New baserock source - what to do with the rubble?

[Kevomac]

Well, I'm always up for new ideas. I looked on ebay for live rock bargains and stumbled across a vendor in central Texas with a different idea. He's harvesting rock from the Permian era Capitan reef. It's a reef that's been high and dry for 245 million years. The rock is reef rock, it's just been dead a long time. At $99 for 70 pounds plus shipping and sales tax (I'm in Texas, too), I took a chance. The rock came yesterday, and I was very pleased! I asked for larger pieces and I got two very large pieces that were probably 15 pounds apiece dry. One was tube shaped, about 15" long, with a 2" wide tunnel from one end to the other. The other was a flat piece about 12" by 20"! They said it's perfectly safe for any established tank as it is dry, but I just added my first fish (damsel's and a clown) to a just cycled tank, so I'm not risking much anyway. I will keep everyone posted on how the rock seasons. I already had 50 pounds of live rock bought from my local MAS to seed the new stuff. The tank is a 215 btw.

Now the question is, what should I do with the rubble? I ordered 70 pounds (you can buy by the pound on the website, for less than $2 a pound with different shapes and densities to choose from), FedEx said it was a 75.6 pound box, and I ended up with 3.7 pounds of rubble between 1" - 4" that I'm not sure what to do with. I know that many people like rubble for fragging, but I'm not brave enough to frag my corals. Should I keep it dry for future use, put it in my sump for filtration and possible future use, or just sell it? I figured I might ask $5 for it on my local MAS board. Suggestions?

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Sounds like Texas Holey Rock to me. If it is, it's quite dense and doesn't lend well to filtration. I would just keep some of it and leave it dry.

 

[Kevomac]

I've seen holey rock for sale before, and it doesn't look like what I've seen. I'll check on that, though.

 

[bkwudzjeep]

Some people use smaller pieces for "pod condos" either in the display or the sump....the idea from what I understand is that it's an area that pods can hang and reproduce without being distured by any predators mainly in the dispay tank.

 

[Kevomac]

I looked up Texas Holey rock, and what I got looks nothing like that. What I got looks like live rock. Its very pourous and rough surfaced. What I got is definitely not Texas Holey Rock. The vendor I got it from is http://www.rockquatics.com. (I hope I can mention them since they're not a sponsor.)

 

[Kevomac]

I gotta stop responding to my own threads, but...

When I went back to the website today it gave me a cetificate warning? I opened it anyway, and the site is the same as it was when I looked at Sunday night, so I don't get what happened this time. Anyway. The site is not well done, but I'k still pleased with the rock I got. The rock I bought was mostly what they call the Orangish/ dry coral shell rock, and they sell it for $1.68 a pound. As I said before, I was bargain shopping, and so far I am pleased with what I got. I will let everyone know if I learn anything different, but for now, I'm excited about it!

 

[Kevomac]

One last comment...I went back to the site and did not have the same certificate warning...go figure.

 

[dkh0331]

I just threw all my rubble into the sump to use for frags.

 

[ludnix]

I'm looking for some rock rubble if you're wanting to get rid of it

 

[SaltyDr]

Just toss it in the sump or fuge. It will add to your biological filtration and if/when you become brave enough for fragging, you'll have some nice rock to aattach your frags to.

 

[Kevomac]

Thought I'd post a long term follow up on my ebay rock find. Its been the better part of a year and I'm still happy with my purchase, but I did learn one lesson. I should have cured it before putting it into the tank.

The rock came with some hard packed dirt on it that the website said might cause some cloudiness, but otherwise was harmless. It also had some scraps of grass roots on it (keep in mind where it came from). I put it directly into the tank after a quick soak in RO water, and never had a cloudiness issue, but most of the rock went into one end of the tank and I did get a hair algae bloom on that end of the tank that I'm just now almost totally rid of, and I suspect that rock played some part in it (that end also has less circulation, so that probably didn't help). Anyway, I'd still recommmeng the vendor. I used some of their rock, some bought from a local MAS member, some from my existing 70 reef and some from a tank that I bought from someone who was getting out of the hobby (I bought his whole set up, kept most of the lr and the corals, then sold the tank and some leftover lr). Anyway, just thought I'd pass on my experience!

 

[stanbates]

Pics???

 

[Saltwater_Dog]

I have 140 lbs of that same rock in my tank. Same vendor. Have been having it in my 100 for nearly 6 months now. Slowly growing coralline. No regrets, no problems. Yes, you should have washed and soaked before putting in tank. The rock comes with dirt on it. I washed it well and soaked in RO for a week before putting in my tank. I seeded it with 45 lbs of LR. No cloudy water for me.