Wtb Tampa bay live rock

[ndrwater]

Question for everyone watching this thread, does everyone know the difference between rock? Cured? Cooked and cleaned? Ocean vs cultured? Dry? What does fresh live rock mean?
Because there are huge differences between them and not all rock is the same.

This is really a good question...
I hear the term "live rock" all the time followed by other terms like "dry" "was" etc... Cultured rock is completely different from what back in the day was actual "live rock".
Real Reef, Marco, or even whatever Walt Smith was selling, concrete he threw in the ocean for a few days, isnt Live Rock... Thats something you get out of the ocean rather quickly. Tampa Rock is kind of the only think I can think of commercially available that might fit the bill.
Anything coming on a boat from wherever might qualify, but not really...
Pukani, Marshal Island, Fiji or Tongan (you're welcome) was the real deal.. here in the states for sale within 36 hours of being pulled from the reef ..
This isn't a knock on anything available, but it IS important to understand the difference when buying anything other than from another reefer who has had it in their tank for a long time...

 

[drexel]

This is really a good question...
I hear the term "live rock" all the time followed by other terms like "dry" "was" etc... Cultured rock is completely different from what back in the day was actual "live rock".
Real Reef, Marco, or even whatever Walt Smith was selling, concrete he threw in the ocean for a few days, isnt Live Rock... Thats something you get out of the ocean rather quickly. Tampa Rock is kind of the only think I can think of commercially available that might fit the bill.
Anything coming on a boat from wherever might qualify, but not really...
Pukani, Marshal Island, Fiji or Tongan (you're welcome) was the real deal.. here in the states for sale within 36 hours of being pulled from the reef ..
This isn't a knock on anything available, but it IS important to understand the difference when buying anything other than from another reefer who has had it in their tank for a long time...

Agree, I think there are a lot of misconceptions about rock in general and I’m going to try and put together a thread/article explaining the differences. @joseserrano

 

[drexel]

Oops, I meant to hit return and not post , anyway. With the encouragement from @joseserrano i think I’m going to put together a thread on live rock that hopefully benefits the new reefers who have never encountered real ocean live rock. Lmk what everyone thinks, if this is something that we want to discuss and learn more about?

 

[Sold4JC]

Oops, I meant to hit return and not post , anyway. With the encouragement from @joseserrano i think I’m going to put together a thread on live rock that hopefully benefits the new reefers who have never encountered real ocean live rock. Lmk what everyone thinks, if this is something that we want to discuss and learn more about?

A live rock thread would be a benefit. It would be beneficial if we could offer rubble or seed rock to help reefers with a new tank. I miss the days of picking up a box filled with wet newspaper and live rock. If you know you know.

 

[drexel]

Cool, I'll start putting together a thread about live rock with basic information and helpful tips on the curing, cooking/seeding, cleaning and cycling processes.

 

[anthonys_aqua]

Question for everyone watching this thread, does everyone know the difference between rock? Cured? Cooked and cleaned? Ocean vs cultured? Dry? What does fresh live rock mean?
Because there are huge differences between them and not all rock is the same.

From my understanding is that cured rock is live rock after a shipment that you let sit and cycle in a sense due to any die off during shipment.

Cooked, I would just assume some rocks that you got seeded from somebody elses tank for sometime to let bacteria grow.

Ocean, I would think you're talking about more direct live rock from ausi, fiji, etc where most of the corals are from
Cultured, more like TB sw and KP aquatics where its left in a local site in florida to get seeded with ocean bacteria but not necessarily reef bacteria

 

[drexel]

From my understanding is that cured rock is live rock after a shipment that you let sit and cycle in a sense due to any die off during shipment.

Cooked, I would just assume some rocks that you got seeded from somebody elses tank for sometime to let bacteria grow.

Ocean, I would think you're talking about more direct live rock from ausi, fiji, etc where most of the corals are from
Cultured, more like TB sw and KP aquatics where its left in a local site in florida to get seeded with ocean bacteria but not necessarily reef bacteria

Cooked is actually part of the cleaning process or removal of organics, either from dry rock or old rock that's covered in unwanted organic material or completely loaded down of PO4. Acid wash and/or bleaching is involved. Once it's "cooked" it can be seeded with cured, mature live rock.
Have you seen dry rock that's placed in a tank, only to be covered in GHA or other algae in just a few weeks? This is from not removing the organics and allowing enough time to fully seed, which fuel the algae outbreak. Which is another reason why dry rock is the wrong kind of rock for beginners, but this part of a bigger discussion we'll have in another upcoming thread.

 

[anthonys_aqua]

Cooked is actually part of the cleaning process or removal of organics, either from dry rock or old rock that's covered in unwanted organic material or completely loaded down of PO4. Acid wash and/or bleaching is involved. Once it's "cooked" it can be seeded with cured, mature live rock.
Have you seen dry rock that's placed in a tank, only to be covered in GHA or other algae in just a few weeks? This is from not removing the organics and allowing enough time to fully seed, which fuel the algae outbreak. Which is another reason why dry rock is the wrong kind of rock for beginners, but this part of a bigger discussion we'll have in another upcoming thread.

I was always told new dry rock has po4 but didn’t know why? I wouldn’t think so cause it’s new so no organics on it, I assume it’s just from it being new and absorbing up alll the po4 plus no biodiversity of bacteria to process it.

I only see the use of acid/ bleach curing on old rocks due to all the dead stuff hiding in all the crevices, from my research it said that bleach only removed the organics but acid removes organics and po4 cause it removes a thin layer of the rock.

 

[joseserrano]

I was always told new dry rock has po4 but didn’t know why? I wouldn’t think so cause it’s new so no organics on it, I assume it’s just from it being new and absorbing up alll the po4 plus no biodiversity of bacteria to process it.

I only see the use of acid/ bleach curing on old rocks due to all the dead stuff hiding in all the crevices, from my research it said that bleach only removed the organics but acid removes organics and po4 cause it removes a thin layer of the rock.

Dry rock (assuming it’s Marco you are primarily referring to), is kind of a byproduct of digging up land in Florida. So this could and likely is under ppls property that had some kind of vegetation which the rock may have absorbed what makes plants grow over time in them. I was told that original marco rock was from old mango fields, which were fertilized and ….

 

[drexel]

I was always told new dry rock has po4 but didn’t know why? I wouldn’t think so cause it’s new so no organics on it, I assume it’s just from it being new and absorbing up alll the po4 plus no biodiversity of bacteria to process it.

I only see the use of acid/ bleach curing on old rocks due to all the dead stuff hiding in all the crevices, from my research it said that bleach only removed the organics but acid removes organics and po4 cause it removes a thin layer of the rock.

Bleach will remove organics, it just takes time. Acid wash takes off the outer layer and you only wash it for 30 minutes max, otherwise it turns to mush. Sometimes it takes two bleach cycles to clean the rock, it just depends. I assume all dry rock is loaded and treat it the same. The one time I didn't, it created a mess and I had to remove the rock. The only dry rock you probably don't have to bleach is the reef ready rock or those types that are man made and look like they're covered in coralline.

 

[anthonys_aqua]

Bleach will remove organics, it just takes time. Acid wash takes off the outer layer and you only wash it for 30 minutes max, otherwise it turns to mush. Sometimes it takes two bleach cycles to clean the rock, it just depends. I assume all dry rock is loaded and treat it the same. The one time I didn't, it created a mess and I had to remove the rock. The only dry rock you probably don't have to bleach is the reef ready rock or those types that are man made and look like they're covered in coralline.

Yeah my friends tank is using real reef rock and hasnt really had issues, tanks been going on about 2 months and starting to get coraline. only thing we noticed is nitrates isnt rising