My TBS LIVE rock! This stuff is awsome!

[8~LiQuiD~8]

Well, I received my shipment a few weeks ago and wanted to wait until the cycle, and more so the Diatom bloom, ran their course before I took pictures. After the Diatoms seemed to be done, I still had to jump in with my handy dandy oralB toothbrush to do some quick algae scrubbing as well as to knock off the silt that was left from day one. After the scrubbing, the silt settled on the rock again so the handy dandy turkey baster was used to blow off any residue that found its way back.

All in all, this stuff is great! I, like most, was introduced to my first Mantis shrimp. I caught a large one when I had the rock out of the tank and bought a small 1/3 gallon critter keeper to house it in. I was going to give it away but have become attached to it and really enjoy it, as do my kids. There is still at least one in the tank and I will be setting the trap this week for any remaining bad guys. I also received a couple aptasia and a few babies aptasia. I did not shoot them up with kalk as of yet for the same reason as the Mantis, I have grown to like them. I figure since I have no corals in the tank yet, it gives me something to look at flowing in the current. I figured I would talk about the Mantis and Aptasia because most who order will end up with something they did not want but could actually have fun with the hitchhikers in the mean time while they are waiting for cycles, second shipments, etc. I guess I'm saying it is easier to get rid of bad stuff then to add good stuff, besides, one mans junk is another mans treasure and I plan on keeping my Mantis faor as long as it will live. For all the good stuff that comes on this rock, I would take a hundred Mantis as well as a hundred Aptasia on this stuff before I would ever go and buy that dead LFS crap again.

That aside, there is SO MUCH LIFE on this rock! Sponges, tunicates, barnicles, corals, coraline, clams, macro, stars, snails, etc.. It has been 3 weeks and I am still finding new things every day. To be honest, when the day comes to start adding coral, I don't think I will know what to do with them as not to cover something up that is living on the rock. I may just end up with just the TBS rock and fish with no room for coral.

This is just the first shipment and as many have mentioned before me "you aint seen anything yet" is what I have heard. If the second shipment is anything like the first, I will be VERY happy indeed, as I can't see how it can get much better. I will be waiting a couple more weeks before notifying Richard and the gang for the next shipment.

In the meantime, here are some pictures I have taken so far. The rock is in a 90 gallon standard. This shipment was 3 rocks total. So without further adieu......

Full tank shot

whole tank from a closer view on an angle

Rock 1 on left

Rock 2 in center

Rock 3 on right

 

[8~LiQuiD~8]

Here are some close-ups.

Here is the shot of what I like to call "live substrate" as it is a mixture of sand, shells, and broken off dead rock/
coral, all mixed together with tons of hermits, serpent stars, snails, worms, copepods, Amphipods, and a bunch of things that I have no idea what they are.

Here is a shot of an Urchin that made it way to me. It is lavender in color and had built this "house of rocks and shells" to help camoflage it as it walks across the bottom of the tank. Yes, it moves around with all of this junk on its back at all times. I also received a larger black one that has no need for such a house.

Bottom line is this, there is no substitute for this rock. There is no cutting corners in this hobby and if you are gonna do it right, do it right from the beginning. I remember when I started my first tank and picked what I had thought was good rock (cured Fiji) from my LFS. It was basically rock, with some spots of purple coraline and maybe a few feather duster type worms on it. I used to stare at it and when a amphipod would pop out or a feather duster would open I was amazed. I now think back as I look in the tank and think "how did I stare at that boring rock for so long" as it is just your basic run of the mill LFS dead rock with small hints of life. Well, I have found myself now spending countless hours in front of the 90 with the Tampa Bay Saltwater Rock in it staring away. It is like my first tank all over again. I can just watch all the life on this stuff for hours on end. I may need a couple more pieces then package calls for as I am looking to do a wall to wall, top to bottom, reef of this stuff and don't want to get caught short of the look I want to achieve. Well thats about it for now.

Richard, heres to you :beer: You da man :thumbsup:

 

[Splach]

Nice lookin rock. Whats the orange tentacle thing in the first close up? That some kind of zoanthid?

 

[kaiyokanman28]

Nice lookin rock. Whats the orange tentacle thing in the first close up? That some kind of zoanthid?

No, that's a cup coral...it's a hard coral.

Cheers!

Andy :wildone:

 

[landlord]

Beautiful Rock. Good Score!


-kurt

 

[delta]

As to be expected your TBS rock is beautiful
very nice

 

[lightngsvt]

Wow!! Im new to the hobby and have a few questions, since I was thinking of ordering from them. DId you get the whole "package"? How long did this rock take to cycle? Could you add it to an established tank with fish only? Also the aptasia and shrimp which are suposed to be bad, are they only bad for a reef tank or would they be bad in a FOWLR tank with a "cleanup crew" too? How would you rate them on price, quality, etc compared to other ionline vendors?

 

[liverock]

Killer Rock!!

Killer Rock!!

8~LiQuiD~8

Killer post!

Killer pictures....what kind of camera?
Landlord needs that info<G>

I am off to the keys tomorrow to collect critters, will be back in a few days...
Thanks
Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com :rollface:

 

[lightngsvt]

Wow!! Im new to the hobby and have a few questions, since I was thinking of ordering from them. DId you get the whole "package"? How long did this rock take to cycle? Could you add it to an established tank with fish only? Also the aptasia and shrimp which are suposed to be bad, are they only bad for a reef tank or would they be bad in a FOWLR tank with a "cleanup crew" too? How would you rate them on price, quality, etc compared to other online vendors? OH and what about lighting requirements to keep all the "creatures", etc happy?

 

[hdtran]

Outstanding photos! (Good rock too )

How do you get such good focus & exposure? I've got a Casio QV4000, but when I'm in macro mode, I've got a devil of a time getting good focus. I've been playing with macro & aperture priority (set aperture to f/8 for better depth of field), but the exposures are getting washed out by the flash. Enquiring wannabe photographers want to know!

 

[Splach]

Howdy HD,

I have been taking a lot of macro shots recently since my wife is starting to sell her jewelry online. Here are a couple tips that have helped me:

1. Use a tripod.
2. Set the aperture way way up.
3. Use side lighting to reduce the impact of the flash, or use a remote flash. I have been using one of those haologen 500w work lights off to the side and it works great.

 

[8~LiQuiD~8]

My camara is a year old as of now. It is a Fujifilm A200 2.0 megapixel. I believe it was like $140 a year ago, nothing special here. For non-macro shots I don't have a tripod, but do use a chair or whatnot to rest the camara on to steady it. For macro, I just set it to macro mode, place a can of fish food on the edge of the tanks stand to steady the camara, and place it right against the glass. No flash. Again, nothing special, just an old cheap camara with whatever is around to steady it.

 

[Dexter1334]

TBS says no aptasia in the gulf, so if you have it, it is from another source. I had one small Anemone,white, 1/2 inch high and as wide. He traveled across the back of the tank, and we are still looking for him. Maybe when he grows up we will find him again.

 

[oraclenick]

lightngsvt-TBS is the best around. I started a tank using lace and lava rock from the LFS. I had my tank up around 3 months before I started checking out the web for live rock. I found TBS and added 50 pounds of live rock to my existing tank that had fish and coral already living in it.
I did not lose a single thing after adding the live rock!
I removed the lava rock and kept the lace rock in the tank and used it as a base for the live rock. Three months later, I have all sorts of stuff starting to grow on the lace rock now!
TBS Rocks!

 

[8~LiQuiD~8]

I did read this thread by Dr. Ron and considering the amount of small brown anemones that are hard to identify, I suppose my quick assumption of Aptasia was not founded. If someone could ID this guy for me that would be great. I mean if it is not a pest anemone, I would then refrain from killing the poor guy.

 

[8~LiQuiD~8]

Merry Christmas! Well I decided to take some shots of the tank alnog with various other Christmas stuff.

Here is a shot of one of the small stars in the center with his arms hanging out

The many shades of orange. Here are a few more orange sponges as well as an orange star with hit legs hanging out to their left. There are just so many different color stars all over this rock and in the substrate.

Here is a close-up of one of the SPS corals as well as a glimpse of one of the LPS in the hole to its right

More to come soon.

 

[landlord]

nice pics

 

[Sting]

Your rock looks great! I too, have tons of TBS rock, and I love it (!) but now that I am finally equipped with the right equipment to house real corals, I have no room for them There's no place on the rocks that I want to cover up because I have so many clams or cup corals! It's a good thing, yes, but also a bad thing, and I kind of wish some of the stuff would die off so I'd have places to add new corals. I know it's terrible to say, but I am kind of waiting for some of the stuff to die... It's great stuff, but those stinking clams take up so much of the rock space!! Either way, the life TBS brought to my tank was priceless, and I'm very happy- I think everything will work out for the better- I think some of the cup corals are already bleaching (although they are pretty invincible) and I could never get the brain coral (or whatever the purple/brown encrusting mat coral is) to live anyway. Good luck- looks like everything is thriving in your tank!

 

[8~LiQuiD~8]

Well I have some more cool pics of the life packed rock I got from the gang at TBS. I am getting better pictures by the day out of this stuff! Well here ya go.......

Here is a good shot of one of the Urchins that snuck its way in to my on the rock.

Here is a shot to show some of the many colors that are aplashed all over this stuff..

Here is another shot depicting the life and color that covers the rock.

 

[lightngsvt]

So with all the life (corals, sponges, clams, etc) on the rock what type of lighting is required to keep it all alive?