liverock
RC Sponsor
To
Angie Teo
Petworld Magazine (Singapore Representative)
1. What is liverock?
Florida is the home to specialists that harvest marine fish, plants and invertebrates (crabs, shrimp and mollusks) desired by aquarium hobbyists. An important component of marine aquariums is "live rock." Live rock is calcareous rock encrusted with algae, crustaceans and other living organisms. The rock is an attractive part of the marine aquarium and the difficulty of maintaining aquarium water quality is alleviated with the addition of live rock which naturally balances the aquarist's water chemistry.
2. Why did you choose liverock and not another type of aquaculture?
Live rock aquaculture was brought on by legislation by the Federal Government and the state of Florida. We had been collecting wild live rock since 1983, that is collecting rock which existed naturally in the Gulf of Mexico, on the scattered reef system that make of the alluvial plain in the Gulf off of Florida. In 1989 the State of Florida called the major producers of live rock to the states capitol of Tallahassee for a meeting with the various governmental bodies that regulate marine resources in the state. There we were informed that they did not like the idea of wild harvest of live rock as there was growing pressure on the resource as the technology to keep the rock alive was growing, thus creating more demand in the market place, and many more divers in the water harvesting live rock. At the peak of wild harvest there were about 400 licensed divers collecting rock at an estimated 8 million dollars a year in live rock sales. The harvest of live rock went from just my partner and I to hundreds of divers, diving each day the weather would allow. There seemed to be no end to the demand for live rock. This pressure on the resource was seen by the local fishing fleet as removal of the habitat needed for their targeted species of fish they were fishing for. The traditional fisherman went to the Federal Government and complained that the habitat for marine life was disappearing boatload, by boatload. And truly that is what was happening as the business was so lucrative that soon most of " traditional "fisherman were out collecting live rock rather than fishing, as the paycheck was larger for live rock collected in one day as opposed to a week's long fishing trip for grouper and snapper. Soon every boat coming into port was so loaded down with rock they were almost sinking. The alarm sounded by a few individuals soon compounded into restrictions on landing live rock harvested in state waters, provoking a court challenge that the industry prevailed upon, but shifted harvest from state to Federal waters <more than nine miles offshore> where rock could be legally harvest and then landed in the State of Florida. The Federal harvest continued until Dec 31 1996, at which point all harvest of live rock in the United States became illegal. But the state and the Federal Government had made allocations for aquaculture of live rock by permit, which they were to issue applicants interested in aquaculture. The reality of it was there were only two people showing an interest in becoming aquaculturists, myself and Mr. Tom Frakes from Aquarium Systems. We were the first company issued a permit, which had been promised to be a six month permitting period, but actually turned into a four year battle in and out of the courts, thousands of phone calls, endless applications, and ulcers, before a threatened 1,000,000 dollar lawsuit against the state of Florida produced the first lease of five acres of the Gulf of Mexico for live rock aquaculture. It was not the fact that the state just did not want aquaculture, but rather there was no permitting process to obtain such a permit as it was a new industry and no avenue to follow existed. It was a long and hard battle which culminated in September of 1993 when we placed our first one million pounds of rock in the Gulf on our five acre lease
.
3. How is TBS' liverock different from others in the market?
Basically there are only two types <besides illegally harvested rock> in the market place today. Rock, which is not really rock at all but living coral skeletons which are harvested in the south Pacific in areas like Tonga and Fiji, and aquacultured rock, which is ancient reef rock which is mined in south Florida and used as seed rock for aquaculture. It is actual ancient reef rock made up of fossilized reef creatures.
4. Why is liverock so popular in your country (in the world) these days?
Live rock is the predominate and most needed part of a reef aquarium as not only does it stabilize and control the chemistry of a reef tank, it is also home to all the tanks inhabitants. Having a reef tank with fish invertebrates and corals, one must provide habitat, as they had in the wild and that is live rock. Without live rock it would be like putting yourself in a jail cell with no furniture, they would have nowhere to live, and no environment to grow in. Think of four bare walls twenty four hours a day, how would you like it? Fish and inverts are the same way, they need an environment to live and grow in and live rock provides this.
5. What would you need to set up a reef tank at home?
It is very easy to have a reef tank, all one needs is good water movement, live sand, live rock, and a protein skimmer. This is the so called, Berlin system, the natural way to set up a reef tank, first done by Lee Ching way back in the early 1960"s and done today many thousands of people worldwide. It really is that easy and described on our web page at www.tampabaysaltwater.com under "The Package" information.
6. Is it a specialized hobby or can anyone, like me, take it up?
We have reef tank customers from six years old to over one hundred. With the advances in reefkeeping knowledge and the simple Berlin style approach, anyone can have a reef tank with minimal maintenance. The is so much good information on the internet that a reef tank is just a "click" away!
7. What do you feed the 'rock'? Over in your artificial reef? And at home?
Live rock requires no food, just good lighting to keep the corals, plants and other life alive. But some of the animals that come on the rock such as anemones will require foods, which are traditionally used in saltwater aquariums.
8. It is dangerous to dive. Why do you still dive? How often do you dive? Who do you usually dive with?
I became a certified diver in 1972 in Sacramento, California. My first dive was at Point Arena in northern California, the water was 52 degrees, I had no booties and my ankles about froze off. From there I dove Monterey Bay in central California, a bit warmer and nicer diving conditions. Because my father was in the Air Force I had the opportunity to dive in many different countries and oceans around the world. This experience gave me a good foundation for my activities later in life. I have been a treasure diver, spear fisherman, boat cleaner, and done about everything else you can do underwater to make a living. Danger in diving is usually created by the diver himself as if one is prepared and safety conscious diving is a safe activity. Now the weather is another story, I have had boats loaded with 5000 pounds of rock on the way out to our aquaculture site in the Keys and had three waterspouts pop up in front of me making the seas go from flat calm conditions to horrendous waves and storms. You can't run from them as you are too heavy to make any headway so you must be prepared to "ride" them out until the weather clears. I also have had the pleasure of swimming to shore <six miles> with my Labrador retriever, my constant companion, after sinking a new boat full of rock on a day I should not have been out on the reef because of bad weather conditions, I was in the water a little more than six hours, in shark infested water, with nothing but a T-shirt and shorts on, swimming toward land, not a fun time and many things learned that day. The story of that sinking is also on our web page if you want the"Whole" story. I dive for live rock every day the weather allows until I can fill our 20,000 gallons of holding tanks at our store in Tampa. Most often I dive alone, well not really as Susie my black Lab is always on the boat, and in the water with me as I dive. She likes to swim around and bite my bubbles as they reach the surface. I have never seen such a water dog in all my life. Diving by yourself is not the smartest thing to do, but business necessitates it as while I am diving my partner is in the shop taking care of sales and shipping. The two of us run the whole operation. I have many thousands of hours underwater collecting marine life since the early 1980"s.
9. Have you had any dangerous encounters at sea? What is the worst weather you have encountered?
I have had so many encounters with very large sharks, that I have become complacent in that area, if one is not stupid, that is carry around speared fish, big sharks leave you alone. You learn by your mistakes, as in the early 1970"s I was spear fishing on Alligator reef in the Keys when a 15 foot hammerhead came after me, well not really me but the fish I had on a stringer tied to me, and that experience will defiantly cure you of spear fishing! The worst weather I have been in, to many to count, there have been times I had to run from hurricanes, caught in vicious lightning storms, skyscraper tall waves, sinking boats, you name it I have been through it in 29 years. Lucky to be alive I guess.
10. Would you be considering starting a new business to bring tourists to visit your underwater world in the future? With glass bottom boats or SCUBA diving gear, maybe? How about starting a fish farm or clam farm or abalone farm on your reefs, perhaps?
We offer collecting trips on our aquaculture sites now. You must be a certified diver with an open water certification, at which point you can go along with us to collect your own marine life and live rock, this can be done in The Keys or here in the Gulf, at either of our sites. We have packages that include hotels and dive trips, for this activity. Each trip is especially designed for the individuals tastes. We have tried to also aquaculture clams on our site, but unfortunately the State has ridged guidelines for clam producers, and you must be in an "approved" area of the Gulf for this activity. Approval is achieved by the State doing water quality tests for the area you wish to lease, and all of these areas are further north of Tampa, in the Big Bend area of Florida where there are many hundreds of clam farms. The state just does not have the money or inclination to send their people to a new area to do water analysis, as the clam farms are traditionally further north of our location. A clam farm would work on our lease area, but would not be legal without the States designating our are to be "approved" waters.
11. People say diving shortens one's life in the sense that the body has to handle intense pressure upon descending to and ascending from the great depths. What is your opinion on this? What special safety conditions would you need to take?
I am now 47 years old after 30 years of diving, I am still in one piece. I used to dive at great depths but now only at one atmosphere<33 feet> as our aquaculture sites are in 20 foot of water. I have been lucky, never have had the bends of other dive related afflictions, although I have felt the presence of nitrogen bubbles in my joints after deep dives year ago, I stay away from deep diving now. As you get older you get smarter, and more concerned about "Tomorrow"
12. What do you wear for diving? Please tell us about the 'Jesus belt'.
Dive attire depends upon the season, in the summer time I wear an old pair of Levi's and T shirt to dive in, but in the winter time the water can go down to 51 degrees and that kind of condition requires a full wetsuit. hood, gloves, and boots to be able to withstand the cold thermoclines in the Gulf. Winter time diving is tough and we usually use doubles, that is two tanks connected together to allow more bottom time so one does not have to surface in the cold weather to put on another tank, as it is much colder out of the water than in it. Double tanks can give you up to and hour and a half underwater, collecting rock.
The "Jesus" belt story goes many years back to my partners first dive in the Gulf of Mexico.
We were very new to the collection of marine life and rock, and it was Marks very first dive with me off of Tarpon Springs. Money was very tight, we had a very old boat and motor and limited equipment. He had to have weight belt, so we used some rope to string the lead weights needed to sink to the bottom on and he tied it around his waist. This was a very dangerous situation as if he had an emergency he would not have been able to get the weights off to surface in a hurry, and so he remarked as he was going over the side of the boat, "If this thing does not work, I'll be seeing Jesus" I was impressed with his desire at the time as he had never been diving in his life before, but surly had the drive to become a marine life collector.
13. Will you ship your products to this region? Would the liverock be able to take the long journey and thereafter be able to survive in this warm climate? Do we need to do a partial water change every week? And use a chiller? What is your recommendation?
We ship live rock and marine animals very successfully, all over the world. We pack the rock in insulated containers, lined with heavy duty plastic bags. We submerge the rock in ocean water, fill the bag with pure Oxygen, rubber band the tops, and seal the box. This way the rock is shipped underwater with plenty of air to survive up to 48 hours in shipping time to its destination. The far east, Japan, Singapore, are served by the airlines and we ship the rock by air freight. Unfortunately the freight shipping costs are quite high for your part of the world, and sometimes it is not economically feasible to ship the far east as the freight charges, customs fees, taxes and duties can be double or triple the actual cost of the rock itself. Shipping in the United States is very easy as we have so many airlines and destinations served allows us to pack the rock in the evening and have it to its destination early the next day. To cities with direct flights from Tampa, such as Toronto, Canada I take the rock to the airport at 2 PM our time and the customer in Canada has it by 6pm the same day! So the rock is in transit only four hours, which results in it arriving in perfect condition. Our rock is so full of life that it must be shipped underwater to allow the corals and creatures to survive the trip. This is an unusual shipping procedure as all the other rock imported to the United States from the far east is collected by divers, held at a facility, packed in boxes, shipped to Hawaii, then to Los Angeles to a wholesaler, then shipped on to pet shops or the consumer all over the States, in a dry condition. This rock <actually coral skeleton> is out of the water for 5-7 days before it reaches its ultimate destination. Asking any life to survive that long out of the water is a long shot, it would be like asking you to go sit under the water for five days without air, you would not survive. This is where the term "curing or cured rock" comes from. The imported rock is so stressed that it requires it to be retanked for a few weeks to allow the dead organisms to fall off and the rock to come back to life, what little life is left. That is why in the States Fiji rock has so little life, and results in basically just purple rock, with some coralline on it. I have seen some small corals which live through this whole procedure, which is testament to their longevity. The aquacultured rock we ship will also have some die off, as all the life on it, some will not survive in captivity, thus there is a cycling process all live rock goes through, imported or not. We set up customers with reef tanks we sell a Package deal, all the rock, live sand and the animals needed to maintain the tank for you. Let's say you have a 125 gallon tank, that requires 250 pounds of rock and 125 pounds of live sand. We ship the customer in two installments, first half of the rock and all of the sand is sent, the customer puts this in his tank and waits for it to cycle. The cycle period is usually 5-10 days while the rock and live sand condition the water to allow marine life to live. During this period many water changes are needed to control the ammonia levels in the aquarium as high ammonia will kill the rock and sand. Some customers report no ammonia spikes, but this is rare as the norm is ammonia spikes controlled by water changes until the cycle is over. At that point the customer calls us back and we ship the other half of the rock and all the animals. We have found this to be a very effective way of setting up a marine tank with the least amount of hassle and best chance of organisms survival.
More of this interview in the next post!
Angie Teo
Petworld Magazine (Singapore Representative)
1. What is liverock?
Florida is the home to specialists that harvest marine fish, plants and invertebrates (crabs, shrimp and mollusks) desired by aquarium hobbyists. An important component of marine aquariums is "live rock." Live rock is calcareous rock encrusted with algae, crustaceans and other living organisms. The rock is an attractive part of the marine aquarium and the difficulty of maintaining aquarium water quality is alleviated with the addition of live rock which naturally balances the aquarist's water chemistry.
2. Why did you choose liverock and not another type of aquaculture?
Live rock aquaculture was brought on by legislation by the Federal Government and the state of Florida. We had been collecting wild live rock since 1983, that is collecting rock which existed naturally in the Gulf of Mexico, on the scattered reef system that make of the alluvial plain in the Gulf off of Florida. In 1989 the State of Florida called the major producers of live rock to the states capitol of Tallahassee for a meeting with the various governmental bodies that regulate marine resources in the state. There we were informed that they did not like the idea of wild harvest of live rock as there was growing pressure on the resource as the technology to keep the rock alive was growing, thus creating more demand in the market place, and many more divers in the water harvesting live rock. At the peak of wild harvest there were about 400 licensed divers collecting rock at an estimated 8 million dollars a year in live rock sales. The harvest of live rock went from just my partner and I to hundreds of divers, diving each day the weather would allow. There seemed to be no end to the demand for live rock. This pressure on the resource was seen by the local fishing fleet as removal of the habitat needed for their targeted species of fish they were fishing for. The traditional fisherman went to the Federal Government and complained that the habitat for marine life was disappearing boatload, by boatload. And truly that is what was happening as the business was so lucrative that soon most of " traditional "fisherman were out collecting live rock rather than fishing, as the paycheck was larger for live rock collected in one day as opposed to a week's long fishing trip for grouper and snapper. Soon every boat coming into port was so loaded down with rock they were almost sinking. The alarm sounded by a few individuals soon compounded into restrictions on landing live rock harvested in state waters, provoking a court challenge that the industry prevailed upon, but shifted harvest from state to Federal waters <more than nine miles offshore> where rock could be legally harvest and then landed in the State of Florida. The Federal harvest continued until Dec 31 1996, at which point all harvest of live rock in the United States became illegal. But the state and the Federal Government had made allocations for aquaculture of live rock by permit, which they were to issue applicants interested in aquaculture. The reality of it was there were only two people showing an interest in becoming aquaculturists, myself and Mr. Tom Frakes from Aquarium Systems. We were the first company issued a permit, which had been promised to be a six month permitting period, but actually turned into a four year battle in and out of the courts, thousands of phone calls, endless applications, and ulcers, before a threatened 1,000,000 dollar lawsuit against the state of Florida produced the first lease of five acres of the Gulf of Mexico for live rock aquaculture. It was not the fact that the state just did not want aquaculture, but rather there was no permitting process to obtain such a permit as it was a new industry and no avenue to follow existed. It was a long and hard battle which culminated in September of 1993 when we placed our first one million pounds of rock in the Gulf on our five acre lease
.
3. How is TBS' liverock different from others in the market?
Basically there are only two types <besides illegally harvested rock> in the market place today. Rock, which is not really rock at all but living coral skeletons which are harvested in the south Pacific in areas like Tonga and Fiji, and aquacultured rock, which is ancient reef rock which is mined in south Florida and used as seed rock for aquaculture. It is actual ancient reef rock made up of fossilized reef creatures.
4. Why is liverock so popular in your country (in the world) these days?
Live rock is the predominate and most needed part of a reef aquarium as not only does it stabilize and control the chemistry of a reef tank, it is also home to all the tanks inhabitants. Having a reef tank with fish invertebrates and corals, one must provide habitat, as they had in the wild and that is live rock. Without live rock it would be like putting yourself in a jail cell with no furniture, they would have nowhere to live, and no environment to grow in. Think of four bare walls twenty four hours a day, how would you like it? Fish and inverts are the same way, they need an environment to live and grow in and live rock provides this.
5. What would you need to set up a reef tank at home?
It is very easy to have a reef tank, all one needs is good water movement, live sand, live rock, and a protein skimmer. This is the so called, Berlin system, the natural way to set up a reef tank, first done by Lee Ching way back in the early 1960"s and done today many thousands of people worldwide. It really is that easy and described on our web page at www.tampabaysaltwater.com under "The Package" information.
6. Is it a specialized hobby or can anyone, like me, take it up?
We have reef tank customers from six years old to over one hundred. With the advances in reefkeeping knowledge and the simple Berlin style approach, anyone can have a reef tank with minimal maintenance. The is so much good information on the internet that a reef tank is just a "click" away!
7. What do you feed the 'rock'? Over in your artificial reef? And at home?
Live rock requires no food, just good lighting to keep the corals, plants and other life alive. But some of the animals that come on the rock such as anemones will require foods, which are traditionally used in saltwater aquariums.
8. It is dangerous to dive. Why do you still dive? How often do you dive? Who do you usually dive with?
I became a certified diver in 1972 in Sacramento, California. My first dive was at Point Arena in northern California, the water was 52 degrees, I had no booties and my ankles about froze off. From there I dove Monterey Bay in central California, a bit warmer and nicer diving conditions. Because my father was in the Air Force I had the opportunity to dive in many different countries and oceans around the world. This experience gave me a good foundation for my activities later in life. I have been a treasure diver, spear fisherman, boat cleaner, and done about everything else you can do underwater to make a living. Danger in diving is usually created by the diver himself as if one is prepared and safety conscious diving is a safe activity. Now the weather is another story, I have had boats loaded with 5000 pounds of rock on the way out to our aquaculture site in the Keys and had three waterspouts pop up in front of me making the seas go from flat calm conditions to horrendous waves and storms. You can't run from them as you are too heavy to make any headway so you must be prepared to "ride" them out until the weather clears. I also have had the pleasure of swimming to shore <six miles> with my Labrador retriever, my constant companion, after sinking a new boat full of rock on a day I should not have been out on the reef because of bad weather conditions, I was in the water a little more than six hours, in shark infested water, with nothing but a T-shirt and shorts on, swimming toward land, not a fun time and many things learned that day. The story of that sinking is also on our web page if you want the"Whole" story. I dive for live rock every day the weather allows until I can fill our 20,000 gallons of holding tanks at our store in Tampa. Most often I dive alone, well not really as Susie my black Lab is always on the boat, and in the water with me as I dive. She likes to swim around and bite my bubbles as they reach the surface. I have never seen such a water dog in all my life. Diving by yourself is not the smartest thing to do, but business necessitates it as while I am diving my partner is in the shop taking care of sales and shipping. The two of us run the whole operation. I have many thousands of hours underwater collecting marine life since the early 1980"s.
9. Have you had any dangerous encounters at sea? What is the worst weather you have encountered?
I have had so many encounters with very large sharks, that I have become complacent in that area, if one is not stupid, that is carry around speared fish, big sharks leave you alone. You learn by your mistakes, as in the early 1970"s I was spear fishing on Alligator reef in the Keys when a 15 foot hammerhead came after me, well not really me but the fish I had on a stringer tied to me, and that experience will defiantly cure you of spear fishing! The worst weather I have been in, to many to count, there have been times I had to run from hurricanes, caught in vicious lightning storms, skyscraper tall waves, sinking boats, you name it I have been through it in 29 years. Lucky to be alive I guess.
10. Would you be considering starting a new business to bring tourists to visit your underwater world in the future? With glass bottom boats or SCUBA diving gear, maybe? How about starting a fish farm or clam farm or abalone farm on your reefs, perhaps?
We offer collecting trips on our aquaculture sites now. You must be a certified diver with an open water certification, at which point you can go along with us to collect your own marine life and live rock, this can be done in The Keys or here in the Gulf, at either of our sites. We have packages that include hotels and dive trips, for this activity. Each trip is especially designed for the individuals tastes. We have tried to also aquaculture clams on our site, but unfortunately the State has ridged guidelines for clam producers, and you must be in an "approved" area of the Gulf for this activity. Approval is achieved by the State doing water quality tests for the area you wish to lease, and all of these areas are further north of Tampa, in the Big Bend area of Florida where there are many hundreds of clam farms. The state just does not have the money or inclination to send their people to a new area to do water analysis, as the clam farms are traditionally further north of our location. A clam farm would work on our lease area, but would not be legal without the States designating our are to be "approved" waters.
11. People say diving shortens one's life in the sense that the body has to handle intense pressure upon descending to and ascending from the great depths. What is your opinion on this? What special safety conditions would you need to take?
I am now 47 years old after 30 years of diving, I am still in one piece. I used to dive at great depths but now only at one atmosphere<33 feet> as our aquaculture sites are in 20 foot of water. I have been lucky, never have had the bends of other dive related afflictions, although I have felt the presence of nitrogen bubbles in my joints after deep dives year ago, I stay away from deep diving now. As you get older you get smarter, and more concerned about "Tomorrow"
12. What do you wear for diving? Please tell us about the 'Jesus belt'.
Dive attire depends upon the season, in the summer time I wear an old pair of Levi's and T shirt to dive in, but in the winter time the water can go down to 51 degrees and that kind of condition requires a full wetsuit. hood, gloves, and boots to be able to withstand the cold thermoclines in the Gulf. Winter time diving is tough and we usually use doubles, that is two tanks connected together to allow more bottom time so one does not have to surface in the cold weather to put on another tank, as it is much colder out of the water than in it. Double tanks can give you up to and hour and a half underwater, collecting rock.
The "Jesus" belt story goes many years back to my partners first dive in the Gulf of Mexico.
We were very new to the collection of marine life and rock, and it was Marks very first dive with me off of Tarpon Springs. Money was very tight, we had a very old boat and motor and limited equipment. He had to have weight belt, so we used some rope to string the lead weights needed to sink to the bottom on and he tied it around his waist. This was a very dangerous situation as if he had an emergency he would not have been able to get the weights off to surface in a hurry, and so he remarked as he was going over the side of the boat, "If this thing does not work, I'll be seeing Jesus" I was impressed with his desire at the time as he had never been diving in his life before, but surly had the drive to become a marine life collector.
13. Will you ship your products to this region? Would the liverock be able to take the long journey and thereafter be able to survive in this warm climate? Do we need to do a partial water change every week? And use a chiller? What is your recommendation?
We ship live rock and marine animals very successfully, all over the world. We pack the rock in insulated containers, lined with heavy duty plastic bags. We submerge the rock in ocean water, fill the bag with pure Oxygen, rubber band the tops, and seal the box. This way the rock is shipped underwater with plenty of air to survive up to 48 hours in shipping time to its destination. The far east, Japan, Singapore, are served by the airlines and we ship the rock by air freight. Unfortunately the freight shipping costs are quite high for your part of the world, and sometimes it is not economically feasible to ship the far east as the freight charges, customs fees, taxes and duties can be double or triple the actual cost of the rock itself. Shipping in the United States is very easy as we have so many airlines and destinations served allows us to pack the rock in the evening and have it to its destination early the next day. To cities with direct flights from Tampa, such as Toronto, Canada I take the rock to the airport at 2 PM our time and the customer in Canada has it by 6pm the same day! So the rock is in transit only four hours, which results in it arriving in perfect condition. Our rock is so full of life that it must be shipped underwater to allow the corals and creatures to survive the trip. This is an unusual shipping procedure as all the other rock imported to the United States from the far east is collected by divers, held at a facility, packed in boxes, shipped to Hawaii, then to Los Angeles to a wholesaler, then shipped on to pet shops or the consumer all over the States, in a dry condition. This rock <actually coral skeleton> is out of the water for 5-7 days before it reaches its ultimate destination. Asking any life to survive that long out of the water is a long shot, it would be like asking you to go sit under the water for five days without air, you would not survive. This is where the term "curing or cured rock" comes from. The imported rock is so stressed that it requires it to be retanked for a few weeks to allow the dead organisms to fall off and the rock to come back to life, what little life is left. That is why in the States Fiji rock has so little life, and results in basically just purple rock, with some coralline on it. I have seen some small corals which live through this whole procedure, which is testament to their longevity. The aquacultured rock we ship will also have some die off, as all the life on it, some will not survive in captivity, thus there is a cycling process all live rock goes through, imported or not. We set up customers with reef tanks we sell a Package deal, all the rock, live sand and the animals needed to maintain the tank for you. Let's say you have a 125 gallon tank, that requires 250 pounds of rock and 125 pounds of live sand. We ship the customer in two installments, first half of the rock and all of the sand is sent, the customer puts this in his tank and waits for it to cycle. The cycle period is usually 5-10 days while the rock and live sand condition the water to allow marine life to live. During this period many water changes are needed to control the ammonia levels in the aquarium as high ammonia will kill the rock and sand. Some customers report no ammonia spikes, but this is rare as the norm is ammonia spikes controlled by water changes until the cycle is over. At that point the customer calls us back and we ship the other half of the rock and all the animals. We have found this to be a very effective way of setting up a marine tank with the least amount of hassle and best chance of organisms survival.
More of this interview in the next post!
