kupadupapupa
New member
Anyone know any good live rock vendors that sell fiji rock?
Good live rock vendor?
- Thread starter kupadupapupa
- Start date
I don't think that is available anymore. I think the choices are farmed Florida live rock and dry dead rock.
ThRoewer
New member
See if you can get some from people breaking their tanks down... These days that's pretty much the only way to get actual live rock.
Only other option would be to get a boat, sail it to a coral island, load up the ballast tanks with illegally harvested rock,...
Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
Only other option would be to get a boat, sail it to a coral island, load up the ballast tanks with illegally harvested rock,...
Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
Tampa Bay Saltwater and Gulf Live Rock are two farmed live rock venders that would happily sell you legal, and legitimately good live rock. I like gulfliverock.com because they include shipping in the price, and the rock is bursting with life.
Last edited:
ThRoewer
New member
From what I understand they use mined fossil reef rocks or man-made rocks and put them into the ocean to be resettled with life. It's definitely great rock, especially if you are setting up a Caribbean biotope tank. Though, most people will have trouble to maintain most of the lifeforms that come with those rocks.
Those rocks also lack the internal micro porosity of ocean grown live rock. And that micro porosity is one of the greatest value of ocean grown live rock.
What is the best solution depends largely on what kind of tank you want to set up.
For an SPS tank you might actually be best served with mined or man-made rocks as they are definitely free of pests.
For a tank with finicky fish (mandarins, pipefish, seahorses,...) or if you like all those little hitchhikers that come with rocks from the ocean then the cultured rocks are are your best choice.
Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
clevername
New member
Agree with this. I would look into WHY you want ocean live rock and go from there. I think people like the idea on paper but when it comes into action, i see over and over its a whole mess. With HUGE die off, then algae bloom, then pests and diseases. I know we like to THINK we are keeping a little slice of the ocean but its actually extremely hard to do. Ocean rock has way more things mother nature keeps in check that we cannot.
Dmorty217
Saltwater Addict
+1 by far the best live rock available on the market. I have purchased from Richard a few times and since he only ships air freight the rock doesn't die off on the trip to you, like all other rock you will get. He also has pukani live rock which is covered in life, I purchased a single 60lb piece from him and the only thing that died off from the trip were 2 shrimp that hitch hiked and a sea squirt.
You definitely want to get maricultured live rock. It's the best source for the cryptic sponges so essential to removing the labile DOC that can cause problems with corals. (My preference is Gulf Live Rock but make sure you specify air frieght.) For more information on how DOC impacts reefs a very readable introduction is Forest ROhwer's "COral Reefs in the Microbial Seas". For more detailed info here's two searches on Scholar.google you can look at
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,44&q=haas+DCNS+DOC&btnG=
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,44&q=de+Goeij+sponges&btnG=
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,44&q=haas+DCNS+DOC&btnG=
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,44&q=de+Goeij+sponges&btnG=
kupadupapupa
New member
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, i will look into Tampa Bay Saltwater
