KPA vs TBS vs GLO?

[JMH13]

I am returning to the reef tank game after a 15 year hiatus!  I love the concept of live rock diversity but I really don't want the "bad guy" hitchhikers and algae problems. I still want to grow some SPS on the rock and I wonder about the concerns of this "diversity" or detrimental creatures inhibiting the health of SPS frags or other cool stuff.  I am not looking to house many fish in my nano and I really only want a couple clowns with interesting inverts and corals.  

 

Here are my inexperienced thoughts for you guys/gals to ponder....

 

Is there any live rock source that might be better for a 10g NANO like this?  

Is "The Package" from TBS as awesome as the enthusiastic posters say it is?

Is the KPA rock only gorgeous out of the box and really not hold its color in the tank?

Is true "farmed" or "aquaculture" live rock almost TOO diverse for the display SPS corals to flourish? 

If I am starting the tank from scratch should I "cure" the LR in the tank under typical lighting?

What about a high salinity dip to decrease the critter density in this kind of rock and make it "safer"?

 

Thanks for everyone's opinions...I LOVE this forum!!!

 

JMH13

[Tamberav]

Gulf live rock: dense, lots of hitchhiker corals, macroalgae, nems, bivalves - some don't make it shipping

KPA: great shapes, shape that represents dry rock. Less hitchikers, lots of crabs, starfish, worms, maybe some pistol shrimp or mantis shrimp - some don't make it in shipping

TBS: shipped in water so lots of life, almost everything survives including the crabs and such... live sponges, many of which die off eventually in our tanks. Some get live fish.

 

I have some gulf rock in my DT, I bought it to seed some interesting things and it had corals on them. 

 

I don't know what you mean by too diverse? Generally SPS does better with a diverse bacterial fauna unless you mean the hitchiker macro/corals/nems may take up real estate or sting sps.

 

I used KPA in my 5g pico which is mostly SPS but in its infancy. Very happy with my purchase. I cycled it mostly in a tub without light and 100% water changes as ammonia was as high as 8 at times. Lots of dead crabs and starfish in shipping. It was just easier to cycle it this way and shake it clean then have it in a small glass tank.

 

I did not do the salinity dip. The only crabs I found (all dead) were algae eaters. I found one dead pistol and a few dead large starfish. Lots of live worms, sponges and tunicates and such. I never saw anything I would consider 'bad'. 

 

I had a normal algae bloom of wispy gha at the end of the cycle, added some snails and a captive bred rainfords goby and they ate it all up. No issues since. 

 

The KPA rock will die back without light as coralline algae is photosynthetic and some of the sponges will die back too. Then the color slowly returns as it matures but likely not as vibrant as our systems are closed systems and there are many things we simply can not replicate.

 

 

If you want clean hitchhiker free rock in pretty colors, you are better off with stuff like Life rock dry. If you want to try and bring the diverse wild microbiom of the ocean to your tank, then live rock is the ultimate choice.

[JMH13]

Thanks for the reply, Tamberav!  As for the "too diverse" concern, you are correct - I was worried about competitive organisms and hitchhikers that might threaten the corals.  Your advice is awesome...

[mcarroll]

On 5/7/2020 at 8:25 PM, JMH13 said:

Is true "farmed" or "aquaculture" live rock almost TOO diverse for the display SPS corals to flourish? 

One of us isn't understanding the object of the game.  😉   As far as I know, our object is to recreate a tiny slice of reef in a fish tank.  Buying live rock, as you are, is a direct way of doing that.  Ideas you have for after the live rock gets here are secondary and amount to how you're going to alter that reef – not whether you'll have one.   Therefore your goal is to preserve everything you get sent, as much as possible.  The only thing you're interested in removing from he system is an organism that you cannot support.  You can't predict that you'll have anything that fits that description, so give yourself at least a few months to get used to your live rock and it's endemic inhabitants before you proceed with much of your own plans for stocking.  The excpetion is if the rock comes with coral or algae that you need to light up immediately....in that case you will want to add at least some herbivorous snails that can keep up with algae growth...just don't over do it, and don't add many (or any) scavengers yet.

 

Forget the rest of those ideas you mentioned.  Don't get caught up in the phobia of hitchhikers.  👍

[AquaVaj]

If I'm not mistaken since TBS ships with water they only ship through air freight so you'll need to be close to an airport. KPA has that option and overnight as well. Overnight however will not be with water and only wrapped in wet paper. Curing will be necessary and you can do that separately or in the tank. You should probably get some light on them to reduce the amount of color and coraline loss.