A brand new MarcoRocks reef tank in SoCal, 250g tank using Prime Cuts and Premium Shelf Rock

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What aquarium rock do you like best (can pick 2)

  • Live Rock

    Votes: 41 32.5%
  • Pukani

    Votes: 31 24.6%
  • MarcoRocks

    Votes: 36 28.6%
  • Real Reef

    Votes: 13 10.3%
  • Carib Sea

    Votes: 12 9.5%
  • Reef Saver (BRS)

    Votes: 12 9.5%
  • I use a mixture

    Votes: 27 21.4%

  • Total voters
    126

uniquecorals

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Here's a video of the 250g build, with Joseph Caparatta of UniqueCorals

Greg Carroll (The voice of Reefapalooza:)) finally got his big 250 gal reef and it’s ready to rock. He enlisted Joseph Caparattato design and build the Aqua-scape using a combination of MR’s finest products. The pvc bottom of this SPS reef received carefully selected Single Side Prime Cut pieces for solid foundational support. Above that sat the Premium Shelf rock mixed in with Key Largo Marcorocks. Once the design was complete, key pieces were removed and locked in forever with E-Marco-400 cement. This turned out beautifully! Can’t wait to see the next stage.

Pro Tip- when designing the size of the reef always subtract 20-30% of height from the final vision to account for the corals! Far too often the corals are growing where the fish wants to be swimming!



 
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uniquecorals

uniquecorals

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Two great guys, I'm sure there was a great conversation we missed out on through the flash forwards parts.

Joe and Greg were in complete agreement after discussing where the structure placement and the pump placement should be, they spent a fair amount of time talking shop about corals and trading notes on husbandry.
 

Bouncingsoul39

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What are you seeding the terrestrial rock with to make the tank live and to create an ecosystem? Based on what we know, without some seeding from established tanks, this tank is most likely headed for a massive Dino outbreak. Even with seeding it still may turn into a Dino mess.
My experience with Marco Rocks: After a decade using real live rock from the ocean, I thought I'd give Marco terrestrial rocks a try. The big marketing push by vendors was "no pests". For the first time ever, my tank was overcome by Dinos within a few weeks. It was a nightmare to deal with. I'd rather deal with an Aiptasia or a little crab any day over Dinos. It turns out that the vendors pushing dead rock and terrestrial rock happen to conveniently leave out all the massive benefits gained from using real ocean live rock while making their sales pitches. The truth is, that it was the discovery of the benefits of real ocean live rock and its use that led to the successful keeping of the most delicate organisms including Acropora corals back then. Can you have a successful SPS tank started completely with dead rock or terrestrial rock? Yes. But it will take much longer to mature, your chances of getting Dinos increases exponentially.
 

gcarroll

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What are you seeding the terrestrial rock with to make the tank live and to create an ecosystem? Based on what we know, without some seeding from established tanks, this tank is most likely headed for a massive Dino outbreak. Even with seeding it still may turn into a Dino mess.
My experience with Marco Rocks: After a decade using real live rock from the ocean, I thought I'd give Marco terrestrial rocks a try. The big marketing push by vendors was "no pests". For the first time ever, my tank was overcome by Dinos within a few weeks. It was a nightmare to deal with. I'd rather deal with an Aiptasia or a little crab any day over Dinos. It turns out that the vendors pushing dead rock and terrestrial rock happen to conveniently leave out all the massive benefits gained from using real ocean live rock while making their sales pitches. The truth is, that it was the discovery of the benefits of real ocean live rock and its use that led to the successful keeping of the most delicate organisms including Acropora corals back then. Can you have a successful SPS tank started completely with dead rock or terrestrial rock? Yes. But it will take much longer to mature, your chances of getting Dinos increases exponentially.
I live to prove people wrong! Challenge accepted. Once the tank is completed, you may follow my journey via my build thread (see below).
 

ycnibrc

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I start mine with dead dry pukani rock and of course dino hair algae cyno I have them all but that's part of new tank process. Now 1.5 years later my reef is thriving and growing without anymore problem. The red cyno come every 6 months and 1 dose of chemiclean take the out completely. Starting with live rock do have the benefit with bacteria but the cost don't justify anymore. Aquaforest n zeovit have excellent bacteria to seed the dry rock. All u need to understand your tank nutrients then u can control the algae out break. Most people don't pay attention to CUC but to have them early and a lot help control your algae in addition to the algae eating Tang.
 

dodgerblew

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What are you seeding the terrestrial rock with to make the tank live and to create an ecosystem? Based on what we know, without some seeding from established tanks, this tank is most likely headed for a massive Dino outbreak. Even with seeding it still may turn into a Dino mess.
My experience with Marco Rocks: After a decade using real live rock from the ocean, I thought I'd give Marco terrestrial rocks a try. The big marketing push by vendors was "no pests". For the first time ever, my tank was overcome by Dinos within a few weeks. It was a nightmare to deal with. I'd rather deal with an Aiptasia or a little crab any day over Dinos. It turns out that the vendors pushing dead rock and terrestrial rock happen to conveniently leave out all the massive benefits gained from using real ocean live rock while making their sales pitches. The truth is, that it was the discovery of the benefits of real ocean live rock and its use that led to the successful keeping of the most delicate organisms including Acropora corals back then. Can you have a successful SPS tank started completely with dead rock or terrestrial rock? Yes. But it will take much longer to mature, your chances of getting Dinos increases exponentially.
My tank has zero ocean live rock, all artificial (Real Reef & Aquariche) and never experienced dinos or anything you mention in your post. So you can have all the pests and I'll use the artificial all day long and not look back.
 

Bouncingsoul39

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I start mine with dead dry pukani rock and of course dino hair algae cyno I have them all but that's part of new tank process. Now 1.5 years later my reef is thriving and growing without anymore problem. The red cyno come every 6 months and 1 dose of chemiclean take the out completely. Starting with live rock do have the benefit with bacteria but the cost don't justify anymore. Aquaforest n zeovit have excellent bacteria to seed the dry rock. All u need to understand your tank nutrients then u can control the algae out break. Most people don't pay attention to CUC but to have them early and a lot help control your algae in addition to the algae eating Tang.

Dinos and Cyano are 100% not part of the "new tank process". I'll chalk that type of misinformation up to internet forum nonsense. Go check out some books written by legitimate, experienced, pioneers in the reefing hobby like Fenner, Calfo, Sprung, Brightwell. Those books were written back before the prevelance of the internet. Back when information in our hobby was disseminated by experts in the hobby, not random hobbyist Joe Reefer who thinks he's an expert after keeping a couple tanks and parroting things he's read online. Educate yourself. You will not find one mention ever of Dinos being a normal part of any healthy reef tank at any stage of their existence in any publication written by a true hobby expert.
 

Bouncingsoul39

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I live to prove people wrong! Challenge accepted. Once the tank is completed, you may follow my journey via my build thread (see below).
You live to prove people wrong? Great. I live to shine a light on the truth. If I had no other choice, I'd follow your build thread. However, there is too much superfluous content in your build thread for my taste not to mention its updates being sporadic. Since this is a thread promoting dead terrestrial rock and your tank's use of it, why not post your progress with the rock in this thread? Something like a picture a week showing the rock in detail as it progresses and your system matures. You can include a clear copy of a print newspaper from that week in your photo to verify its time/date authenticity for us.
 

KrisReef

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You live to prove people wrong? Great. I live to shine a light on the truth. If I had no other choice, I'd follow your build thread. However, there is too much superfluous content in your build thread for my taste not to mention its updates being sporadic. Since this is a thread promoting dead terrestrial rock and your tank's use of it, why not post your progress with the rock in this thread? Something like a picture a week showing the rock in detail as it progresses and your system matures. You can include a clear copy of a print newspaper from that week in your photo to verify its time/date authenticity for us.

Why not a live reef cam so we can all watch along 24/7, and maybe we will all pick up some valuable experience as the tank progresses?
 

Bouncingsoul39

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My tank has zero ocean live rock, all artificial (Real Reef & Aquariche) and never experienced dinos or anything you mention in your post. So you can have all the pests and I'll use the artificial all day long and not look back.
That may be true. If so, your tank would be the exception and not the rule. Also, there is a significant difference in the composition of your Real Reef rock and the terrestrial Marco rock. Since you did not base your entire tank around Marco terrestrial rock as this tank is, one could argue, that your point is not even valid to this discussion or this thread.

There is a multi-thousands post long thread going on this very forum of new hobbyists and their "battle against Dinos". Dinos were not a thing in the hobby ten years ago. I've been observing and watching trends in the hobby for as long as well as working professionally in the aquarium industry and I can tell you that there is a strong correlation between using dead ocean rock (that hasn't been bleach or acid soaked which most people won't bother with), using dead terrestrial rock, and the increase in cases of Dino infection. It's unfortunate that in this dying hobby we are participating in, very little peer reviewed scientific research is conducted any more and very little pseudo scientific research is conducted either leaving a vacuum for the huge amount of misinformation being toted about.
 

Reefcowboy

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You live to prove people wrong? Great. I live to shine a light on the truth. If I had no other choice, I'd follow your build thread. However, there is too much superfluous content in your build thread for my taste not to mention its updates being sporadic. Since this is a thread promoting dead terrestrial rock and your tank's use of it, why not post your progress with the rock in this thread? Something like a picture a week showing the rock in detail as it progresses and your system matures. You can include a clear copy of a print newspaper from that week in your photo to verify its time/date authenticity for us.
Have 100% Marco rock in my tank, started from scratch. Full sps tank. Not a sign of dino. Not sure why of the negative post on this build, two guys putting together a nice tank and sharing a new option with other hobbyists... There are other options out there for everyone, Marco rocks isnt for you it seems. Dont make assumptions about it as a rule, you clearly are not as informed about it as you might think
 
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