• 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.

"Real Reef" Live Rock

Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Messages
294
Location
Upstate NY, USA
Do any of you nice folks have any opinions on this stuff?

http://www.aquariumcreationsonline.net/RealReefLiveRock.html

It's priced similarly on other sites, such as Liveaquaria as well. I really like the idea of using environmentally friendly, non-reef artificial rock, but since I'll probably be relying on live rock for the bulk of my filtration needs, I want to make sure it'd be as effective. Thoughts?
 
Others may be a better coach on this since I have never used it. I always use farmed rock (dead rock from the land that is placed in the ocean for a couple of years in isolated, licensed patches 1 mile (or more) off shore) and have never tried the DIY stuff. It is almost always made from cement and one bad experience using cement on a spillway for an outdoor freshwater pond makes me shy away from it in a confined space. It CAN be aquarium safe but it leaches an acid for quite some time and I simple don't trust it.
 
farmed rock (dead rock from the land that is placed in the ocean for a couple of years in isolated, licensed patches 1 mile (or more) off shore)
How interesting. What is the general cost for this? Not being a tank owner, I never really thought about how disruptive it would be to pluck natural live rock from the ocean.... Although i guess after a couple of years farmed rock would be missed by ocean-dwellers, too! But at least we put it there to begin with :cool2:
 
Live rock is one of the most expensive purchase for starting up a saltwater aquarium. Much of the expense is the shipping as it needs to be shipped overnight for the best quality.

Florida (IMO) did it right. Ocean live rock was becoming a profitable business but the increase in the saltwater aquarium hobby was going to have a negative impact on the already declining reefs. By this time it was found that ocean cultured porous land rock was a valid replacement item and, over a 10 year period, FL reduced the commercial licensing, encouraged farming (the rental for the ocean floor is very cheap, finding a place 1 mile or more out with no existing coral is the difficult part) and eventually made all live rock take (including for person use) illegal. Anything growing on or coming from within the farmed rock is legal for the farmer to sell (it gets a bit sticky on the two CITIES endangered species but, everything else is fair game). Ken's farm has been partially converted to a coral nursery for transplanting to the decimated reefs but the rock is still farmed for commercial use. KP Aquatics - his daughter and son-in-law - now run his fish business and use the farm for both animals and rock.
 
Florida here, I have to see if i can dig through my email and find it but when i set up my first tank i found a local guy who aquacultered LR and it was all great quality. If your looking for sustainable LR its the way to go.
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top