Favorite Live Rock: Fiji, Pukani, Tonga, Gulf, Artificial, Aquacultured or Other?

[Sump Crab]

most of this list aren’t even available to the consumer any more. i chose florida’s gulf rock cause it’s the only legit ocean live rock left that i could find.
BRS killed the live rock industry. it was an LFS staple money maker and no one would order it from them and their dry rock rarely sold so they made a fear based propaganda video about how horrible it is. ryan told me it didn’t sell for them. managing lfs for years i know it always sold awesome for us and was profitable to the point it helped us keep in business over other items.

really sucks because live rock makes reef keeping way easier and natural. i’ll never deal with dry rock again. twice nothing but dinos and cyano issues. hope this hobby gets back around to culture ocean rock. many people got frustrated and gave up after their tanks were failing. thanks brs.

The anti REAL liverock establishment is strong and has sadly overtaken the hobby.

 

[Ratherbeflyen]

Whats the general consensus on lava rock? Ive heard some say it has too much iron (if I recall correctly) in it and is a risk. Obviously this tank looks great - but perhaps it was just a low metal batch?

It sounds like a great option, but perhaps a bit risky.

I did have a freshwater tank with lava rock before making this venture. When I was researching the use of lava rock in a reef tank, all I could find was anecdotal comments about I think or heard it's not safe. I could not find a single scientific article that said lava rock was not safe to use.

I'm sure there is more iron in my reef than all of the marketed man made rocks. If I drop my magnetic algae scraper into the sand, it will come back with small rock pieces stuck to the magnet. On the flip side I've heard of people actively dosing iron into their tanks. How much iron is enough, how much is too much? How do you measure it? If encrusting coral can grow directly on lava rock, I would say it's not an issue.

It's possible any "harmful" elements of lava rock are being removed by the algae scrubber or carbon I run. Then again, this isn't my first lava rock tank.

I wish I would have though of a business model where I picked up a rock in my yard and found a way to sell it for $2 - $8 a lb and convinced people they had to buy it because other rocks were harmful.

 

[Koigula]

Interested. I’ve only ever seen lava rock in freshwater tanks. Not sure why.

Lava rock is certainly a concept and not carbonate based rock. It is used extensively in planted tanks. Happy for your success. I did a FOWLR tank with current dead rock and broke it down to a bare bottom 150 Reef Savvy SPS tank. It does work techically but wondering if success is limited. ReefBum "Keith, Sanjay and Mike Palleta all were dissapointed with dry rock results.

I just had green slimers, yellow scroll corals, and florida staghorn corals growing out of tank before crowding out of the tank. Now I am in early phases where nitrates creep up ie 8-15 ppm continuously. I may grow out of this phase. We will see. My testing is more detailed so I may have been oblivious to older tank.

For fun Here is a planted tank using lava stone. I am more learning by youtube than boards these days.

https://youtu.be/ogoc0PQspWY [youtu.be]

 

[ClownWrangler]

The failures I am speaking of were advanced aquarists as I mentioned. The guests on the youtube channel were Sanjay Gupta and Mike Palleta. They both had a failed tank that would not grow SPS they attributed to dead rock. They added bacteria and finally took down both tanks and restarted with live rock.

Mine is working but hardly impressive compared to past results as I mentioned with actual live rock. I will try legos next instead?

I find it interesting that they would make that association. How is t that SPS grows well in a frag tank with no rock?

 

[ClownWrangler]

I used to love Pukani. My previous tanks had it. I understand it’s not good to keep taking from the ocean, so I do my part. From my current tanks, the 20 was done with man made, the purple reef saver. My current Nuvo 75EXT build (will be posting a thread from start to finish here soon) was done with dry Marco rock. I really loved the ability to make it my own without being rushed. I used super glue and mortar, and it turned out EXACTLY the way I wanted. Can’t say I’ve ever been happier with an aquascape

I have some similar rock I got from someone on craigslist who got rid of it because it had "pests" supposedly. I don't remember what type he said it is, but looks similar to yours. I like it, but my BTAs don't for some reason. Maybe its too rough.

 

[ClownWrangler]

The anti REAL liverock establishment is strong and has sadly overtaken the hobby.

Maybe, but the anti-aquacultured live rock establishment feeds it. Just because someone is for one thing, it does not mean they are against another.

 

[Sump Crab]

Maybe, but the anti-aquacultured live rock establishment feeds it. Just because someone is for one thing, it does not mean they are against

I think the anti movement is mostly fueled by a fear of "bad" hitchhikers than anything else. Ppl claim its about the environment but I dont buy that in most cases.

 

[twiatr2001]

Definitely Pukani is my favorite, very porous and light and the shapes and crevice's are awesome as well, I currently have about 350 lbs. of it that has been bleached and soaked in RODI and is ready to scape my 310, I drove around nd hoarded most of it when it was going bye bye, even found some here on the forum in the for sale section.

 

[TexanCanuck]

All you need is a few pieces of live rock. It will seed the rest fairly quickly. The mistake people make is starting off with a full bio load along with dry rock. A tank started like that should be inverts only with light feeding until well established.

Agree 100%

save yourself a ton of money and buy DRY ROCK that looks nice … and buy just enough to get the aquascape you want.

to make sure you have enough surface area for bio filtration, throw in a brick of Marinepure or XPort into your sump - it will give you more active surface area than liverock

then give yourself the bio diversity you need by purchasing a few pounds of aquacultured rock from the Gulf of Mexico (sustainably harvested) shipped in water and add it to your tank … and you’ll get all the bacteria, coralline algae, critters, and maybe even macro algae you need to get your tank cycled!

after 6 months it will all be covered in coralline algae and look great !

and once you add your own coral frags you won’t look at the rock any more …

 

[Ashish Patel]

Haitian and Tonga are my favorite bc of the shapes, then fiji, marshall, and pukani. My current tanks goings to be all the rock I mentioned.

 

[TexanCanuck]

The anti REAL liverock establishment is strong and has sadly overtaken the hobby.

I don’t think this is true.

Personally, I would love nothing more than to build my next tank from 100% “real” liverock from Fiji (or anywhere else for that matter).

But the reality is that (A) I can’t find 200+ pounds of “real” live rock, (B) even if I could I couldn’t afford it, (C) even if I could afford it the rock would get wrapped in wet paper and spend 6 weeks in a box before it got to me, by which point a significant portion of the flora/fauna would be dead and I’d need to cure the rock for several months, and (D) I’d always be worried about knowing the vendor uses responsible and sustainable practices to harvest the rock from non-sensitive reefs.

So all I am advocating is that using 80% “dry rock” supplemented with 20% aquacultured rock from the Gulf of Mexico shipped in water is an acceptable compromise solution that can yield wonderful results.

make sense?

 

[Gordon Marvin]

I keep FOWLR tanks I prefer dry rock with 2-3 pieces of aquacultured live rock and a few coral skeletons

 

[Sump Crab]

I don’t think this is true.

Personally, I would love nothing more than to build my next tank from 100% “real” liverock from Fiji (or anywhere else for that matter).

But the reality is that (A) I can’t find 200+ pounds of “real” live rock, (B) even if I could I couldn’t afford it, (C) even if I could afford it the rock would get wrapped in wet paper and spend 6 weeks in a box before it got to me, by which point a significant portion of the flora/fauna would be dead and I’d need to cure the rock for several months, and (D) I’d always be worried about knowing the vendor uses responsible and sustainable practices to harvest the rock from non-sensitive reefs.

So all I am advocating is that using 80% “dry rock” supplemented with 20% aquacultured rock from the Gulf of Mexico shipped in water is an acceptable compromise solution that can yield wonderful results.

make sense?

Ya I'm more so referring to the current reefing establishment and its phobia of "bad" hitchhikers. Even in the old days when we got rocks straight from fiji many ppl used a combo of live and dead rocks. That stuff was like $10/lb in 2006! But it was awesome.

 

[Koigula]

I find it interesting that they would make that association. How is t that SPS grows well in a frag tank with no rock?

Do you have any examples of this? Most are all plumbed into a mature system. QT tanks just do not grow SPS well.

 

[UK softy bloke]

Let's talk about LIVE ROCK!

I know that some of these types of rock are not available to purchase straight from the original sources anymore, but that doesn't mean that this rock isn't still in the hobby and isn't still being used. That being said I would like to discuss your favorite type of live rock and why! So let's go!

1. What is your favorite type of live rock and why?

2. What type of rock makes up the majority of the live rock in your reef aquarium?

PS. I know live rock isn't live if it is dry!

image via @Bulk Reef Supply

Still have the original Fiji rock from 17 years ago, not sure I could start a tank with the stark white stuff pictured, looks to much like tufa from the 80s.

 

[dyno]

Pukani was that bomb bomb. The crystals i.e. the life, the fluffyness i.e the porousity, the green and purples i.e. the coraline, and oh man the clouds i.e. how the scape looked!!

 

[DeepintheReef]

I think I love the Haitian rock the best. Lots of shelves and ledges which is what I like in my aquascape. I’ve been hoarding it when it pops up on older tank tear downs and have it curing in brutes in the garage until I’m ready to set up another large tank