KP aquatics live rock

[Keithb22]

Just picked up some LR from mop aquatics and figured I’d walk everyone through the curing in case they had any question or interest. So initially when setting the tank up I had purchased some lr from saltybottom which was gulf rock. I only got rock rubble and honestly it was pretty awesome stuff and I have no complaints. But I had only gotten like 8 pounds for a water box frag 45.2 bare bottom frag set up. So I figured I would add some more to the sump and then toss some other bigger pieces in the DT for the fish and any corals that might require their own space. So I did what any of us would have done and got on r2r to research a bit. The best part of kp was that I didn’t have to pay for air freight and it came from Florida to Tennessee in about 16 hours. It’s also Florida key LR, so that is also going to hopefully broaden the diversity of my tank and it also has a different look all together.
So right out of the box everything smelled right, looked right, and most importantly the little water in the box was pretty clear all things considering. Each rock was individually wrapped and the extra rubble i got was all together in a serrated bag. First rock I cleaned up I found a couple urchins right off the bat. There was also a couple crabs that didn’t seem to make it, flat worms and some snails. Typically what you would expect from Aquacultured LR. Has some beautiful coraline ( dark purple and pink), also has your typical spong encrusting and random pieces of macro algae.
Also the gentleman was great to work with, as soon as I purchased everything, he called me up to figure what exact pieces I wanted and then even brought up the rubble we had spoke about a week ago. So overall everything has been as it should from all aspects of the transaction and I’ll keep this updated as everything stabilizes. I attached a few pictures and will try to monitor for anything that hitches a ride from Florida.
mid any one has any questions, complaints or what not, ask away.

Regards,
Keith

 

[Johniejumbo]

Good to know! I will follow along and see how it develops. So this was shipped “dry”? Not completely submerged? I ordered some Florida rock from a different vendor and the stuff took almost 5 days to get to me. It stunk. A lot of die off occurred. It all ended up looking very good but I didn’t have many hitchhikers survive.

 

[Bpfor3]

would love to get some of this for my refugium. i started my tank with dry rock 6 months ago, and it just does not have the number of critters from when we used to use true live rock. keep us posted.

 

[Keithb22]

So it’s a bit of both, it was shipped in wet paper wrap w minimal amounts of water in the bag. Fiji had to guess I would say a total of 3-4 inches in the bottom but that could of been from the wet wrap they did. For 10lbs it was 120 and that included overnight shipping, he sent it out just before 6 pm and it got here to me at 0945.

honestly had planned a 4-6 week cycle with this tank and started it with chaeto and live rock rubble and was amazed at the power of LR ( first Salt tank). at day 12 I had 0 for ammonia and nitrates with 5 ppm.

took a baseline measurement after about 8 hours for the ammonia and was at 1ppm, will continue to monitor levels and do daily 30% water changes for the first few days

 

[Keithb22]

Day 2:
Since I had that elevated reading for my ammonia I scooped out about 2.5-3 gallons of the ~10 gallons in the tote and tossed in new water. Obviously it’ll read low after for a bit but that brought me down to 0-.25. Using the api so we all know that can be misleading at times.
As for critters, there is a ton of rock in there so it’s a bit hard to see everything but I do know a snail shell has moved since yesterday so either a hermit or some kind of snail, a few tunicates, feather dusters, etc. keep trying to keep an eye out for something less than desirable but hopefully if it’s there I’ll catch it while I wait for this to cure.

 

[vangvace]

Good to know! I will follow along and see how it develops. So this was shipped “dry”? Not completely submerged? I ordered some Florida rock from a different vendor and the stuff took almost 5 days to get to me. It stunk. A lot of die off occurred. It all ended up looking very good but I didn’t have many hitchhikers survive.

KP ships in wet newpaper and some additional packing materials; very similar to how we used to receive rock from the Pacific. Ideally you would want to ship FL rock overnight or airport to airport freight if you have the option.

would love to get some of this for my refugium. i started my tank with dry rock 6 months ago, and it just does not have the number of critters from when we used to use true live rock. keep us posted.

I had some cook in a 10g for a few months before moving it into a new system. I just ghost fed and lit it. The only negative hitchhicker I noticed was a Mantis Shrimp. My method did result in a bunch of hair algae, but it did burn off and looked like a refugium display.

The other thing I did to increase my biodiversity was amphiods from aquariumdepot, pods and rotifers from aquariumnutrition, pods from algeabarn, and a mix-n-match special from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms.

 

[Keithb22]

KP ships in wet newpaper and some additional packing materials; very similar to how we used to receive rock from the Pacific. Ideally you would want to ship FL rock overnight or airport to airport freight if you have the option.




I had some cook in a 10g for a few months before moving it into a new system. I just ghost fed and lit it. The only negative hitchhicker I noticed was a Mantis Shrimp. My method did result in a bunch of hair algae, but it did burn off and looked like a refugium display.

The other thing I did to increase my biodiversity was amphiods from aquariumdepot, pods and rotifers from aquariumnutrition, pods from algeabarn, and a mix-n-match special from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms.

Hey thanks a lot for putting forth your expertise. I think the next step will be to add some life to the fuge but getting the cuc and lr where it needs to be is where I’m trying to go right now. Honesty probably need to do a bit more research prior to doing any pods or rotifers since all that is fairly new to me.
I thought about the light but figured I’d stick to the method I learned from a few of the book I picked up. Not saying anything detractors or negative about your way at all.

 

[Keithb22]

Went through the rock some more and found this, bit hard to see but it’s the bubble in the middle of the picture. Honestly not sure what it is yet, maybe some one can chime in with some ideas? Still no mantis shrimp or anything to crazy yet, hopefully it continues that way.

 

[Midrats]

Looks like a little bivalve of some kind. My KP rock has lots of different clams and tunicates.

 

[Keithb22]

Looks like a little bivalve of some kind. My KP rock has lots of different clams and tunicates.

that’s awesome, it’s like every time I turn around there’s something different on it. Did you run into many pest?

 

[Midrats]

There were a few little crabs, nothing that I couldn't easily remove.

 

[Charles4400]

Just picked up some LR from mop aquatics and figured I’d walk everyone through the curing in case they had any question or interest. So initially when setting the tank up I had purchased some lr from saltybottom which was gulf rock. I only got rock rubble and honestly it was pretty awesome stuff and I have no complaints. But I had only gotten like 8 pounds for a water box frag 45.2 bare bottom frag set up. So I figured I would add some more to the sump and then toss some other bigger pieces in the DT for the fish and any corals that might require their own space. So I did what any of us would have done and got on r2r to research a bit. The best part of kp was that I didn’t have to pay for air freight and it came from Florida to Tennessee in about 16 hours. It’s also Florida key LR, so that is also going to hopefully broaden the diversity of my tank and it also has a different look all together.
So right out of the box everything smelled right, looked right, and most importantly the little water in the box was pretty clear all things considering. Each rock was individually wrapped and the extra rubble i got was all together in a serrated bag. First rock I cleaned up I found a couple urchins right off the bat. There was also a couple crabs that didn’t seem to make it, flat worms and some snails. Typically what you would expect from Aquacultured LR. Has some beautiful coraline ( dark purple and pink), also has your typical spong encrusting and random pieces of macro algae.
Also the gentleman was great to work with, as soon as I purchased everything, he called me up to figure what exact pieces I wanted and then even brought up the rubble we had spoke about a week ago. So overall everything has been as it should from all aspects of the transaction and I’ll keep this updated as everything stabilizes. I attached a few pictures and will try to monitor for anything that hitches a ride from Florida.
mid any one has any questions, complaints or what not, ask away.

Regards,
Keith

How is the density of the rocks and how porous are they?

I've ordered gulf rick a few years ago from another supplier and found theur rock too dense and solid.

Wondering if KP rocks are closer to the live rocks we used to get...they look fantastic btw!

 

[Keithb22]

How is the density of the rocks and how porous are they?

I've ordered gulf rick a few years ago from another supplier and found theur rock too dense and solid.

Wondering if KP rocks are closer to the live rocks we used to get...they look fantastic btw!

Hey thanks a lot, I’m definitely excited to get them in the DT once everything cures up. The rock seems lighter weight compared to what I’ve dealt with in lfs and the caribsea. They do use a Florida limestone so I don’t know if that differs from what everyone else uses but it seems like a good sturdy rock without being to heavy. As far as being porous, the rock has a lot of holes, nooks and crannies. The big thing I liked about KP, besides the shipping method, was that their rock came from the keys. Again, I can’t speak to where the other companies harvest their rocks. They also advertise, due to the lr location, as being aptasia free.

 

[Keithb22]

Day three and still going strong, I ended up doing another water change and added some bacteria to help with the cycling. Everything is starting to ease out of their crevices and I even found a couple urchin, one being fairly large.

 

[vangvace]

Hey thanks a lot for putting forth your expertise. I think the next step will be to add some life to the fuge but getting the cuc and lr where it needs to be is where I’m trying to go right now. Honesty probably need to do a bit more research prior to doing any pods or rotifers since all that is fairly new to me.
I thought about the light but figured I’d stick to the method I learned from a few of the book I picked up. Not saying anything detractors or negative about your way at all.

Sounds like some really good steps. To clarify, I think lighting the rock right away was a negative for me.

Oh and I forgot that I had an urchin on my rock too.

 

[Keithb22]

Hey thanks a lot, it’s definitely been a learning process. They’re easy to loose but mine finally came out, hopefully they don’t reorganize the frag tank to bad when they go in there

 

[Devaji]

I ordered from them in the past 10# was very pleased.
I let mine cure in the tank to help cycle it. tank cycled in a week or so.

 

[Keithb22]

I ordered from them in the past 10# was very pleased.
I let mine cure in the tank to help cycle it. tank cycled in a week or so.

I did the exact same thing with the rock from Saltybottom Reef and it cycled in about a week to 10 days. I ended up needing more so unfortunately I could not do the same with this rock. I think our initial way will end up taking less time than the one im using but we’ll see how the levels look like a week out. How do you like the rock so far?

 

[alton]

I have been using KP rock since 12-15. This what 50 lbs looks like in a 65 gallon tank. Like others have stated its much lighter than most other live rock on the market. It is also much more porous. I did get a mantis on my first shipment and he was fun to watch. He would come out and bust liverock to get to pods. Because I got scared of him getting mean I caught him in a simple bottle trap and gave him away. I have received a pistol shrimp in each of my orders. I also ordered 50lbs of dry to put with 50 lbs of live which turned out to be very nice for a great price. This is what this tank looked like after two months of being setup with KP rock

 

[Keithb22]

I have been using KP rock since 12-15. This what 50 lbs looks like in a 65 gallon tank. Like others have stated its much lighter than most other live rock on the market. It is also much more porous. I did get a mantis on my first shipment and he was fun to watch. He would come out and bust liverock to get to pods. Because I got scared of him getting mean I caught him in a simple bottle trap and gave him away. I have received a pistol shrimp in each of my orders. I also ordered 50lbs of dry to put with 50 lbs of live which turned out to be very nice for a great price. This is what this tank looked like after two months of being setup with KP rock

Wow that looks absolutely breathtaking, cudos on the tank. Well I’ll be putting mine in the DT sporadically so hopefully they age as well as yours did