Jump to content
Coral Vue Hydros

florida live rock


MOJOEJOEJOE

Recommended Posts

MOJOEJOEJOE

Im thinking about getting some of the Gulf Deco live rock. Any one buy any and have some pics. The claim is that there is tons of life and lots of different coralines as well as macro and micro algaes.

 

Link to comment
  • Replies 89
  • Created
  • Last Reply
MOJOEJOEJOE

My favorite! :wub:

 

CIMG0633.JPG

 

Tell Dan Kat said he was awesome.

holly crap I saw the add on e-bay and figured they were only going to post pics of prime stuff but yours looks the same. Are you actually the dealer over there and trying to set the bait LOL. Serious that looks sweet. Did you have to cure it?

Link to comment

I have purchased over 1000 lbs of this rock. In 45 years of reefkeeping, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Dale is very easy to work with. I paid the extra $1 a lb and purchased the diver select. You will not be dissappointed. There were Caribbeann Catus Coral, which are illegal to collect except if you grow them on your own aquacultured rock.

Get you some,

Patrick

 

PS. Dale Barger is diver owner of floridaliverock.com. His lease is 30 miles west of Tarpon Springs, Florida in 30 feet of water.

Link to comment

holly crap I saw the add on e-bay and figured they were only going to post pics of prime stuff but yours looks the same. Are you actually the dealer over there and trying to set the bait LOL. Serious that looks sweet. Did you have to cure it?

 

I have had 3 separate shipments from gulfliverock.com. Dan has been very easy to work with. The most recent shipment I received was in the ocean on a Monday and in my tank on that wednesday. It was so fresh smelling, no die off, no nothing.

 

My large shipment for my main tank did go through a cycle and a very harsh one. If yours goes through a cycle try to do a soft cycle to preserve the life on it. Soft cycle means doing water changes frequently to keep the ammonia low.

 

CIMG0653.JPG

 

Uncured rock comes with the most complete biological bacterial profile you can ever hope to get in your home aquarium. Your tank will mature faster, look mature faster and the coralline can't be beat. This is my current tank, TOTM at 12 months, now 28 months old.

FTS_2-2.jpg

 

This is my Biocube at 6 months

IMG_3436.JPG

Link to comment

Thanks Patrick, I found this on their about us page

 

About Us

Gulf Live Rock.com is one of the leaders in the aquacultered Florida live rock industry. We offer invertebrates from the Gulf of Mexico, live sand, and the finest quality live rock available in the industry. Gulf Live Rock is unquestionably the most beautiful of the live rocks in the world. Our live rock can be found in public displays, live fish shops, tropical fish wholesalers, public aquariums, research facilities, universities and private aquariums all around the country. We are one of the few aquaculturalists permitted by the federal government and the state of Florida to grow and harvest live rock specifically for marine aquariums in the gulf of mexico.

We have around half a million pounds of live rock under production on our federal live rock lease site located 10 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico's EEZ zone. We use a natural calcium carbonate rock called Bryozoan facies to build our lease site. This rock is basically prehistoric coral and reefs that are dug up in south Florida by construction sites, farmers, pool makers and rock quarries. Remember that most of Florida was under water thousands of years ago. If you look closely many rocks contain visible prehistoric marine fossils and shells. This rock is extremely porous with many nooks and crannies for fish and inverts to seek refuge in.

We hand pick every piece of rock to ensure that it will make a beautiful piece of live rock. Most of our rock was dumped several tons at a time by a crane off of a large barge on our lease site in the summer of 1996. So you can image how much marine life has grown on it over the last 15 years. We also have a newer section on our lease site that we add rock to periodically. This ensures that we will have quality live rock for the years to come. The rules for depositing rock have changed science 1996. We now have to deposit the rock 100 pounds at a time in baskets which have to be lowered with a rope to the ocean bottom by hand. A diver then arranges the rock by hand for the best possible growth on the bottom of the ocean. These new rules require a lot more hard work, boat gas and man hours.

We own and operate two boats that we use to deposit and harvest our live rock with. A 22 foot famous craft (The Blue Bullet) and a 25 foot pro line (A Little Bigger). Once we harvest the live rock it is brought to our main facility located in Tampa, Florida and it is stored in our 1500 gallon system. In 2012 we acquired a Marine Life Divers License for the state of Florida (1 of 50 available). It is kind of like a liquor license. You cant simply get one from the state. No new MLD licenses will ever be issued by the state. You have to buy it from someone that already has one and they are not cheap. This license allows us to collect live tropical fish, eels, inverts, live marine plants, soft corals, sponges and tons of other cool things for the saltwater aquarium. We set up a large collecting and holding facility located in Marathon key, in the Florida keys. We also added a 25 foot parker and a 17 foot cat to our collecting fleet. We have helped set up thousands of salt water aquariums, so if you need help with yours please contact us. Thank you for choosing our company for your live rock and other aquarium needs.

Link to comment

The permit which Dan mentioned is no longer issued. Florida legislatures have decided to phase out this source of collection. When the divers that hold these permits are no longer able to dive, this source of environmentally responsible live rock will no longer be available. The reef hobby requires activist and lobbiest to maintain some sanity with our beaurocrats. My blood boils when I think on some of the stupidity involved with elected officials.

 

Good, I got it out of me. I shall go work in my garden to get back to my peaceful side.

Patrick

Link to comment
chicagoreef

Search for an old thread of mine - based on metrokat's enthusiasm I purchased the gulfliverock nano package. I posted unboxing photos as well as photos of all the rocks they sent. Yeah, photos of rocks! Thumbs up!

 

Oh! 10 gallons of rock seems like a lot for an edge, especially with its small opening and challenges of sticking your hand inside to do stuff

Link to comment
MOJOEJOEJOE

I think in his add he says specify size. S M L XL. I requested medium and it said 4-5 pieces fist to double fist size. I think I will buy it on monday

Link to comment
MOJOEJOEJOE

 

Good point Chicago. Also, I requested certain shapes and nano sized rocks from Dan for smaller spaces.

Well I think I'm buying the 10lb lot. I'm thinking small because the add says 5-8 fist to double fist size. I hope I get some with lots of life

Link to comment
MOJOEJOEJOE

Probably a real dumb question but will light intensity have any effect on my cycle? I plan on doing a soft cure of the rock in my tank. Nothing in there yet.

Link to comment

your rock has tons of life on it. Some possibilities: Corals, macros, sponges, tunicates, sea rods. You should keep the light on.



Intensity is not important right now till the rock is cured, but it can't be ambient room light.

Link to comment
MOJOEJOEJOE

Well I have a couple days to finish my light fixture. It's coming along well but I need to finish my timer. I feel like a kid at Christmas right now. I can't wait to get my rock lol

Link to comment

My most recent shipment had 2 mantis shrimp. I managed to catch one and shipped him to a reefer. The other is at large but probably killed by the enormous pistol that lives in my fuge. The rock was for my fuge and to replenish the bacterial profile in my 2 yr old tank.

Link to comment
MOJOEJOEJOE

Im not sure if the shipment will be in this week. It shows as being shipped but the tracking information only says "electronic invoice received". I have e-mailed him a couple times because the weather here is getting a bit on the cold side and I want someone to be home. I have not heard back from him. If the shipping status does not change today then chances are it wont be here this week. Sort of dissapointing because I paid on Saturday in hopes of having it here by today.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions


×
×
  • Create New...