pusherofcarts Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Hi All - I have been out of the hobby for about 10 years and it seems in my absence the availability of live rock has significantly decreased. What are the most reliable options for obtaining live rock these days? Would prefer natural live rock, not aquacultured. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 There really hasn't been live rock for sale lately. You'll have to ask around at your LFS's and watch craigslist for folks unloading their used live rock. Otherwise there are some excellent aquacultured options if you can see your way to using it. 👍 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Tampa Bay Saltwater has great stuff. You can either get a large amount shipped by freight to pick up at your airport, or a small amount shipped direct to your door. KP Aquatics sometimes has direct shipped rock available, and I believe gulfliverock.com still exists? Quote Link to comment
pusherofcarts Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 Any thoughts on places offering Australian live rock? Examples are Pristine Marine Aquariums or The Coral Farm. Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Never heard of Australia condoning live rock collection...wonder how this came to happen? Never heard of those site either, for what that's worth. 🤷♂️ $25/lb. with a 10 pound minimum. 😬 Definitely let us know if you try it! Interesting find if it's good. I still wonder why you would elect for this vs cultured domestic rock, especially considering the cost. Aren't they functionally the same? TBsaltwater actually ships bagged in water, not just wet....seems likely that it would give it an edge up on what critters you get with the rock. (Assuming you'd use dry rock if you didn't care about that.) Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Yeah, I would go with the Gulf rock. I know there was one reputable place offering small amounts of Australian rock a year or so ago, something about pieces that got knocked loose by storms that they were allowed to import, and I did get a couple chunks of that. Good rock, but I don't know that I'd suggest trying to stock an entire tank with it, and you'll definitely get more life on stuff shipped to you in water. Heck, TBS rock sometimes comes with fish! 1 Quote Link to comment
Subsea Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Gulf Live Rock also located out of Tampa Bay, sells live rock & live sand. I prefer shipment damp and not shipped in water. https://gulfliverock.com/premium-deco-live-rock 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Oh yeah, I did also get some from there once. Amazing variety of life, including several large turkey wing clams and a few small filter-feeding sea cucumbers, but that variety unfortunately included about a dozen cirolanid isopods. (which I should note are possible on any Gulf rock.) Ridiculously good rock that kept that variety of life alive in a bucket with indirect sunlight, an air bubbler, and no food for a couple months due to unrelated circumstances. Quote Link to comment
InAtTheDeepEnd Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 holyshit it's wild to me as a non US reefer you guys have places selling literal ocean rock 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Hey, it's good stuff! It's also fine for the ocean. This rock is 'made' by mining up dead, fossilized coral rock, and dumping it out on the sandbed for a few years. Larvae that would otherwise land on the sandbed and die for lack of anywhere to settle land on the rock and take up residence, turning the place into a reef. It won't ever get as dense and richly packed as an unbothered reef will, not with people harvesting it, but it benefits the local ecosystem regardless- and I know TBS leaves a patch of their area as undisturbed reef to help seed everything. Is this not a thing done anywhere else? Having the Gulf attached to our country probably does help with the growing of live rock, but it sure ain't the only patch of ocean where you could do something like this. Quote Link to comment
InAtTheDeepEnd Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 18 minutes ago, Tired said: Hey, it's good stuff! It's also fine for the ocean. This rock is 'made' by mining up dead, fossilized coral rock, and dumping it out on the sandbed for a few years. Larvae that would otherwise land on the sandbed and die for lack of anywhere to settle land on the rock and take up residence, turning the place into a reef. It won't ever get as dense and richly packed as an unbothered reef will, not with people harvesting it, but it benefits the local ecosystem regardless- and I know TBS leaves a patch of their area as undisturbed reef to help seed everything. Is this not a thing done anywhere else? Having the Gulf attached to our country probably does help with the growing of live rock, but it sure ain't the only patch of ocean where you could do something like this. IDK in my LFS job the high-ups were pretty smug about their maricultured java rock being better for the ocean; it was kept in barrels at 1.025sg but in principle wasn't live and had to be cycled and went through pretty epic uglies. MInd you they talked a lot of bullshit so it wouldn't surprise me if that was BS too Quote Link to comment
GunslingerGirl Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Mail order option weigh ins: Well I just ordered "normal" live rock from KP aquatics and let me tell you the number of pistol shrimp and crabs I have got on my hands is nuts. I am also ordering from TBS - the "premium" variety to be shipped in a few weeks. But I have used Gulf before (like 10 years ago) and got a lovely rose coral that I miss dearly. So I think it depends on how "pretty" you want it to be from the get go and how invested you are in a soft cycle. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 On 1/24/2024 at 8:51 AM, InAtTheDeepEnd said: IDK in my LFS job the high-ups were pretty smug about their maricultured java rock being better for the ocean; it was kept in barrels at 1.025sg but in principle wasn't live and had to be cycled and went through pretty epic uglies. MInd you they talked a lot of bullshit so it wouldn't surprise me if that was BS too I wouldn't call that maricultured. That's just dry rock they got wet. Dry rock is better for the environment than rock made by chopping up natural reefs, which, if we give them the benefit of the doubt, might be what they were thinking of. There is, however, an argument that live rock made by dumping dry rock in the ocean for a bit is better for the environment than just using the dry rock, since it involves the creation of a small reef. It also gives whoever's doing the rock harvesting a good way to observe local trends, and to potentially spot if something strange (coral death, invasive species, etc) shows up. Quote Link to comment
InAtTheDeepEnd Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 6 minutes ago, Tired said: I wouldn't call that maricultured. That's just dry rock they got wet. Dry rock is better for the environment than rock made by chopping up natural reefs, which, if we give them the benefit of the doubt, might be what they were thinking of. There is, however, an argument that live rock made by dumping dry rock in the ocean for a bit is better for the environment than just using the dry rock, since it involves the creation of a small reef. It also gives whoever's doing the rock harvesting a good way to observe local trends, and to potentially spot if something strange (coral death, invasive species, etc) shows up. I know. They called it maricultured though 😒 talked the talk on helping conservation but didn't walk the walk and probably supported a lot of practices that did more harm than good. Stupid bloody organisation Quote Link to comment
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