West Mariculture LifeReefRock

[Hzuiel]

I went to the C.A.R.E. Expo in cincinnati(i didn't go there JUST for that, also visited the newport aquarium and made a stop at jungle jim's.) Anyway while I was there I was working my way around from table to table and came across the table for West Mariculture. They sell a number of things including a bacterial supplement for cycling tanks, a special type of sand, and the main thing they had on display, man made live rock. I spent quite a bit of time talking to mr Paul West and he was very nice to talk to, and didn't take offense when I asked him about the rock leeching anything.

In the past I have read that manmade live rock is terrible, people had all sorts of issues with leeching phosphates and weird issues with water quality, such that eventually they got rid off all of it and replaced it with natural live rock and their problems went away. So i was a bit skeptical going in. After talking to him though I'm rather interested and wanted to get some other opinions.

His recipe is a bit of a secret, but basically he adds a black or purple coloring agent(so it's colored all the way through, not just painted on at the surface.) of some sort to a unique mixture of concrete that allows them to shape it while it's drying, and they hand craft them to have caves and lots of shapes to create surface area. He brought up that most public aquariums use concrete for all of their aquariums and aquascaping and if it's the right type it shouldn't leech anything out. Any thoughts?

I was particularly interested in some coral look alike structures he showed me, and how they are offering pre-drilled rocks that perfectly fit a frag plug down inside the holes, or for bracing with rods. And they also do custom rockscaping for what seems to be less than a lot of people are paying for natural live rock.

Now I know this manmade rock, even if safe, isn't bringing in any beneficial hitchhikers, but there are others ways to get those, and the benefits as i see them are:
Eco friendly, no dynamiting reefs.
Ability to request specific shapes of rockwork to fit in the exact dimensions of your aquarium.
Don't have to drill the rock yourself.
No rock avalanches.
Since it is hand made, it's kind of like having a piece of this guy's art work in your aquarium.


If people are already using concrete or mortar mix to hold their aquascapes together, if this guy can through his artistic process, create something that looks a lot like live rock and has the high surface area property of live rock, is there any other reason not to go with it?

He has a facebook and website you can find with a google search for west mariculture. I tried searching on google and this forum and it seems like nobody has reported using his rock yet, only his sand(which i guess is meant to more closely resemble silt.) There are probably a dozen threads or more mentioning the sand, just nothing about live rock.

He has a lot more pictures on his facebook, but here are some samples.

 

[Hzuiel]

bump

 

[Hzuiel]

I wouldn't keep bumping this but i am really hoping someone else has some experience with this rock or at least some information about use of concrete/mortar in saltwater tanks. I'm a bit shocked this seems completely uninteresting to everyone else, considering it's only slightly more expensive than dry rock. I may try some of this rock in an upcoming build and don't want to make a bad decision.

To throw another question out there, is dry rock also from dynamited reefs, just dried out, rather than kept alive? Or is dry rock from some inland source like a quarry of a prehistoric fossil bed? Or more simply put, is dry rock eco friendly?

 

[jrp1588]

Dry rock is usually dug up, it was alive thousands of years ago. How much does this stuff cost? Their website doesn't list prices.

 

[Hzuiel]

The price they had on their booth was $4/lb. I'm not sure if there is a discount for larger amounts, or an increase for custom piece requests.

 

[c.rob]

At $4 a lb I am curious as to how much those pieces wiegh ? They look to be solid . When I made mine I tried to get as many air pockets as possible for bacterial space as well as making them managable to position in the tank.

 

[jrp1588]

Well, that's twice what Marco Rocks charges, so that's a no-brainer in my opinion.

 

[Hzuiel]

At $4 a lb I am curious as to how much those pieces wiegh ? They look to be solid . When I made mine I tried to get as many air pockets as possible for bacterial space as well as making them managable to position in the tank.

The few pieces i picked up seemed similar in weight to other live rock i have handled. The frag plugs I handled that looked like coral were very light feeling. If he didn't make caves and crevices, and drill for supports it would probably be noticeably heavier.

 

[reefwiser]

I am from Louisville too and was at the Frag swap. Must have missed you I was there all day. I Talked to Paul and bought rock and sand. I liked the larger pieces being more open and pined so that they would not fall over.

 

[Hzuiel]

Well, that's twice what Marco Rocks charges, so that's a no-brainer in my opinion.

Well if dry rock does not involve dynamiting reefs then that's probably just as good of an option. It doesn't address some of the potential time and money benefits of ordering the rock pre-drilled for stacking and building reefscapes though. I've also heard of issues when ordering bulk rock that people often get rocks that are too big or too small for what they want to build. Would it be worth it if you could describe to someone a specific style you want, and give them your aquarium dimensions, then they send you pictures of what they came up with, and you can either say "no, that won't do" or "put that in a box and send it to me."?

 

[Hzuiel]

I am from Louisville too and was at the Frag swap. Must have missed you I was there all day. I Talked to Paul and bought rock and sand. I liked the larger pieces being more open and pined so that they would not fall over.

Oh really? I was on a tight schedule so i was only there maybe an hour, me and a co-worker were making a trip out of it. To try and squeeze the behind the scenes tour in at newport we had to stop there and do the tour at 11am, then go to the expo, then to jungle jim's, then back to newport to view the rest of the exhibits. I wore a green t-shirt with the name of a school i work at on it, and one of the people who was selling frags recognized the school name and asked if i was from the area. Turns out he is from new albany.

 

[jrp1588]

Well if dry rock does not involve dynamiting reefs then that's probably just as good of an option. It doesn't address some of the potential time and money benefits of ordering the rock pre-drilled for stacking and building reefscapes though. I've also heard of issues when ordering bulk rock that people often get rocks that are too big or too small for what they want to build. Would it be worth it if you could describe to someone a specific style you want, and give them your aquarium dimensions, then they send you pictures of what they came up with, and you can either say "no, that won't do" or "put that in a box and send it to me."?

I believe you can make requests with Marco Rocks. I don't think he takes pictures and sends them for your approval though. Just general stuff like "nothing bigger than a softball" or maybe "one football sized rock, and the rest smaller rocks."

Being pre-drilled and pegged doesn't add much value for me. A masonry bit isn't expensive or hard to use. To each his own though. They certainly look nice.

 

[Picasso99]

I know this is an older thread, but just wanted to let you know that I'm the owner of West Mariculture. I offer a free reefscaping service to potential customers. Just send me some specs on your tank (internal LxWxH, obstructions such as overflows), and what type of reefscape you're looking for. You can even send me a picture of something you'd like me to copy or make something similar to. I'll set it up and shoot you some pics. I'll tweak as requested. I'll then weigh it out and give you a price, including shipping. Once you purchase, I'll take assembly pics and post them, as well as pack everythign up nicely and send it off.

Reefscaping can be challenging. Having thousands of pounds of rock to choose from, as well as the tools to make modifications if necessary, make it a lot easier for me to do. There's nothing more frustrating than buying a box of rocks and hoping for the best, but not getting anything close to what you want.

There's tons of photos on my Facebook page, including several reefscapes that I've setup for customers. Feel free to contact any of the customers about their experience, and how the rock is doing in their tanks and how well it's holding it's color.

Give me a call or email if you have any questions. If you're local, let me know and you can come by and build a reefscape yourself! I have no problem with you spending time putting it together, and I'll glad to help with construction.

 

[Jonathan1992]

I ordered from him and l love it!

 

[wallacefan]

i have been trying to get hold of him to order and cant reach him does anyone know how?