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Live Rock, the hidden truths


metrokat

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RayWhisperer

Not really fake, but also not really real. It's mined or quarried rock put out in the ocean to get "seeded". Some places do the same with the "man made" rock, too.

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Not really fake, but also not really real. It's mined or quarried rock put out in the ocean to get "seeded". Some places do the same with the "man made" rock, too.

 

That explains the different densities and porousness I found between different vendors of Florida rock. Thanks for posting the info.

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Not really fake per se. It is, afterall, a bit of rock with ocean life on it. I'd say it is more of an equivocation by the seller which is assisted by the assumptions of the end user. That being said, they should advertise it as aqua cultured and not let the buyer assume it is natural rock harvested from the ocean. With that, I applaud the companies who are using aquaculture and those who have taken to building 'artificial' reefs for the purpose of conservation.

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Not really fake.. its rock with life all over it. They should advertise it as aqua cultured and not let the buyer assume it is natural rock harvested from the ocean. That being said, I am applaud the companies who are using aquaculture and those who have taken to building 'artificial' reefs for the purpose of conservation.

 

agreed.

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LFS BSing you much???

 

Heres what you do

 

1. Take the rocks put them in a big tub

2. Add tap water

3. Go to garden shed and get snail killer and fertilizer crystals

4. Add ingredients to the water

5. Let rocks sit and absorb the ingredients

6. Remove rocks and insert them into a waterproof bag

7. Take bag to said LFS and dump that sheet into their display tank

8. Walk out the door flashing 2 birds behind you

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LFS BSing you much???

 

Heres what you do

 

1. Take the rocks put them in a big tub

2. Add tap water

3. Go to garden shed and get snail killer and fertilizer crystals

4. Add ingredients to the water

5. Let rocks sit and absorb the ingredients

6. Remove rocks and insert them into a waterproof bag

7. Take bag to said LFS and dump that sheet into their display tank

8. Walk out the door flashing 2 birds behind you

 

 

ROFL

How do you come up with these things!

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BLoCkCliMbeR

"this is premium{insert name here} live rock that was aquacultured for (XX) years. its (XX) dollars for every year it was in (such and such) ocean."

 

i cant wait till this pays for my condo

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Generally, All Gulf rock is man made also as well as most live rock in general. The Gulf rock is fine and all my tanks are a combo of marco rocks and gulf rocks. Most gulf rock is of decent quality for a reasonable price. Marco rocks are very spongy in shape with large holes and craters throughout. That also makes it lighter so you get more for your money and this already has a very good price. Gulf rock to seed this.

 

The most important part that I wanted to mention is that if this is going into a tank that is already established. (I just realized how old this post is) Gulf Rock never fails me on bringing in a few parasitic isopods. This could be good for you to know in the future. I keep my rock in a QT tank for curing anyway.

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Deleted User 6

FL live rock is all good until all those species of algae that you couldn't see when it arrived start exploding all over the place. It's like having 20 time bombs in your tank that go off every couple months for a few years.

 

I'll never use anything but dry rock again.

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BLoCkCliMbeR

-_-

 

sometimes ill try to buy that random "off" piece they have in some fish or coral holding tank.

 

it might cost more, but usually its a decent buy...if im feeling extra bold ill haggle with them

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Should have just gone with reefcleaners.org or marco rocks. Way cheaper and easy to seed. Besides in a few months it would be coraline covered.

 

Have you seen my rocks? :) check my build.

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Any pictures of this painted rock? I'm not sure I've ever seen rock that's been painted purple (or at least been aware of it).

 

I'm definitely a base rock person myself. My tank is made up almost entirely of base rock (with the exception of two ~softball sized pieces of live rock) and if I start a second tank in the future, I'm sure I'll be going all base rock as well. I just like having that control over what goes in the tank and avoiding scary, unwelcome hitchhikers. The base rocks in my tank are now very well peppered in coraline anyway!

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Its usually concrete with purple coloring added.

 

And DHaut is right. Live rock is way over rated.

 

Buy dry rock, do a 15 minute 1/3 muriatic acid (pool acid) to 2/3 RODI water mix followed by a good rinsing and soaking on RODI water so that you burn the PO4 and every other living thing that survived drying out and is dormant right off the rocks.

 

Then put them in a grey (food grade and found at your big box store for about $20ish) Brute trash can full of salt water, a power head, ammonia source, and heater for a couple of weeks and cure it yourself. Much cheaper and much safer.

 

If you REALLY have to have coppapods et al in the tank go get a bottle of tiger copapods and add them yourself after you cycle.

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RayWhisperer

All well and good. However, I believe Tiggerpods are a temperate species. Prolly won't do too well in a tropical reef environment.

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