I'm going to be placing an order with Premium Aquatics next week for some cured live rock.

In everyones experience, do you like the Bali Alor or Timora better ? I'm looking for rock that has nice coraline coverage with some interesting shapes with lots of nooks, crannies, caves, etc.

I got the Bali Alor from Premium Aquatics - you can see it in my pics if you check out my tank build - and it is very porous, has a lot of nooks and crannies, and is easy to make caves with. However, it does not have tons of coralline coverage; it came with mostly macros, so I've got a rock covered in ulva right now (which is actually slowly being uncovered as my CUC tackles it). It does have some coralline (purples and reds), but it's clear to me it's gonna take quite a few months to color up. I personally don't mind not having coralline everywhere, but if that's a prerequisite for you, you may want to see if you can make a special request with Premium Aquatics or something.

I'd highly suggest you contact them either by phone or online chat and discuss with them what they've got in stock and which rocks look good right now. You can also request specific shapes and sizes and give them a more general idea of what type of aquascaping you are doing and they will do their best to cater to what you need.

P.S. I got uncured, so perhaps they have more color on their cured rocks - I'd check with them to see what they've got. They're very helpful.

I too got Bali Alor, lots of interesting shapes and nooks and crannys. I actually got a nice rock anemone on my rock and tons of Stomatellas. However not alot of coraline coverage, they did put a couple of rocks tjat were covered in reds which is my favorite and in a couple of months it has started to cover all the rocks.

I didn't get that much macro on mine though.

I too would call them to ask.

But one thing to think about it is, you can always eventually get coraline on any rock, however if you have shi*ty shapped rock you can't make it grow into nice shapes.

I got Uncured too

I'm not sure which is better, but I would advise buying cured rock for the shape rather than coralline coverage. I just got some of PA's cured nano rock and there is NO coralline at all, but the shapes are amazing.

^^^ That sums it up pretty well. I also got Bali Alor from PA, though I got it cured. Lots of macros, some desirable, some not. Not much coralline which is totally fine with me, but some great shapes and nooks / crannies.

I'd mention I did find a few aiptasia on the rock, but I've never found them to be much of an issue, just a minor nuisance.

Not a great photo, right after I dumped it in and filled with sand, but here is 15 lbs.

Thanks everyone !

As long as the rocks have a little coraline, I guess that's all that matters since it'll spread to other rocks. The Bali Alor looks sharp. I think I may go this route.

Did you guys have a lot of hitchhikers on your Bali Alor rock ?

I got 27# of rock from them a couple of weeks ago. Half was the Bali Alor and the other half was polynesian. Both were cured. They had a little coraline on them, red, purple, and green. I found one aptasia and some macro. My tank has been set up for A week and a half and there are tons of copopods. All in all i was impressed by the rock, very nice shapes. Give 'em a call, they are very helpful. Here's a FTS 2 weeks in and the cuc started on the rock in the bottom left... It is now very clean and sticks out like a sore thumb.

I've since found different sponges (some pineapple) which have started to appear in the last two weeks, many different types of worms, tube worms also, and I swear I've got some hitchhiker I haven't been able to see yet but who's been putting a whole lot of waste under a ledge of one of my rocks in the front. I'm a little nervous about what he could be, but we'll see. (I also originally did a high salinity dip of my rock before I added it to the tank and I had at least one crab which didn't make it through.) I've had too many different macros (greens, reds) to identify and my rock did come with some SPS coral but it didn't make it through the cycle. I also have lots of pods, but I added chaeto a few weeks into my cycle so not sure if they came from that or the rock. I also found two polyp/anemone type creatures which could possibly be bad, but they don't look like conventional pics of aiptasia or majano so I'm not certain. They have not been reproducing as far as I can tell and it's been at least a week and a half so we'll see.

I did not see a lot of life in the first few weeks (other than the macros), but am starting to see more and more appear now, BTW.

give it more time and the system will mature. After 3 months or so it will all be covered in coralline and what not.

I got tons of hitchhikers from my PA Bali rock. I specifically wanted uncured.

If you have not ordered yet, I suggest that you ask for smaller pieces when you order. Mine are large for the 28 gals they went into.

Had a crab. 10 different colored coralines, all the greens have died in cycle though and not returned. Couple macros. A nudibranch(which has perished). Bunch of segmented bristle worms. Polyp corals(I think, they have tubes like worms). Small feather dusters worms. I have a pink sponge(2 I think), and a purple one, and a bunch of black with white sponges sporadically around the tank now. And the other day I had an aiptasia, but it has either moved or something ate it.

I think the black and white stuff is sponge, have not IDd it yet.