ARC "Atlantic Reef Conservation" Live Rock

[CaptJab]

Do any of you have experience with this rock? The rock is mined on land and left in the Atlantic for 2 years or more for the premium rock, 1-2 years for basic rock.

They claim to have lower phosphate and nitrate levels than true live rock. I wonder how their pest are, more or less than Fiji or other natural live rock, also does it filter as good as true live rock.

[RayWhisperer]

With that particular company? No, I have no experience.

However, I've had Florida live rock before.

It's gonna have a lot more hitchhikers, some good, some bad. It'll filter as good as any other live rock.

[CaptJab]

Did you have Florida live rock from the Gulf or Atlantic?

[ajmckay]

So if I'm understanding you correctly this would be classified as "uncured" live rock. So it will likely have many hitch hikers, some good and some bad. It will likely be difficult to go through all of them so you will have to deal with them as they're discovered.

 

I can't really comment on phosphate levels but no rock that I'm aware of is completely free of phosphate... I'm not aware of any other types of LR that make such a claim other than possibly reefcleaners which is supposed to go through a phosphate reducing process.

[RayWhisperer]

Did you have Florida live rock from the Gulf or Atlantic?

It was Gulf rock.

So if I'm understanding you correctly this would be classified as "uncured" live rock. So it will likely have many hitch hikers, some good and some bad. It will likely be difficult to go through all of them so you will have to deal with them as they're discovered.

 

I can't really comment on phosphate levels but no rock that I'm aware of is completely free of phosphate... I'm not aware of any other types of LR that make such a claim other than possibly reefcleaners which is supposed to go through a phosphate reducing process.

I'm not sure what John does to rock to reduce phosphates... Perhaps he just cleans the crap out of them?

[CaptJab]

Here is what it says on the site.

 

 

"Lab analysis shows that our Live Rock contains less than half the phosphates contained within Fiji Live Rock and nearly 400% less than Pukani Live Rock."

 

I found some great reviews on it and they claim its 100% Apastia free.

 

I'm not sure the phosphate claim is accurate or not, but I believe I'm going to give it a try.

[ajmckay]

Still somewhat confused by their product claims...

 

So they take it straight from the ocean and move it to staging tanks - then ship it to you. Sounds good so far...

 

But no curing and no aiptasia? The rocks they show on their site look like fully cured live rock. Rock that's come right from the ocean will have all sorts of algae, sponge, and other stuff on it. Sort of like this.

 

If you're expecting rock like in their picture I would call that fully cured rock - normally you pay a premium for that kind of rock. Know that it may come to you looking more like the link above (which matches their description of having sponges, algaes, and corallites on it). I'm not sure how they can guarantee no aiptasia or other pest so I would expect a multitude of good and/or bad hitchhikers if it truly is straight from the ocean.

 

Either way though, their site looks fairly well put together and they say their rock is guaranteed satisfaction. Also prices seem decent.

 

Good luck with the order - let us know how it turned out.

[CaptJab]

I plan on doing the normal cure for it or maybe a soft cure.

I'll also inspect it the best I can during the curing. I can't see how it could be shipped without lots of sponge die off.

[devaji108]

did you go of this rock? got pic?

[StinkyBunny]

ANYTHING, let me repeat that again, ANYTHING is better than Pukani rock. That stuff is loaded with phosphates. I don't know why that is, the same shape/sort of rock out of Indo is perfect. I have used the cultured rock out of the Gulf as well, it's nice stuff, but you WILL get hitch hikers.

[AMEE]

I did a bunch of research on rock also. I went with the reefcleaners rock. Reviews are the best I've seen of any company in and out of the reef community. My tank is not running yet but I don't expect any problems from the rock. It's super cleans and very porous.

[CaptJab]

did you go of this rock? got pic?

 

I just placed my order on Tuesday 12/6. I'll post once the rock arrives.

[CaptJab]

Rock came in and looked great. I did have a little die off and I'm doing a soft cure on it. Found a couple of pistol shrimp, 2 porcelain crabs, and a few bristle worms.

[devaji108]

any updates?

[CaptJab]

I've been very happy with it so far. There are a few macro algaes on it that are nice.

One rock has some hair algae on it, but I blame it on being a new tank more than the rock.

[stinabee]

I've been wanting to start a reef tank for awhile, now have the funds and time to do it. i purchased a Fluval Reef M40 tank setup. I ordered 9 lbs of dry base rock and 6lbs of live rock from ARC (3 premium and 3 regular). I like the idea of their conservation efforts and felt it was good way to start my tank. Not sure when it will ship, I just ordered 1/30/17 Tuesday. I live in MN, and its going to be a bit colder next week, so I may hold off another week. I'm really excited to get my tank started. Captjab do you have any pictures?

[jesseatam]

Is there a huge difference between the premium and regular? I'm starting a tank up myself and was thinking about ordering from them.

[CaptJab]

I ordered both and I can't tell a difference. One piece has had some algae issues and maybe it is the younger rock.

[stinabee]

Mine were in transit for almost 4 days. There was a lot of die off. One has a little more color. There were not any live critters at all that I could tell. I can tell that the color is coming back that was lost, it's been 4 days. I have a long way to go.

[Weetabix7]

Being in transit that long makes a HUGE difference in the die off.

[stinabee]

I live in MN, unless I paid an arm and a leg for shipping, not going to get much better. It shipped Tuesday, made it to MN on Thursday. I picked it up at a FedEx store Friday, but couldn't do anything with it until later that night. The color seems to be fading more. It has some fuzziness to it now from the stress. I'm going to give it a few weeks for it to cycle. if it doesn't start looking better in a month, I can always ship back the live rock and ask for new pieces. I'm doing water changes every few days, when I see the ammonia levels go up. Keeping the light off to keep algae growth from happening. Here is a pic from the first day. It is more muted now.

[jesseatam]

just ordered 20 lbs of normal and 10 premium for my 30 I'll be sure to post how it goes, hopefully not too many nasty hitchhikers 

[stinabee]

My rock has faded and color is very scarce. Looking grey and green. I've read that this is the coralline coming back. Crossing my fingers, and waiting patiently....because I have no choice. ? ? 

[jesseatam]

Just got my rock today, not super sure the difference between the premium and the not premium just by looking at it although one had quite a few sponges but i probably should've gone with all premium. Life wise one rock seemed to have quite a few bristle worms, found a half dead spaghetti worm, some brittle stars, some sort of snail and what appeared to be a dead pistol shrimp (not super sure as it was pretty disfigured). With 30 lbs I got 6 pieces of rock, 2 are quite big, 2 reasonably sized, 1 small, and 1 mediocre. Not super sure how I feel  about the shapes but i haven't had a whole lot of time to try to mess with the scape.

[stinabee]

So 4 months in and little to no color. Small dots of coralline scattered on the rock, I emailed ARC and they are sending me new rock. They said I could keep what I have, not that I can really use it. I have a 14gal tank, not a lot of room. I will post pics of the new rock in a few days.