Live rock and dry rock providers
- Thread starter Cheeselady
- Start date
I did order the Complete package.
Cheeselady
New member
Thanks Greyhead, I'll check it out
Dj Anarkee
New member
I just picked up my 60 pounds of TBS rock 3 days ago and have to say it looks amazing. I tossed most of the crabs I initially found in the sump unless I was 100% confident it was a porcelain crab. So far I have seen one mantis and one questionable crab hiding. I'll set up traps once I'm confident there won't be any die off/ammonia spikes. I don't want to add any nutrients by having a trap with a piece shrimp in it sitting around right now.
bhbell
New member
I've been a Happy customer of sea life florida, now Kpaquatics.com great stuff attic reasonable price. Was run by Ken Nedimyer who is doing coral reefs restoration full time. He left it in the very capable hands of his daughter and her husband. You owe it to yourself to check them out.
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Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk
FirstContact
Active member
Yup, never really tried live rock. I think BRS does a great job on dry rock and you can call ahead and tell them the sizes you want. I have Tonga branch, Pukani, and Fiji dry rock in my tank. If I did it again, I would omit the Pukani as being too delicate and go with more Fiji.
KPAquatics is my pick. I bought the cured version, I don't recall if it cost more but am thinking it doesn't. Very nice rock, lots of purple coraline. Rock stacks easily and locks well for an aquascape without tons of effort. I ordered 30lbs, and had 1 crab. Lots of sea urchins, lots of feather dusters. After a short period of time, where things died off I got some GHA spots, which are completely clear, zero algae growth on my rocks. I feed 3-4 times a day, pellets for a small-medium bioload.
I run a filter sock, and a skimmer, no carbon, no gfo, no dosing. Do a 10% Water change every 7-10 days, so I am impressed with how spotless the rocks are. I mean I put my face up the glass and look for algae and can't find any.
I run a filter sock, and a skimmer, no carbon, no gfo, no dosing. Do a 10% Water change every 7-10 days, so I am impressed with how spotless the rocks are. I mean I put my face up the glass and look for algae and can't find any.
I ordered 25 lbs from Atlantic Reef Conservation recently and it seems to be doing great. It didn't have as much coralline on it as some of the pictures on their website show, but that's no concern to me. Found a few pistol shrimp, a porcelain crab, lots of good worms, and 2 red mithrax crab.
They guarantee no Aptasia and super low phosphates.
It's worth checking out IMO.
Good luck regardless of your decision.
They guarantee no Aptasia and super low phosphates.
It's worth checking out IMO.
Good luck regardless of your decision.
skiingfast
New member
As shown by above posters some live rock that is cured in the sea can make for a catch 22. It can be fun to see what bonuses you get with the rock, but then have to deal with the pests.
This is likewise true with wild caught fish and critters. Their gut can house good and bad things.
If you need to seed the tank consider where it comes from. If you can buy some from a LFS look what else is in the tank/tub. That can be worth the higher price.
This is likewise true with wild caught fish and critters. Their gut can house good and bad things.
If you need to seed the tank consider where it comes from. If you can buy some from a LFS look what else is in the tank/tub. That can be worth the higher price.
KingOfAll_Tyrants
New member
I've been dealing with similar dilemmas.
Once upon a time (when I first started researching this hobby), everyone bought live rock imported from the West or South Pacific. Some people went out of there way for premium rock with a lot of life on it, much of which was dead or dying (thus the curing cycle), but lots of which still survived. You also got all kinds of hitchhikers - good and bad that you have to deal with. But you get a whole saltwater world with your tank.
Well, that dried up, but now we have aquacultured rock from either the Keys or Tampa bay with the same basic characteristics. In fact, in one area it's even better: you can air freight it directly to you, theoretically skipping the whole curing process, and with much less die off -Rich also ships it with a good amount of sea water, so if you live in a major metro area on the East Coast US, your rock could literally be in the holding tank at lunch time and it could be in your tank at dinner time with minimal stress.
Honestly, if you want your tank like that, things have never been better. But the downside is that some of the biodiversity is hard to keep (Rich explains how to keep them on his website, but I think actually doing what he says is hard, especially for a new aquarist). You also have to deal with Mantis Shimp, bad crabs, and possibly even invasive Aiptasia (Rich stated somewhere that the Aiptasia on his rock is not the Pacific invasive species, which is partially true but I have heard some people have had problems with Atlantic invasive species).
But I think the worst is that the rock may or may not suit your aquarium goals. Many people just want rock with bacteria to serve as a biological filter, and from there put all kinds of fish and colorful Pacific-origin corals. They don't want macro algae, sponges, Florida anemones, gorgonians, etc - at best they're irrelvant to the tank goals, at worst they are competitors for rock and tank space with the corals. They certainly don't want mantis shrimp, etc. If that's the case, curing dry rock and getting the bacteria from your live sand probably is best for you, especially since you can aquascape it. Or, alternately, some places offer cured (fairly dead looking) rock (probably with only bacteria) - e.g. KP Aquatic's "cured base rock" or the offerings from Caribsea. This IMO can be the best bang for your buck, especially if you don't want to cure dry rock, since it's not much more expensive than dry rock.
The aquacultured Florida rock also isn't good if you really want to create a non-florida shallow reef biotope tank. John Tullock's Natural Reef Aquarium book has like 4 different keys biotopes and then a Tampa bay biotope suggestion that would work well with this rock. But the rock is useless if you want a deep (NPS coral) reef tank, or again not too suitable if you want to really create a low/highly controlled nutrient tank simulating a reef crest and its primarily SPS corals.
I tried to see if air freighted Pacific live rock is avaiable, and it would appear not. As an alternative, I looked into "creating" my own Pacific rock: making a list of the small organisms or hitchhikers I might want equivalently to the TBS rock for an indo pacific patch reef biotope (modeled after Longdong Bay in Taiwan, where I got my SCUBA certification, where I've done some of my best landscape photography, and which has a bit of sentimental value for my wife and I), and then seeing how much it would cost to redo. I found it's even more expensive this way: getting tank/sandbed builders and inverts from Indo Pacific Sea Farms and Dr. Mac's Pacific East, approaches the price of the 20 gallon TBS package, shipped. (this is before you add the soft corals which live heavily in shallow Indo-pacific lagoons, which would sub for the gorgonians and the like which came in the TBS package).
Secret: the cheapest place to get live rock is from another aquarist (or another aquarist's dried old live rock). But you have to be careful, how well did they maintain their tank?...
Once upon a time (when I first started researching this hobby), everyone bought live rock imported from the West or South Pacific. Some people went out of there way for premium rock with a lot of life on it, much of which was dead or dying (thus the curing cycle), but lots of which still survived. You also got all kinds of hitchhikers - good and bad that you have to deal with. But you get a whole saltwater world with your tank.
Well, that dried up, but now we have aquacultured rock from either the Keys or Tampa bay with the same basic characteristics. In fact, in one area it's even better: you can air freight it directly to you, theoretically skipping the whole curing process, and with much less die off -Rich also ships it with a good amount of sea water, so if you live in a major metro area on the East Coast US, your rock could literally be in the holding tank at lunch time and it could be in your tank at dinner time with minimal stress.
Honestly, if you want your tank like that, things have never been better. But the downside is that some of the biodiversity is hard to keep (Rich explains how to keep them on his website, but I think actually doing what he says is hard, especially for a new aquarist). You also have to deal with Mantis Shimp, bad crabs, and possibly even invasive Aiptasia (Rich stated somewhere that the Aiptasia on his rock is not the Pacific invasive species, which is partially true but I have heard some people have had problems with Atlantic invasive species).
But I think the worst is that the rock may or may not suit your aquarium goals. Many people just want rock with bacteria to serve as a biological filter, and from there put all kinds of fish and colorful Pacific-origin corals. They don't want macro algae, sponges, Florida anemones, gorgonians, etc - at best they're irrelvant to the tank goals, at worst they are competitors for rock and tank space with the corals. They certainly don't want mantis shrimp, etc. If that's the case, curing dry rock and getting the bacteria from your live sand probably is best for you, especially since you can aquascape it. Or, alternately, some places offer cured (fairly dead looking) rock (probably with only bacteria) - e.g. KP Aquatic's "cured base rock" or the offerings from Caribsea. This IMO can be the best bang for your buck, especially if you don't want to cure dry rock, since it's not much more expensive than dry rock.
The aquacultured Florida rock also isn't good if you really want to create a non-florida shallow reef biotope tank. John Tullock's Natural Reef Aquarium book has like 4 different keys biotopes and then a Tampa bay biotope suggestion that would work well with this rock. But the rock is useless if you want a deep (NPS coral) reef tank, or again not too suitable if you want to really create a low/highly controlled nutrient tank simulating a reef crest and its primarily SPS corals.
I tried to see if air freighted Pacific live rock is avaiable, and it would appear not. As an alternative, I looked into "creating" my own Pacific rock: making a list of the small organisms or hitchhikers I might want equivalently to the TBS rock for an indo pacific patch reef biotope (modeled after Longdong Bay in Taiwan, where I got my SCUBA certification, where I've done some of my best landscape photography, and which has a bit of sentimental value for my wife and I), and then seeing how much it would cost to redo. I found it's even more expensive this way: getting tank/sandbed builders and inverts from Indo Pacific Sea Farms and Dr. Mac's Pacific East, approaches the price of the 20 gallon TBS package, shipped. (this is before you add the soft corals which live heavily in shallow Indo-pacific lagoons, which would sub for the gorgonians and the like which came in the TBS package).
Secret: the cheapest place to get live rock is from another aquarist (or another aquarist's dried old live rock). But you have to be careful, how well did they maintain their tank?...
1000rrstunna
Member
Marco rocks dry rock for the win. Best rock ever.
d2mini
Premium Member
If you like leaching phosphates. :lol:
KingOfAll_Tyrants
New member
Indeed, it's seems to be a pick your poison thing.
- TBS: shipped fresh, low curing time, lots of hitchhikers which you might not want. No real way to pre-aquascape besides request and take your chances. $5/lbs + substantial shipping
- premium FL LR Fedexed in: more curing time, fewer survivors. No real way to pre-aquascape besides request and take your chances.$5/lbs + less substantial shipping
- base live rock from big mail order distributor: not really any hitchikers, provides basic biofilter. No real way to pre-aquascape besides request and take your chances. $3/lbs + relatively cheap shipping
- base live rock from LFS: not really any hitchikers (besides maybe some coralline and possibly some really tough pests), provides basic biofilter. Can mix and match and aquascape, which may make it very well worth the $8-10/lbs I've found locally. (and I will pick the rock from that $10/lbs store every day over the other...........
)- dry rock from whomever: probably should cycle the dry rock for a few weeks (though some people don't), especially for a big batch for a new tank. You can choose which shapes you want online. You can also spend days beforehand building your scape, but you're still a bit at their mercy since you can't see it directly. $2-3/lbs
- LR from a local hobbyist: total crapshoot, depending on how well they maintain their tank. But cheapest option (one dude locally is selling 200lbs of live rock for $1.50/lbs. I got 20lbs of dry rock for $1/lbs) and you can take the shapes you want.
1000rrstunna
Member
Never had a phosphate issue with their product on 5 tanks. Thanks for passing along poor information. :inlove: I'm not a believer in big water changes either.
d2mini
Premium Member
Do a little googling or searching right here on RC. And consider yourself lucky.
