TBS Rock 8 months later

Rockker

New member
Well, I finally got some pictures taken and I know alot of people are asking about what happens to TBS rock after it has been in the tank a while.

I got my package late September last year and the 2nd half early October.

My package was a 55 gallon. Like everyone else, I was amazed at the life on my rock and the amount of hitchhikers I found. :Believe it or now, I am still seeing some new nocturnal ones.


I started out with 13 bi-valve clams. I only lost 2 myself, I gave 4 away and I moved the rest into my FOWLR tank and they are still happy as clams <---get it.

I had 1 mantis, 4 gorillas. I made a cool little gorilla trap out of an empty water bottle and caught them. I still have a ton of porcelien crabs, maybe 25 in all that were hitchhikers.

My condy "noodles" is still alive. I did lose a bit of my sponges "maybe 20%" but the rest is thriving. Starfish, emerald crabs, some red and white worm, 5 baby urchins that are now huge "I moved them to my FOWLR tank because they eat the purple algea". 5 keyhole limpets that are multiplying.

All in all, TBS has been the best decision I have made about my tank. I would definatley do it all again. JUST BIGGER.

I am including some pictures after 8 months. Of course, none of the corals were on the rock, but I hope you can see how colorful and live the rock still is.

It is truely wonderful.

Thanks Richard

71100tbsrock2.jpg


71100tbsrock1.jpg


71100fulltankJune15.jpg
 
Thanks for the post. I will be making the trip to Tampa in the next two weeks for my 120g package. I'm scared to death about these gorilla crabs I keep reading about. How much of a pain in the A@@ are they to catch and what is the big issue with them? since I'm sort of new to this reef thing I'm worried I won't be able to ID what is good and what is bad.
 
Bad crab = light colored, very hairy and has black tips on the claws.

Mine were easy to remove once I saw them. I cut the top off of a water bottle, tied a piece of fishing line to it, super glued a silver side to the bottom.

I put the bottle in arund him when I would see him crawling around trying to get a smaller carb or snail.

The longest I ever waited was about an hour and once he would crawl in to get the silverside, I would just pull the string and catch him.

The issue about gorillas are when they get older and larger they can eat your smaller crabs.

As you can see in my photos, if you look close my rocks still have amazing colors. red and orange encrusting sponges and yellow sponges. Tube corals are still alive and eating. I even got 2 brain corals in my package a red and a green. Both were about a quarter size and now they are maybe 3 inches across.

Rockker

71100tbsrock3.jpg
 
Rockker is right on about the "gorilla's". They really aren't much of a threat when small, though they may pick at corals at times. After a year, I still have a couple of fairly small ones (< 3/4 inch) that really don't hassell anything. I haven't been able to extract them but they've been no problem.
 
Gorillas aren't too hard to catch. I use my hands. Generally I leave them be since I have not seen them munching on anything I want protected.

I catch one or 2 a week and throw them into the refugium with Stanley (N. Wennarae mantis).
 
www.tampabaysaltwater.com

Check out the web site and read about how they harvest the rock. When you buy "cured" live rock, that's rock that has been taken out of the water, killed and then revived. This rock is straight from the gulf's floor, packed in water and shipped to you via airplane.

Read up about it and "the package"

You are welcome to come see mine, I'm in Columbus too.

Rockker
 
I have never tried Gulfview, but they don't ship the rock in water, so die off has to be a problem.

TBS for me.
 
Wow, great pics!!

I was told by many people "Yeah, the TBS stuff looks nice but none of that stuff will survive in the tank."

None of them owned TBS rock.....

I am one month behind you and most everything has survived. All my clams are alive, most of the sponges have survived and even had some new sponge growth. My cody anemones are HUGE, I still have a plethora of crabs and other creatures in the tanks and even spot something new from time to time!!

My tank doesnt look quite as vibrant as your right now because I am battling a massive algae outbreak!
 
Thanks dwculp;

I followed your posting about your rock when you got it.

It looked like fun for your students.

Glad everything is doing OK and I'm sure you'll get your problem licked.

Best to ya
Rockker
 
Thanks Rocker. I think I have the problem licked, I had a giant gorilla crab murdering my clean up crew! I captured him yesterday and bansihed him to my 75 gallon FO tank where he quickly became dinner to my giant decorator/spider crab!!

I am thinking of going bigger later this year. I was eying a 200+ gallon tank at a fish store, the kids would love it and so would I. Couldnt make it into a reef though, but I could make it into a FO tank!
 
Going bigger...

Going bigger...

I'm expecting the other half of my 95gal package Thursday, I'm hoping the combo of Gulf rock and Keys rock will give it an interesting look!

I'm already thinking bigger and have been studying the instructions on www.garf.com to make my own. Talk about a neat class project!!! :p
 
Rockker said:
I have never tried Gulfview, but they don't ship the rock in water, so die off has to be a problem.

TBS for me.

I have gotten both gulfview and TBS rock in my 75 gallon tank. I ordered 90# of the gulfview and 50# of TBS rock. There are plusses and minuses to both:

TBS:

Plus:
Better shape of the rock including some cool caves and overall shape.

TBS rock is considerably less dense than my gulfview rock, the same size pieces from gulfview weigh at least twice as much as the ones from TBS. This is significant because more porous rock is a much better biological filter than dense rock.

Better hitchhikers overall, including small open brain type corals that can only be acquired through TBS.

Minus:
My TBS was about $7/lb with shipping in water factored in.

less coraline coverage

Gulfview:

Plus:
Considerably cheaper than TBS, I averaged about $4/lb with shipping from gulfview.

Much better initial coraline algae coverage from gulfview. I have orange, green, purple, pink and red corraline that covered over 50% of the rock when I first received them. This plus is fairly minor as eventually in a stable tank most of the rock will be coraline covered and TBS has enough to start.

I got a ton of filter feeding cucumbers that are very pretty when feeding. I have not seen these yet on my TBS rock, but the hitchhikers are just starting to come out.

Minus:
They don't ship in water, which saves you money, but it increases your cycle. I had one large rock that was 90% sponge and it all died in my tank causing an ammonia spike to 8ppm :eek1:

If I had caught it earlier I would have removed that rock and my cycle would have been a lot better. But shipping out of water will cause more die off.

I like the cheaper gulfview prices, but I feel the quality of TBS rock is better long term. I'm glad I got a mixture, but I think TBS is who will be getting my business in the future.

B.
 
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