• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Natural Live Rock?? New Jersey

Bigpapa

Wonderpus
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Aug 3, 2007
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Alright, this may just be for any New Jersey people on here but maybe not. I just went to the LFS and paid 6 bucks a lb for cured live rock. I live fairly close to the Jersey shore and wondered if it is even legal to just grab some from there? I know I would still have to cure it but this seems to be a much cheaper way as well as a nice day trip to make. Thanks!!
 
Its not legal. The fine is like 10,000. If you are getting it at the beach it will pollute your tank. Inshore waters are full of runoff. We grow our live rock in 30 to 50 feet of water 15 miles out in the gulf. I can hook you up with some of the best rock around for $3 a pound. It will be way better than getting it at the beach and better than getting ripped off at that LFS.
 
Cool, thanks for the info both of you! I am looking to get about another 45lbs for my tank I guess- that will put me at about a pound per gallon if that is the correct amount.
 
The real point of good live rock is biodiversity. There's dozens of genera of creatures that will come in on the rock, call your tank home and be happy to eat all the poop of all the other creatures. You get all that by taking rocks directly from the real coral reefs and shipping them to your pet store. Now take the Jersey shore--there's some biodiversity there, but what beneficial creatures are really going to come into your tank via a rock from the beach?

Of New Jersey, George Carlin once said it is indeed the Garden State, that is, if you're growing smokestacks. Not to pick on New Jersey, but everywhere on the eastern seaboard factories, powerplants and refineries are dumping nasty particulates into the air. When it rains all of these are stripped down into rivers and out into the sea. Let's not forget sewage--Every week here in Rhode Island the paper prints a map of where the poo line is in the bay. Everywhere north of that line you don't want to be collecting clams to eat!

Not to say that there's anything wrong with collecting local crabs to feed your critter, but I'd say after all the heartache we go through to mix our salt with ultra-pure water, it doesn't make a lot of sense to grab rocks from one of the most polluted places in the world: the continental shelf!

Dan
 
Thanks, I just sent an email now--BTW, the octo I will be looking for is a Bimac around the end of Sept or Oct. I think I saw on one of these threads that you may have access to them, could you let me know about that too?


Rob
 

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