Is this the exciting future of Live Rock? Must See!!!

I've never read about that in any reviews. Only thing people reallysay bad is some of the crabs you can get. But the trade off is well worth it
 
Honestly he was super cool and was able to get me my stuff last minute in a super rush. Obviously for the next time round I'll do it with way more time. Much like previously mentioned, my tank was cycled in a week using about 100 lbs in a 720 mixed in with dry rock. Sponges, Mithras crabs, starfish. Did have a stone crab and a few little crabs but stone crab lives in the sump. Turnaround time is daily I believe. He dives every day I think.


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Honestly he was super cool and was able to get me my stuff last minute in a super rush. Obviously for the next time round I'll do it with way more time. Much like previously mentioned, my tank was cycled in a week using about 100 lbs in a 720 mixed in with dry rock. Sponges, Mithras crabs, starfish. Did have a stone crab and a few little crabs but stone crab lives in the sump. Turnaround time is daily I believe. He dives every day I think.


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That is seriously incredible. Sent him an email today and got some basic info. Can't wait to get some of this rock...
 
Unless he's out of town or something (rare), or hasn't been able to dive recently due to bad weather, it's usually just a day or two to get out.

For those not following my build, my recent order of The Package didn't even go through a cycle. I had nitrates registering within 24hrs and coral going into the tank from a temporary holding setup.

Less than 2 months later everything is doing well.

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My 10 year old daughter wanted her own tank. So last week I set her up with a 40g breeder and stocked it with Smith's rocks/TSB. They are fantastic
 
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Does anyone that gets rock from the ocean have any concerns for parasites? That would be a big worry for me. Do you guys go fishless for a few months before stocking? Are crabs and shrimp an issue?

I got 150lbs of this last month. First week or two is amazing. Then I worried about Isopods, one of which killed my bi colored blenny - attached to its face. Since then, all good. Sponges are still alive. A ton of feather dusters thriving, and spreading - to my sand bed. Eight purple urchins hitchhiked - size less than a dime. Now they are golf ball sized. Picking them off the rock and glass and dropping them in the sump - as they move corals and rocks. Pretty much all the crabs can be caught when you transport the rock to your aquarium. You can see them on the rock when you take them out of the water. I now have 20 fish in the tank - no losses - so am thinking the Isopod issue was a fluke, or that my shrimp have killed them, or they just could not survive the migration. The rock is stunning in terms of color, variety, and life.
 
Sorry but born and raised in the tampabay are and I would out any type of Gulf Rock in my Mixed reef tank! Just my opinion. In regards to the best Live rock you can put in your system it just all depends on what you want! Example, I think that Marshall Island that you can no longer get OR Manado Liverock - BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK BY A MILE!
Manado Liverock's structure is very similar to that of its predecessor, Marshall Island, with large, fused fingers and branches of old coral skeletons. The porosity of Manado liverock is excellent, making this a very lightweight, easily stackable rock. The porosity also yields in excellent water flow throughout the structure of your reefscape, keeping detritus buildup within the rockwork to a minimum.

Here is the main reason why i like this type of rock than others the lack of density to this rock nets you more volume per pound than most other rocks on the market.
 
Sorry but born and raised in the tampabay are and I would out any type of Gulf Rock in my Mixed reef tank! Just my opinion. In regards to the best Live rock you can put in your system it just all depends on what you want! Example, I think that Marshall Island that you can no longer get OR Manado Liverock - BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK BY A MILE!
Manado Liverock's structure is very similar to that of its predecessor, Marshall Island, with large, fused fingers and branches of old coral skeletons. The porosity of Manado liverock is excellent, making this a very lightweight, easily stackable rock. The porosity also yields in excellent water flow throughout the structure of your reefscape, keeping detritus buildup within the rockwork to a minimum.

Here is the main reason why i like this type of rock than others the lack of density to this rock nets you more volume per pound than most other rocks on the market.

LOL...

So, you realize the TBS rock is not from Florida, right? It's from Fiji, albeit man made.

But what has me perplexed is you're recommending an unsustainable rock, that can no longer be sourced, that is not alive, as a better option?

Then you're recommending another option, because the first recommendation is not available, that sells for $8/lbs. dead on arrival. But worse, is that I assume this rock is removed from the ocean, stripping coral reef habitat for marine life...

or did you just copy and paste the description from Premium Aquatics?

https://premiumaquatics.com/products/manado-live-rock-cured.html

Frankly, that rock looks like garbage. Worse yet, it's unsustainable. There is simply no reason to remove rock from the ocean when we can make it. Hopefully the practice will end soon.

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Great thread, I think this helped me make my decision to go with TBS. Just placed my order, excited to get the tank going! Hopefully things can get out by tomorrow or this weekend!
 
Great thread, I think this helped me make my decision to go with TBS. Just placed my order, excited to get the tank going! Hopefully things can get out by tomorrow or this weekend!

Nice! New tank? Going with The Package?
 
New tank and going with the package. 90gl tank, about 20gl in the sump and another 10gl in the refugium, but with the sand I already have in the tank when I filled everything up I only came out to about 100gl total. Not sure how much another 120lbs of liverock and 60lbs of sand will take up. Most of the sand is planned for the refugium, and I plan to take out some of the sand I already have. I'm going lighter on the live rock until I see how much space it actually takes up in the tank.

If shipping goes as planned I should be getting everything tomorrow morning. Will post pic's soon.
 
New tank and going with the package. 90gl tank, about 20gl in the sump and another 10gl in the refugium, but with the sand I already have in the tank when I filled everything up I only came out to about 100gl total. Not sure how much another 120lbs of liverock and 60lbs of sand will take up. Most of the sand is planned for the refugium, and I plan to take out some of the sand I already have. I'm going lighter on the live rock until I see how much space it actually takes up in the tank.

If shipping goes as planned I should be getting everything tomorrow morning. Will post pic's soon.

How did you do?
 
So far so good! Lots of life on the rock and I'm impressed with how easy the shipping process was. Southwest freight at Midway in the Chicago area was really easy to work with. Lots of photos posted to my Flickr album http://flickr.com/photos/28823275@N06/sets/72157687847250454

Just need to get part two of the order, not sure if my emails making it through or if anyone's around this week. Hoping to get things this friday
 
Picked up part 2 last Friday. Lots of great rock in the mix, and really happy to have gone with the Walt Smith rock with an added mix of the pukani. Not really sure what to do with some of the flat rocks other than stack them or use for shelves.

Like last time, tons of critters with the rock! It got colder here in Chicago then expected. I picked things up from Midway about an hour after arrival which even then I think killed off some of the smaller animals and sponges. Even with the cold, things are still looking good and it only required me to scrub off more dead sponges than last time.

Back wall is dirty, but heres how things are looking.
DSC_0988 by E, on Flickr
Skull rock
DSC_0997 by E, on Flickr
with some kind of rock anemone from another rock that somehow gets light inside the skull which you can see through its eye.DSC_0995 by E, on Flickr

Found a few pistol shrimp and threw them in the refugium with all the bad hitchhiker crabs I could find. Also a Mantis which I have sitting in a tupperware container on my desk until I decide what to do with him. The darn thing jumped at me as I was taking the rock out of the bags.
DSC_1007 by E, on Flickr
 
Regarding cycling, for part 1 the highest ammonia levels went were .8 (redsea test) and that was maybe day 1 or two. I did do water changes, and everything was down to 0 by day 5. For part two, due to some of the sponge die off from the cold, it did spike up again, however it never got above .8. The only reason it got that high was from a larger yellow branching sponge that didn't make it and started dying off. The fact that things went so well, even with the bad weath, is definitly attributed to the rock being shipped under water, expertly packed. No leak issues. I'd highly recommend anyone in the Chicago area to consider Midway as flights from Tampa are direct and its pretty easy to get to, plus its easy enough to pull your car right up to the loading doors so you can get on your way.
 
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