Best decision I ever made!!

rustyjames said:
"It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)
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And that's an opinion. I have done many builds, some full blown reefs, and others just SPS dominant, clean purple rock, Black BB with insane light and flow. Some love it, some hate it. I love it, but that's my opinion. I love seeing everyone's different living reefs and ALL of them are unique and amazing.
 
d2mini said:
Not me.
One of my most favoritist things is going to the airport to pick up that shipment of fresh LR and other goodies from Tampa Bay Saltwater.
And every single tank I've set up with "The Package" has been very successful.
Will be doing it again soon! :celeb1: :beer:
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No kidding... I don't think I would start a new reef tank without at least some live rock.

My current tank has about 700 pounds of live rock in it. Most of which I have had for 20 years. Amazingly my tank is still going stronger than ever. No issues with hair algae and any pests in there came from coral frags over the years. Not from my live rock. That said, most pests like Aiptasia and Majano's are easily dealt with just as are asternia star fish. I will also note that I have started many tanks over the last 29 years. Some with live rock and some with dry rock or dead rocks and the tanks started with live rock are always much more stable right out of the gate and don't suffer from the same algae cycles and bacterial blooms that the tanks with dead or dry rock do. I attribute that to the bio diversity and bacteria that is immediately introduced with live rock.
 
Live rock for me, forever. I've done it with not-live-rock and it just wasn't the same. I don't worry about a few pests, compared to the things I do want, the surprises of sponges and even a tiny clam, bits of coral, and the worms: asterinas? I've got two. I have a 100 gallon tank. I only HOPE they eat some coralline. My current tank still doesn't have the diversity I'd like, and I'm thinking of getting a small amount of live rock in hopes of some critters like stomatellas and spaghetti and peanut worms and a webwork sponge I lost in the house move.
 
I started with dry rock. Cured it in a brute for 6 months. Took that long to get the tank set up. 2yrs later and it seems I have everything in there. Mini stars poke out of every crevice. Bristle worms. Apastia, majanos, I even had a blue point crab. Kept him in my fuge till he got 5 in then he had to go. I have a spaghetti worm that probably could grab a fish it's so big. Had a large peanut worm. Pods amphipods. And I dipped all frags. Nothing every became a nuisance. But it was a very dull beginning. If I were to do it all over again I would definitely try TBS. The best part of having a reef in your livingroom is watching the amount of life your tank contains. Good and bad.
 
In Canada, getting actual TBS type rock is a dream. It's really not available here at all, and if you do want to pay HUGE for the CITES, water weight at Canadian prices etc, it would be absolutely ridiculous. Like $15.00 a lb ridiculous.

We mostly get stuck with LFS cycled garbage. I'm doing a whole new scape in my tank, and ordered dead Tonga Branch and shelf rocks from fijireefrock.com. They can supply pukani, shelf, Fiji and Tonga branch in Canada.

I look at that tbs rock, and drool.

Thing is, I'm not interested in paying live rock money for crap from a LFS that has basically no life, and could be full of crap.

I'd do a real piece of LR for the mystery guests, but it would have to be what you Americans can get.

And don't get me started on the corals you guys have. Wow.
 
Reel North said:
In Canada, getting actual TBS type rock is a dream. It's really not available here at all, and if you do want to pay HUGE for the CITES, water weight at Canadian prices etc, it would be absolutely ridiculous. Like $15.00 a lb ridiculous.

We mostly get stuck with LFS cycled garbage. I'm doing a whole new scape in my tank, and ordered dead Tonga Branch and shelf rocks from fijireefrock.com. They can supply pukani, shelf, Fiji and Tonga branch in Canada.

I look at that tbs rock, and drool.

Thing is, I'm not interested in paying live rock money for crap from a LFS that has basically no life, and could be full of crap.

I'd do a real piece of LR for the mystery guests, but it would have to be what you Americans can get.

And don't get me started on the corals you guys have. Wow.
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Any chance that you are close to the border? IIRC, someone from RC picked up TBS rock in the US, declared it at the border without issue and went home rather happy.
 
I live near Buffalo. He was very very lucky. Importing rock - even pukani dead stuff - without a CITES can land you in prison with a huge fine.
 
I always enjoyed watching what came off and was in live rock, but after also battling what was in it I have used dry and ceramic in my last systems and won't be going back to live rock. Invasive thick mat soft corals, macro algae that had long roots I couldn't never completely get rid of and harmful critters like aptasia. Yes I love seeing the neat stuff, but not for me anymore. Seems like the better quality the LR the more good and bad come with it.


Plenty of nice tanks use both. I had one heck of a time getting rid of that soft coral and macro algae though. Fought some of for the entire time it was setup. No thanks!
 
I've been keeping salt since skilter filters, undergravel with crushed coral, a tank without live rock just doesn't do good for me. I love Fiji live rock
 
Live rock is actually my favorite part of my tank to watch. Staring at the tank for hours and "discovering" things you never realized were there. I would never start a tank without live rock, just for this reason. I only wish we could come even remotely close to the diversity of life you see growing on mature rock in the wild.
 
I've only cycled my tanks with dead live rock. Mostly due to cost. But what gets me are the adamant protestations of quarantining being a must and then just adding live stuff with no QT process. Maybe it doesn't apply to rock??? Anyway I can totally see the attraction with all the extra living organisms you get.
 
IMO, the most invasive and destructive predators in a reef are species specific - red bugs, acropora eating flatworms, monti eating nudibranchs, etc...

The stuff that comes in on live rock is relatively benign in comparison - fireworms, mantis, gorilla crabs, aiptasia, etc...

Those used to be the bane of the classic reef tank. But in a new and coral free tank, they can be controlled/removed relatively easily.

But the new pests are significantly harder to remove once they infest - so quarantine is essential.

So yes to live rock and yes to quarantine
 
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