicab yellow coralline. The fish seem happy with natural things to nip at.
This morning, peeking in the predawn with a flashlight ... I spotted a tiny dark shape, zooming and looping across the sand; a small mysid.
So far, at least, I am well pleased. Come along on a three-minute tour of the newly enhanced Kingston & Zoey's Reef:
~Bruce
