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livinlifeinBKK
5000 Club Member
Doesn't sound like anything too bad at all...
100% Honest Question. Where do you Source Your Live Rock From and Did it Have Significant Numbers of Hitchhikers?
- Thread starter livinlifeinBKK
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Blue Cheese
Active Member
Gulf live rock,100 lbs,picked up wet from air port,left in bin for a few months checked daily for bad hitchhikers,got a few whelks a few anemones that I removed in caution,a lot of cucumbers,a lot of good stuff,if I had to do it over again I would of used a stinky shrimp bottle trap to catch an isopod that my filter sock got,only saw the 1
Lbrdsoxfan
5000 Club Member
I used to order live rock on eBay, lol. That worked to the mid-late 2000's. Had to pick it up @ the cargo facility at LAX. Usually 48-72 hours out of water wrapped in the countries newspaper of the day.
Usually Guam, Fiji, Tonga or Samoa. Hell I wasn't paying much attention to die off, I was still using conditioned tap for tank water back then. If I knew them what I knew now...
In the grand scheme, I'm watching this thread, I'm teetering on placing a minimum order with someone that's US based for some seed rock.
So I’ve ordered from KP and it was roughly $9-$10/lb. Not too many bad hitchhikers that couldn’t be promptly handled.
I haven’t ordered any, but last I checked Unique Corals was selling Australian for $25-$30/lb
It’d be nice if we had a vendor that could import rock from outside the US (other than Australian) like back in the old days when Premium Aquatics had the variety. The issue would be getting more than just hobbyists to order due to costs
I haven’t ordered any, but last I checked Unique Corals was selling Australian for $25-$30/lb
It’d be nice if we had a vendor that could import rock from outside the US (other than Australian) like back in the old days when Premium Aquatics had the variety. The issue would be getting more than just hobbyists to order due to costs
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livinlifeinBKK
5000 Club Member
True...the KP isn't so bad bit $25-30 lb is kinda crazy (well the only reason it seems crazy to me is because I don't have to pay anywhere close to that for similar quality)...well...still a little crazy at that price...
GarrettT
Well-Known Member
KP Aquatics and I had a TON of gorilla crabs. I ordered about 20lbs and counted at least 10. Mine came with byropsis and loads of turf algae.
Well worth it and plan to order some more, but no way would I just place it in my display without extreme observation from a holding tank first.
Well worth it and plan to order some more, but no way would I just place it in my display without extreme observation from a holding tank first.
I've ordered rock from KP Aquatics and Tampa Bay Salt Water. Hitch hikers have not been an issue.
I use KPA and gulf live rocks. Lots of hitchhikers. None particularly bad. A few bad crabs but crabs are so easy to catch. Put some food in a glass up against the rock and they fall in and can’t get out. If you get a mantis then it will eat the crabs for you lol then just need to catch the mantis which is a little harder 
The really bad hitchhikers always seem to came from coral frags.
The really bad hitchhikers always seem to came from coral frags.
Recent reef rock 2.0 by Walt Smith, sold by liverocknreef.com
It’s in the brute waiting for tank and stand, very minor cure. I’ll comment more on hitchhikers when it’s in-display, I haven’t seen much of it besides unboxing. I’ve had good luck back in the day with Bill and buna rock, and he was easy to work with on this Walt Smith order. 98 lbs.
It’s in the brute waiting for tank and stand, very minor cure. I’ll comment more on hitchhikers when it’s in-display, I haven’t seen much of it besides unboxing. I’ve had good luck back in the day with Bill and buna rock, and he was easy to work with on this Walt Smith order. 98 lbs.
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Sonatine
Community Member
My experience is extremely limited but I'll share it anyway. I bought one live rock; it was a fiji live rock, kept in a large bucket at my LFS.
It honestly just looked like a slightly darker marco rock (I didn't really know what to look for, still don't, so I picked a shape I liked). I thought I'd been tricked about how "live" it was until it turned pink with coralline algae a few weeks later while the dry rock was still bare. The coralline appears to be the only thing it's brought to the tank, aside from anything microscopic.
It honestly just looked like a slightly darker marco rock (I didn't really know what to look for, still don't, so I picked a shape I liked). I thought I'd been tricked about how "live" it was until it turned pink with coralline algae a few weeks later while the dry rock was still bare. The coralline appears to be the only thing it's brought to the tank, aside from anything microscopic.
situationlol
Community Member
Got 100lbs of live rock from Gulf Live Rock when I started my tank a few months ago. The only bad hitchhikers were some aiptasia, which I don't consider a big deal- I just nuke them when one shows itself. The rocks had a lot of feather dusters, coralline, and a few random corals (a blushing star and a couple that I'm pretty sure are corals but I haven't been able to identify yet). The main downside was that it's not shipped in water so there was a decent amount of die off (and because this was my first tank I made some mistakes like not removing sponges which lengthened the curing process). Given that you of course pay more for the live rock, was it "worth it"? I don't know. Hard to say. It's really not 'that' much more expensive than dry rock and is only a drop in the bucket compared to what you're spending overall, so I'm inclined to say I'm glad I did it.
Jo P White
Active Member
Years ago I bought live rock from my LFS, kept hearing a clicking sounds and snails kept showing up dead. There was a mantis shrimp! Finally ended up buying a trap and flushing it down the toilet. Didn’t know any better back then.
Not dealing with dinos outweighs the pest risk from live rock for me. In my experience, I can beat the occasional crab, shrimp, and aptasia, but failed miserably at the beating the dino thing.
KP aquatics definitely had more life on it than the Aussie rock from Unique Corals, but man is the mined rock they use a lot more dense than real rock from a reef. My 15 lbs of Aussie rock looked like more rock than the 25 lbs I got from KP.
That said, I’ll be ordering again from KP because $25/lb is a lot more than $10/lb and I need a lot more rock.
KP aquatics definitely had more life on it than the Aussie rock from Unique Corals, but man is the mined rock they use a lot more dense than real rock from a reef. My 15 lbs of Aussie rock looked like more rock than the 25 lbs I got from KP.
That said, I’ll be ordering again from KP because $25/lb is a lot more than $10/lb and I need a lot more rock.
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livinlifeinBKK
5000 Club Member
Yeah...$25/lb is pretty expensive! I believe it's great quality after hearing about it and if I was where you guys are I'd consider getting a little bit but boy am I thankful I'm buying my live rock on this side of the world (here a rock from the ocean is basically just a rock to most people...so great prices for it)
hoytoyed
Active Member
I got 110lbs of Jakarta live rock when Carolina Aquatics had some to sell to dealers about 10 months ago. It was shipped in styro boxes with a bag and about 2 inches of water,mostly
cured and I didn’t see any hitchhikers at all. I cured it for a month in a brute can to make sure but never saw anything. I don’t know if it’s still available or not. It was pretty pricey @ $14 lb.
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livinlifeinBKK
5000 Club Member
Did you "have" to cure it or just being extra safe? Nice looking pieces btw!I got 110lbs of Jakarta live rock when Carolina Aquatics had some to sell to dealers about 10 months ago. It was shipped in styro boxes with a bag and about 2 inches of water,mostlycured and I didn’t see any hitchhikers at all. I cured it for a month in a brute can to make sure but never saw anything. I don’t know if it’s still available or not. It was pretty pricey @ $14 lb.
hoytoyed
Active Member
Honestly it looked fine but my tank arrived damaged and I was waiting for a replacement tank. I kept the rock in a heated brute with a power head to keep it alive. I think it would have been fine anyway.
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