Pukani Thoughts?

[Lincoln 993]

Hey ho everyone,

So I'm in the process of setting up my 75 gallon reef. It's a long one lol, mostly due to budget constraints. This month though, I was planning on buying rock. I've come to two options: mined reef saver rock or BRS Pukani. I'm kind of torn, and here's why.

Reef saver looks ok, seems easy to stack into the shapes I want, and it doesn't come from the ocean (big points here. Let's try to help save the reefs). It's also about a dollar cheaper per pound, though I'll need at least 75 lbs of it. That's where the cons come in: it's dense. The last tank I had busted on the bottom seem, and part of me suspects the weight of the rock had something to do with it though I don't know. Been a bit paranoid of the "1lb/gallon" rule since.

So, in comes the pukani. Plenty of surface area, nice workable pieces, and I'll need much less than 75 lbs for my tank, which actually makes the real cost cheaper than the reef saver. The biggest con for me is that it comes from the ocean.

So what are your thoughts on the matter? Do you like reef saver or pukani better? And also, any good guesses on how much I would need for my tank? I'm going for kind of the "two island" aqascape, since this tank is only 20 inches tall and I'd like to leave plenty of growing room for corals/ swimming room for fish. I'm estimating between 35 and 50 lbs of pukani rock.

Thanks in advance for input!

 

[Reef_Pilot]

I got 20 lbs. of each + 20 lbs of Tonga shelf and created 3 islands for my 90 gallon. The Pukani is so light compared to either the Reef saver or Tonga Shelf, it's like you're getting twice as much. I mainly just used the Reef Saver for the base and still have 5-7 lbs left over.

 

[ktownhero]

Pukani is great. I went with 100% Pukani and I would do it again in the heartbeat. The price is misleading because you need like half of what you normally would buy in other rock. It really is that porous. I bought 60lbs for my 4'x2' tank and there's a lot I never used that's either in bags or sitting in my sump.

 

[Reef_Pilot]

Pukani is great. I went with 100% Pukani and I would do it again in the heartbeat. The price is misleading because you need like half of what you normally would buy in other rock. It really is that porous. I bought 60lbs for my 4'x2' tank and there's a lot I never used that's either in bags or sitting in my sump.

I agree. If I were to do it over again, I would have done 40#Pukani + 20# Tonga Shelf, and skipped the Reefsaver. I like the Pukani best, but there were areas I wanted the flat shelf.

 

[Lincoln 993]

This is awsome feedback. Thank you so much for sharing! :rollface: