Best Florida Live rock?

[Jeremy Blaze]

Greetings!

I am just dipping my toes back in the hobby after an 11 year break. I was around during the time of premium live rock from dozens of islands, and even wholesaled straight fro mWalt Smith.

Now I see tihs is a thing of the past. But I still want real liverock. So, in reseacrching I have found these 3 compaines selling Florida Aquacultered rock. Back i nthe day we made fun of Florida rock for being boring, and heavy, but now it seems this is it.

So, I am wondering who has ordered from any of these companies, and whose rock was the best?


Tampabaysaltwater.com

Gulfliverock.com

KPAquatics.com

Any experiences, photos, etc.. would be great!

 

[griss]

I have KP Aquatics rock and could not have been happier with my purchase. I've got growing colonies of Porites, M. Cavernosa and what I believe is S. Radians. Tons of hitchhikers, macros, coralline, etc. Of course, it's not as porous and open as the Pacific rock we've been used to in the past but, I would say it had as much diversity/life like the old Fiji, Tonga, Kaelini, Marshall Is., etc.

Unfortunately, the pictures were on the old RC site and aren't showing up when I go to the archive.

 

[reefing102]

I have KP, not too many pics and not home currently. Lots of fun hitchhhikers. I believe @JohnL has Tampa Bay. Biggest difference is KP is from the Florida Keys area with the others more from the gulf.

That also said, Walt Smith is still available from LivestockUSA. Also for a premium, you can usually find Australian live rock but your usually pushing $30ish per pound

Not sure if I ever posted them here but have them in my build thread on R2R

Build Thread - Reefing102’s 65 Gallon Rescue Build

Hey all, So I bought a new to me tank off Facebook just a week ago. Looking at the pictures alone, I knew this was going to be a long process and rescue build. Little did I know just how much of a process. From the pics provided by the seller, I was anticipating significant cyano problems...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Thanks for the info. Pricing on the Walt Smith stuff looks pretty good!

I have KP, not too many pics and not home currently. Lots of fun hitchhhikers. I believe @JohnL has Tampa Bay. Biggest difference is KP is from the Florida Keys area with the others more from the gulf.

That also said, Walt Smith is still available from LivestockUSA. Also for a premium, you can usually find Australian live rock but your usually pushing $30ish per pound

Not sure if I ever posted them here but have them in my build thread on R2R

Build Thread - Reefing102’s 65 Gallon Rescue Build

Hey all, So I bought a new to me tank off Facebook just a week ago. Looking at the pictures alone, I knew this was going to be a long process and rescue build. Little did I know just how much of a process. From the pics provided by the seller, I was anticipating significant cyano problems...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[griss]

I’ll preface this by saying I’ve only see Walt’s rock at my local Petco and I was not impressed with the shapes and porosity. They’re man made rocks and look very dense and boulder like.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

I’ll preface this by saying I’ve only see Walt’s rock at my local Petco and I was not impressed with the shapes and porosity. They’re man made rocks and look very dense and boulder like.

Good to know as well!

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

I have KP, not too many pics and not home currently. Lots of fun hitchhhikers. I believe @JohnL has Tampa Bay. Biggest difference is KP is from the Florida Keys area with the others more from the gulf.

That also said, Walt Smith is still available from LivestockUSA. Also for a premium, you can usually find Australian live rock but your usually pushing $30ish per pound

Not sure if I ever posted them here but have them in my build thread on R2R

Build Thread - Reefing102’s 65 Gallon Rescue Build

Hey all, So I bought a new to me tank off Facebook just a week ago. Looking at the pictures alone, I knew this was going to be a long process and rescue build. Little did I know just how much of a process. From the pics provided by the seller, I was anticipating significant cyano problems...

www.reef2reef.com

Thanks for the link. Curious how you were getting the hitchhikers out? Were you dipping the rock when unpacking?

 

[reefing102]

Thanks for the link. Curious how you were getting the hitchhikers out? Were you dipping the rock when unpacking?

Several were already out and about as most of what I ordered was the base rock which shipped with minimal water and wrapped in wet paper towel. I didn’t dip anything. I did turn the rock over several times to try to see hitchhikers and then into the tank it went.

 

[farfromsea]

My KP rock I have been happy with. I kept all the hitchhikers which seemed to have grown from my initial inspection to include: encrusting sponge, macro algae that did not survive my vacation, 4-5 brittle stars, a pistol shrimp that is only heard but not seen, a few hydroids--not colonial, a feather duster that has since abandoned its tube (I hope it returns!), small bristleworms, and a spaghetti worm.

Lifegard 10 gal AIO Nano Reef

I ordered premium live rock from KP aquatics. Arrived in splendid condition with nothing noticeably dead in the bag. The rock was very pretty. I was in a rush to get back to work after the UPS overnight delivery. Was a bit nervous because water was leaking from a corner of the box but all was...

forums.reefcentral.com

I have some pics in my build thread.

The spaghetti worm fell to the bottom of the shipping bag but I threw it in the tank. It has insanely long feeder tentacles and snatches pieces of sand for cleaning. The crabs I worried about only recently but others here helpfully identified it as mithrax (good crabs)

I 10/10 recommend KP. No regrets! I like the shape and porosity of the rocks. I know some recommend various methods to get hitchhikers out but I was curious to the stability and health the critters and bacteria of the sea provide so I didn't want to disturb the lifeforms.

I just received it in May 2023 so let me know if you have any questions. I know that year-to-year the amount of random coral and macro varies. I was happy to order when I did because the temperature here in Dallas TX was the same as it was in Florida and I had no die-off at all except some discoloring of the coralline algae (the golden patches in my build thread) which has since colored up again.

 

[reeftivo]

I have a mixture of Gulf Live Rock and Tampa bay and both are comparable. Nice porous rock with red,orange and yellow sponge growth and even a couple gorgonians along with tiny brittle stars, 3 mithrax crabs, spaghetti worms etc..

no bad hitchhikers from what i have seen. GLR didn't have sand when i ordered my first batch of LR so i picked up a small treasure chest pack with sand from TB and couldn't be happier.

 

[reeftivo]

a note on packaging between GLR and Tampa Bay Saltwater!

Gulf Live Rock packs their rock in a plastic liner with the rock wrapped in soaked news paper. mine traveled across the country with no visible issues and 99% of the critters were alive. I thought "Newspaper?". But it was fine.

Tampa bay puts their stuff in thick liners with some water. they are tied off and mine seemed to have air in it like they pack at a good LFS. TB was nicer packaging but in the end both were fantastic shipments. GLR was cheaper overall

BTW both companies ship with foam molds in the boxes

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

a note on packaging between GLR and Tampa Bay Saltwater!

Gulf Live Rock packs their rock in a plastic liner with the rock wrapped in soaked news paper. mine traveled across the country with no visible issues and 99% of the critters were alive. I thought "Newspaper?". But it was fine.

Tampa bay puts their stuff in thick liners with some water. they are tied off and mine seemed to have air in it like they pack at a good LFS. TB was nicer packaging but in the end both were fantastic shipments. GLR was cheaper overall

BTW both companies ship with foam molds in the boxes

Thanks for the info! Good to hear from someone who has ordered from more than one place to!

 

[J Crew]

Anyone pick up any bristle worms from any of the LR? That's my biggest fear of ordering LR or buying from the LFS.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Anyone pick up any bristle worms from any of the LR? That's my biggest fear of ordering LR or buying from the LFS.

Heck I go back to the days when we ordered bristle worms!

 

[J Crew]

Heck I go back to the days when we ordered bristle worms!

Haha... me too man. Old school reefer just coming back after over 20 years!

 

[griss]

Heck I go back to the days when we ordered bristle worms!

Ummm, we still do. Or at least I did.

 

[reefing102]

That was one of the nasties had with mine…well not bristles cause they don’t bother me…but fire worms. I’ve pulled out a few (I think 3) over the past 2 years or so since I got the rock.

 

[griss]

Are bristleworms considered bad now? I remember them being considered bad, then considered great detritivores. I was under the impression they’re still good. I encourage them in my tank.

 

[farfromsea]

Are bristleworms considered bad now? I remember them being considered bad, then considered great detritivores. I was under the impression they’re still good. I encourage them in my tank.

In large and long quantities they can be repulsive lol just thinking of reaching blindly into the tank and feeling one is bleh. But mine definitely helped eat a dead snail the other day so I appreciate them.

 

[reefing102]

Are bristleworms considered bad now? I remember them being considered bad, then considered great detritivores. I was under the impression they’re still good. I encourage them in my tank.

There’s a group that strive for, I guess you could say a “pure” tank of nothing in it unless they add it. And many catch the bristles eating that dead or dying coral, snail, etc and think they caused that death. I still enjoy them in my tank. I don’t see them unless at night