d2mini
Premium Member
Hey kids! :wave:
I was witness to something amazing this weekend.
After some begging, I got permission to share with ya'll. This is too crazy not to!
Those of you following my build thread may have seen this post from this weekend...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23807703#post23807703
I picked up a box of colorful goodies from Richard at Tampa Bay Saltwater.
But there was TWO boxes! Surprise! But he wouldn't tell me what it was. Grrrr....
So I get home, open it up and it was.... drum roll please.... More rock. :hmm4:
Ummm, "Hey Richard... what gives? I could use some rock but what's the big deal?"
A little background for those who are not familiar with Tampa Bay Saltwater. TBS has been providing the industry with what I believe is the best Live Rock available for the past 20+ years. With same day shipping via air freight, and shipped in water, his rock arrives with an unreal amount of life. When setting up a tank with "The Package", you end up with a fully functioning reef within days. Truly amazing and worth every penny. Check out his sponsor forum here on RC or my own build threads for tons of pics and testimonials. And on top of all this, TBS is an eco-friendly solution because the rock is brought in by barge and his own boat, dumped into his lease off the coast of Tampa Bay, Florida, and left there to colonize. No destruction of our natural reefs.
Check out www.tbsaltwater.com for more info.
Fast forward to today and the answer to my question above... why this awesome live rock I just received is so special?
I'm sure many of you know or have heard of Walt Smith. Mr Smith has been working for years on developing his own eco-friendly live rock. Check it out here...
http://www.waltsmith.com/Aquaculture/CultLiveRock.htm
Well apparently, these two pioneers in our hobby have joined forces. Walt began shipping his man-made rock to TBS. Richard has been busting his butt, hauling all this rock out on his boat and dumping it into his lease. I'm about to post some pics below and what you are about to see is truly AMAZING. But what's so amazing about what is essentially fake rock? Even Walt Smith has been letting his rock cook in the ocean in Fiji. What make this so special? Well... let's let the pics answer those questions.
Here is the rock in Richard's hands after unpacking, just seconds before dumping into the waters in Tampa Bay.
Not too shabby. Lots of nooks and crannies, it comes in all shapes and sizes, and it's a lot lighter than the usual TBS rock. It even has a good base color, straight through the rock, so as coralline begins to grow it looks pretty natural.
But as far as appearances go, not very exciting, is it?
Well... here are pics of what I received this weekend.
I think you will now see why I was scratching my head and was FOOLED into thinking this was just more of his standard live rock that I've been using for years.
And the most amazing part.... this is just TWO MONTHS of growth!
Can you imagine what it will look like after 6 months? Richard has the magic touch!
Not only is this stuff just as amazing as his original rock that we've grown to love, but now it's lighter, comes in a variety of shapes for amazing aquascapes, and it's 100% eco-friendly AND it helps out the Fiji natives.
Sponges, tunicates, barnacles, feather dusters, macros.... you name it, it's got it.
There is something about Walt's rock that's letting it colonize at an unheard of rate. It doesn't even look like the same rock!
So that's what I had to share. I'll let Richard fill in the holes and answer questions. Please ask questions, get a good discussion going, share with friends, etc.
We need to stop taking rock from the coral reefs. With rock like this, this is no longer any reason to!
But wow... if any one is looking for truly live rock to start up a new tank or just add to an existing system, you MUST check this out. You will not be disappointed. If you liked TBS rock before, you are really going to love this stuff. I was floored.
And for what it's worth, I added these 5 or 6 pieces to my system this weekend. Straight out of the boxes/bags and into my tank and it hasn't skipped a beat. With TBS, his rock is going straight from the real ocean to your ocean which is what makes it so great.
And even if you don't want to start a tank with live rock for whatever reason, TBS now sells dry and live Pukani. But the Pukani is not getting colonized at anywhere near the rate that this Walt Smith rock is!
More pics coming....
I was witness to something amazing this weekend.
After some begging, I got permission to share with ya'll. This is too crazy not to!
Those of you following my build thread may have seen this post from this weekend...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23807703#post23807703
I picked up a box of colorful goodies from Richard at Tampa Bay Saltwater.
But there was TWO boxes! Surprise! But he wouldn't tell me what it was. Grrrr....
So I get home, open it up and it was.... drum roll please.... More rock. :hmm4:
Ummm, "Hey Richard... what gives? I could use some rock but what's the big deal?"
A little background for those who are not familiar with Tampa Bay Saltwater. TBS has been providing the industry with what I believe is the best Live Rock available for the past 20+ years. With same day shipping via air freight, and shipped in water, his rock arrives with an unreal amount of life. When setting up a tank with "The Package", you end up with a fully functioning reef within days. Truly amazing and worth every penny. Check out his sponsor forum here on RC or my own build threads for tons of pics and testimonials. And on top of all this, TBS is an eco-friendly solution because the rock is brought in by barge and his own boat, dumped into his lease off the coast of Tampa Bay, Florida, and left there to colonize. No destruction of our natural reefs.
Check out www.tbsaltwater.com for more info.
Fast forward to today and the answer to my question above... why this awesome live rock I just received is so special?
I'm sure many of you know or have heard of Walt Smith. Mr Smith has been working for years on developing his own eco-friendly live rock. Check it out here...
http://www.waltsmith.com/Aquaculture/CultLiveRock.htm
Well apparently, these two pioneers in our hobby have joined forces. Walt began shipping his man-made rock to TBS. Richard has been busting his butt, hauling all this rock out on his boat and dumping it into his lease. I'm about to post some pics below and what you are about to see is truly AMAZING. But what's so amazing about what is essentially fake rock? Even Walt Smith has been letting his rock cook in the ocean in Fiji. What make this so special? Well... let's let the pics answer those questions.
Here is the rock in Richard's hands after unpacking, just seconds before dumping into the waters in Tampa Bay.
Not too shabby. Lots of nooks and crannies, it comes in all shapes and sizes, and it's a lot lighter than the usual TBS rock. It even has a good base color, straight through the rock, so as coralline begins to grow it looks pretty natural.
But as far as appearances go, not very exciting, is it?
Well... here are pics of what I received this weekend.
I think you will now see why I was scratching my head and was FOOLED into thinking this was just more of his standard live rock that I've been using for years.
And the most amazing part.... this is just TWO MONTHS of growth!
Can you imagine what it will look like after 6 months? Richard has the magic touch!
Not only is this stuff just as amazing as his original rock that we've grown to love, but now it's lighter, comes in a variety of shapes for amazing aquascapes, and it's 100% eco-friendly AND it helps out the Fiji natives.
Sponges, tunicates, barnacles, feather dusters, macros.... you name it, it's got it.
There is something about Walt's rock that's letting it colonize at an unheard of rate. It doesn't even look like the same rock!
So that's what I had to share. I'll let Richard fill in the holes and answer questions. Please ask questions, get a good discussion going, share with friends, etc.
We need to stop taking rock from the coral reefs. With rock like this, this is no longer any reason to!
But wow... if any one is looking for truly live rock to start up a new tank or just add to an existing system, you MUST check this out. You will not be disappointed. If you liked TBS rock before, you are really going to love this stuff. I was floored.
And for what it's worth, I added these 5 or 6 pieces to my system this weekend. Straight out of the boxes/bags and into my tank and it hasn't skipped a beat. With TBS, his rock is going straight from the real ocean to your ocean which is what makes it so great.
And even if you don't want to start a tank with live rock for whatever reason, TBS now sells dry and live Pukani. But the Pukani is not getting colonized at anywhere near the rate that this Walt Smith rock is!
More pics coming....
