TBS Live Rock? Experiences?

[ErikJup]

After being out and free for about 10 years the hobby pulled me back in. In the last month or so I set up a Redsea 400 with this rock. I must say that it was the greatest purchase I've done in the hobby for a longgg time. I love all the hitchhikers, even Manthis shrimp. Most of the small sponges are slowly withering away, but they will continue to provide color for at least a few more months. The porcelin crabs are awesome, the little sea urchins are growing, the feather dusters are everywhere. My favorite is some kind of decorator crab that has a yellow sponge growing on it's back. Tank cycled in days, don't know what else to say, but I wouldn't do another tank without it. Only complaint is the quantity of rock, its too much.

 

[d2mini]

I am interested in TBS rock but there is a 100 lb minimum from what someone told me =(

No minimum. But there is a minimum charge for shipping air freight.

 

[smatter]

It is pretty solid, IMO. However, I won't use it. It is heavy, dense and does not do as good of a job of denitrification as pacific live rock.

It is mined from a quarry and placed in the ocean for a while to get critters on the outside. Some will live - some that you want and some that you won't. Some will die. The good thing is that since it was in the ocean, the low nutrient environment will nearly guarantee that the rock is phosphate free. After a few years, about all that you will have alive on it is coralline and some sponges, but that will happen regardless of what kind of rock you use.

I like pacific rock better because it was in the ocean the whole time and is more porous and ready for anxoic zones and bacterias. It needs to be cured, which kills all of the nasty stuff. This rock is also phosphate free. It is lighter.

I would use TBS rock with no problem if there was no longer pacific rock. It is still way beyond dead/dry rock.

I wish that they would put the pukani into the ocean for a while. It would be awesome once the organics and phosphates were out of it and it got loaded with life.

Mine is live Pukani and it's awesome. I didn't care for the Walt Smith stuff for the reasons you stated. It was still much better than any Pacific rock I have seen these days. Today's Pacific rock just doesn't compare to the Pacific rock Walt used to import back in the '90s. That was really nice rock with lots of life that survived the trip from Fiji.