ARCReef Live Rock

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Has anyone here used ARCReef.com live rock? Premium or standard? If so I would love to see any pictures of them when they arrived, or even after they matured in your aquarium. If you can include the amount (pounds) also that would be great.

After much research I find that I really like the idea of aquacultured live rock. The reason ARC appeals to me over gulf rock (like TB Saltwater) is it seems you get a lot more macro algae from the gulf. After having freshwater planted tanks for a long time I need a different look. I also want to stock livestock around a specific color scheme (more on that in later posts). To be clear I will keep macro algae as part of my filtration, just not in the display. I will not be ordering rock quite yet, probably early spring.

I know ARC was hit hard recently by a hurricane, but any recent or past experiences with them would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

jefra

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These guys are a seller on Amazon and I've considered using them in the past. While they have good reviews on there I'm a bit of a rock elitist and wasn't impressed with one of the pictures I saw in the reviews, shown here by "K. Smith." It looks like large hunks of concrete that don't have much porosity. If it's macroalgae you want, I'd highly recommend just placing a separate order with Gulf Coast Ecosystems, almost all of which are native to the Gulf.
 
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Thanks @jefra. I did see those. The rocks were quite varied in those pictures. Both in porosity and life coverage. I am hoping someone here could add some more examples.

Thanks for the link. That is a huge selection of macro algae.
 

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Thanks @jefra. I did see those. The rocks were quite varied in those pictures. Both in porosity and life coverage. I am hoping someone here could add some more examples.

Thanks for the link. That is a huge selection of macro algae.

Yeah, there certainly seems to be a disparity between different ARC orders. I didn't want to take the risk even though I'm sure any issues would be resolved through Amazon's A-Z guarantee.

GCE is an amazing seller, the quantity you get per item is insane, and their prices are very reasonable as well.
 

Mike S

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I purchased about 50#s a little over a year ago and was not at all happy with the rock. Very heavy, poor shape and little growth. I was in the process on restarting my 300 gallon tank and purchased it to help seed my dry rock. I ended up just using some of it as base rock and putting most of it in my sump.
 
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NY_Caveman

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That is disappointing. It seems it is hit or miss. Anyone else?
 
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Bumping. Been a couple of months. Anyone use ARCReef recently (or ever) for live rock. Would love to see some pictures. Thanks.
 

Justfebreezeit

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20180122_175936.jpg 20180117_180812.jpg
i
Sorry light on pictures. I had these already on my computer. I just got 20#'s for my fusion 20.

First Impressions:
- Slightly underwhelming
- Not a lot of non algae life
- dull colors
- heavy
- non porous

After about a week:
- Actually a decent amount of life. About 100 various sized feather dusters have shown up, Spaghetti worms, stomatella, random worms, and tons of pods. (only bad thing so far is a gorilla crab thats super small, cant catch him yet)
- About 5 different colors of corraline algae (Dark red, Purple, Pink, Green, and other shades of the same)
- Still heavy and seemingly non porous, however i'm starting to adjust my attitude about this. They are not holey like pukani or even a lot of the dry rock that is sold. That being said they are definitly still pretty porous and plenty of life lives in the rock, and i'd even imagine denitrification goes on deeper in the rock (maybe?)

My final thoughts would be overall i'm happy. You can call or even comment to request shapes you might need and thats helpful. They remind me of actual rocks I would see on my local reefs here in Florida and that is kind of cool. I can't compare them to TBS at all though as i've never purchased from them

Also in the pictures the main structure has the bottom of the rocks ( how they were in the ocean) flipped to the top because of how they fit, so it looks a little blander for now.

Hope that helps, any questions and i will answer.
 
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NY_Caveman

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That is great. Thank you for all of the details. Just what I was looking for. I have read they were heavy, so no surprise there. Glad to see you got a lot of life in them. I am not looking for macroalgae on the rock which is why I am looking at ARCReef vs. TBSW.
 

Gablami

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Has anyone received rock recently from arcreef? I placed an order over 3 weeks ago and they are not answering their phones or responding to emails.
 

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Their website says expect 30 day delays because of Irma.

I'm surprised they aren't responding to calls or emails though.

They did for me within 48 hours.
 

Gablami

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Yeah I wasn’t expecting my rock, but was expecting them to respond when I reached out. They seem like a quality outfit. Just wondering if anyone knew what was going on.
 
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NY_Caveman

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Well, I just posted over there. I hope not. They seem like a quality operation that has been hit hard by Irma. Who knows what anyone would do when their livelihood is on the line, but I must say it seems ARC was established out of respect for their local reef and the environment in general.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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