A bit of a shocking discovery...

[Kyuss]

Getting back into the hobby after I got a smoking deal on a 150g tank/stand/canopy from a local monastery (yup, a monastery) that included a bunch of extras - including about 100lbs of medium size substrate and two boxes of dry rock. From what I was told, they had it set up for SW then took it down 6 or 7 years ago and it sat in storage since - hence the smoking deal I got on it.

I got it back in April and since have been slowly getting equipment together, cleaning & drilling the tank etc. So I'm finally nearing getting this thing wet and finally dove into the two boxes of "rock" that had each piece individually bubble wrapped so I never really got a look at it til a day or two ago. I got my RO/DI system setup and filled up a brute container, planning on curing the rock. I finally get to unwrapping the "rock" and what I find is probably about 80lbs of bleached coral skeletons.

This one is 19" long by about 1 foot wide.

The piece in the lower left foreground is about the size of a basketball.

Close-up of the basketball sized piece.

Not even sure what this is, but it's actually really light weight despite how large it is.

Close-up of the above piece.

The majority of it in the Brute can for a rinse.

Now I'm not sure what to even do with all of this. I've always been a FOWLR guy and will be returning to that with this 150g. Is it even legal to have this?? If so, what do I even do with it? I would rather have 'standard' rock like pukani etc. I was honestly sad to see all this.

 

[Netofficer3710]

Why wouldn't it be legal to own?
You don't know how these skeletons came to be in their current condition so I'm not real sure what the big deal is. I suppose you may be envisioning a terrorist ripping it from the great barrier reef and tossing it up on a beach to dry while clubbing a seal, but I doubt that's how it went down.
It is entirely possible this stuff is the result of a tank crash.
I would guess the stuff would act just like any live rock and possibly filter even better than most (super porous looking stuff)
You could either use the stuff to aquascape with (especially for a FOWLR tank) or put it up for sale where someone else will. (this is after all what your live rock started out as)

 

[redneckgearhead]

Most LR is made up of coral skeletons. Netofficer3710 could be correct that it is the result of a tank crash. But years ago when keeping saltwater tanks was started everyone put "dead" coral in there tanks, they didn't have the knowledge to keep live coral, yet. Of course its legal.

 

[Gill_bucket]

Why wouldn't it be legal to own?
You don't know how these skeletons came to be in their current condition so I'm not real sure what the big deal is. I suppose you may be envisioning a terrorist ripping it from the great barrier reef and tossing it up on a beach to dry while clubbing a seal, but I doubt that's how it went down.
It is entirely possible this stuff is the result of a tank crash.
I would guess the stuff would act just like any live rock and possibly filter even better than most (super porous looking stuff)
You could either use the stuff to aquascape with (especially for a FOWLR tank) or put it up for sale where someone else will. (this is after all what your live rock started out as)

Tank crash... LOL

 

[Gill_bucket]

Thats the way people used to decorate their tank, some old school shops still sell this stuff; In fact this stuff is usually much more expensive than live rock.

 

[mkbtank]

Tank crash... LOL

Yeah! I reconize those pieces. They were from MY tank. Just after I recieved totm and had the crash...... Yeah.......that's the ticket

 

[Spek]

The brown one looks like a pipe organ

 

[jbowen]

+1 on the pipe organ
I have a bunch that I've collected over the years and use it in my African Cichlid tank. Some people also use them as home decor, think shore house. You can try selling them on ebay, those look like really nice pcs!

 

[Kyuss]

Why wouldn't it be legal to own?
You don't know how these skeletons came to be in their current condition so I'm not real sure what the big deal is. I suppose you may be envisioning a terrorist ripping it from the great barrier reef and tossing it up on a beach to dry while clubbing a seal, but I doubt that's how it went down.
It is entirely possible this stuff is the result of a tank crash.
I would guess the stuff would act just like any live rock and possibly filter even better than most (super porous looking stuff)
You could either use the stuff to aquascape with (especially for a FOWLR tank) or put it up for sale where someone else will. (this is after all what your live rock started out as)

Most of the stuff is rather large so if it was a tank crash, they had some amazing success keeping corals, with an Eheim canister no less - that's the only piece of filtration equipment that came with the tank. That's why I wasn't sure if there were any restrictions in place these days as it appears most, if not all of it, was propagated from the ocean due to the size.

I know it would work great as rock as it's extremely porous , but their is quite a few different types of coral and I think any type of stacking it for aquascaping would literally just look like a stacked pile of coral skeletons - I should of took pics of all the pieces before I put em in the Brute. Not sure it would last too long either before triggers turn it into dust either. Thanks for the input guys.

 

[Gill_bucket]

Most of the stuff is rather large so if it was a tank crash, they had some amazing success keeping corals, with an Eheim canister no less - that's the only piece of filtration equipment that came with the tank. That's why I wasn't sure if there were any restrictions in place these days as it appears most, if not all of it, was propagated from the ocean due to the size.

I know it would work great as rock as it's extremely porous , but their is quite a few different types of coral and I think any type of stacking it for aquascaping would literally just look like a stacked pile of coral skeletons - I should of took pics of all the pieces before I put em in the Brute. Not sure it would last too long either before triggers turn it into dust either. Thanks for the input guys.

Their actually are restrictions in place now on larger pieces (like the 19" you have). My LFS has a couple monster pieces and the owner told me they were smuggled out of somewhere in Africa during a recent civil war.

P.S. His monster pieces have a 300 dollar price tag.

 

[returnofsid]

Sell it, on Ebay, as ornamentals. You'd be amazed at what some of the larger bleached skeletons go for! Use the money you make, to buy live rock.

 

[freetareef]

Most LR is made up of coral skeletons. Netofficer3710 could be correct that it is the result of a tank crash. But years ago when keeping saltwater tanks was started everyone put "dead" coral in there tanks, they didn't have the knowledge to keep live coral, yet. Of course its legal.

+1 they were all like this ten years ago.... i like em better now =)