Best place to buy live rock now a days?
As the title states... any companies that stand out?
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Best place to buy live rock now a days?
Brs or realreef rock
Oops. My reading skills are poor this am. I didn’t see LIVE rock haha!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
Tampa bay saltwater or kp aquatics
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+2 on the TBS..
If you want the "best" its hard to beat stuff that comes straight out of the ocean to your local airport hub still submerged in water.. Its not uncommon to find many hitchhikers like fish/octopus/corals/macroalgaes/sponges, etc...in/on it.. Note that you may get unwanted ones too.. But thats the life and usually quite easy to address.. |
Really hard to get liverock right now. There is still a little trickling in. There is aqua-cultured rock out there.
The the ones below are real good for aqua-cultured rock and I would like to throw Gulfview in there to. Purchased from all three and they are all good. TB ships with water so their is less cycle and a little more life makes it but you will have to go to the airport which is the best way to get rock anyway, even with the other two options. It is the fastest and usually the cheapest way. I would not get rock sent ground unless in 1 day zone. With aqua-cultured rock you will want to isolate it for a while to inspect for bad critters. I have had very few but the occasional mantis shrimp or gorilla crab. I had one batch that had two aphasia but were easily removed in quarantine. Allot of people have turned to dead rock or stuff like real reef rock. I really like Real Reef rock because it is already cycled and looks pretty good. They have really interesting shapes too, not cheap though. Quote:
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I just got 15lbs of KP Aquatics “uncured” rock delivered on October 24th. Very colorful, nicely packed and has done well in a curing tank. I see a little starfish, a tiny urchin and many small feather worms daily and I’ve fished out a few larger bristleworms simply because I can’t stand the sight of them. I discovered something else last night investigating with a red light and I have no clue what it is...appears to be covered in algae but it moves if I tap the glass:worried:
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Plain and simple for the most part.. People are IMO overly scared of hitchhikers.. The best part of this hobby is the life in my tank I didn't intentionally put there.. Yes there are times where we see horrible cases of "X" but in general those are few/far between and most stuff is harmless/fun/beneficial.. |
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I place a power head and heater in and call it a day. I do light the rock because I have got coral and some great types of algae on them before. This last batch had some coral and some nice halimeda and red algae. I have some old lighting fixtures I use. you could put them directly in the tank if no other corals or fish are in there. I just inspect the rock from time to time. I see a piece of undesirable algae I remove it. I see a anemone I do not want I remove it. I will place a trap for any crabs or mantis. I inspect during the day and a couple of hours after lights out. I also place a little food to see if it draws something out. Honestly I have purchased hundreds of pounds of rock and had very little of anything undesirable from aquacultured rock.. I seem to get pistol shrimp from time to time which I actually like. I have had a few mantis and gorilla crabs but I got more from live rock I used to get from Fiji or else where. I did see someone who had a euclid worm and a mantis in his last batch. My main issue with msot aquacultured Florida rock is it is heavy and shapes not real interesting. i really like the Tampabay Saltwater pukani rock. |
Does anyone do aquacultured dry rock? Not even sure if that's the right terminology. Basically natural dry rock, not manufactured that they have been curing in sw for a length of time, 1 yr, 2 yrs, etc. So basically 100% pest free.
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Some LFS have done it. Real reef is man made but it is shipped wet and fully cured. |
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Honestly I have thought about it myself if I had the space. I am setting up a invert/coral/fish propagation/breeding station in my basement. It has 20 + tanks. I will be packed wall to wall. One of the focuses will be for adding biodiversity for those who use dry rock. I couple Rubbermaid horse troughs with well cured live rock with different coralline and Some lights. You would not even need need to add live rock just add coralline and bacteria. Throw in some copepods and amphipods.. You would have to change allot of water because of the nutrients leaching though. |
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Kind of like real reef does but they do it with manmade rock http://realreefrock.com/real-reef-manufacturing.html For me it would have just been smaller scale and I am in a less desirable place. You are right it would be less susceptible to temp changes. Florida would have a much more desirable climate for it. |
If you want a lot of diversity for sure Tampa Bay Saltwater
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I live about an hour south of Tampa. And I've been wondering if it could be shipped by ground since it's only an hour drive. And if so how expensive it would be for shipping. I have looked at their website but I was not really able to tell how much shipping would cost. I guess my best bet would need to contact them by phone to find out. I have also considered just driving up there to pick it up. I'm only looking for about 20lb probably, for a 30 gallon bow front.
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Just to Window Shop [emoji16]
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