Let's ROCK! What type of rock do you have in your reef tank and do you love it?

How much do you like liverock in your tank? Not the aquascape, but the rock itself!

  • Love it and wouldn't change it

    Votes: 356 61.8%
  • Like it ok but would try something different

    Votes: 169 29.3%
  • Don't like it at all

    Votes: 31 5.4%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 20 3.5%

  • Total voters
    576

revhtree

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Let's rock and roll! :p
Sub Pop Yes GIF by Sub Pop Records


No really, let's talk about ROCK! More specifically the rock we have in our saltwater reef aquariums that make up our beautiful aquascapes!

1. What type of rock do you have in your reef tank?

2. What do you like or dislike about it?
(NOT YOUR AQUASCAPE but the actual rock)


You get a BIG THUMBS UP for sharing a photo of your ROCK!

Real-Reef-Live-Rock-10-lbs-99.jpg
 

fishface NJ

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I currently have Real Reef rock brand and live rocks from KP aquatics. Real Reef Rocks are ok. Like the KP aquatics live rocks. Miss the Tonga, Fiji and Pukani rocks I had 10 years ago. Wish there was a way to have that again

 

mandarin417

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Cornerstone reef rock. Manmade and amazing shapes including their branch rock shapes. I have my rock packed up ready for a relocation but if you do a search you can see the shapes in a youtube video. It's the best-looking manmade rock I have seen.
 

MaxTremors

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I have around 75% caribsea ‘life rock’ and then around 25% live rock (couldn’t tell you where it’s from, but it’s got lots of desirable hitchhikers, haven’t seen any undesirables yet). Personally, I’d much rather have 100% uncured live rock fresh from the ocean when starting a tank. I like having all the microfauna, and to me it’s worth dealing with the pests. And if I can’t get uncured, I’d prefer high quality cured but that hasn’t been scrubbed or cleaned other than letting any die-off cycle out. Having been in the hobby for over 20 years, I’ve seen a lot of changes, but the move from live rock to dry rock is one of the saddest. I get the environmental impact that collecting live rock can have, but it can be done sustainably and good maricultured dry rock is almost indistinguishable (given that it’s been maricultured for at least a couple years). To me, a reef tank isn’t a reef tank without the microfauna, the pests are part of that, but dealing with them is well worth the benefits live rock has.
 

SDK

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Very happy with my rock:

50% fully cured LR from a quality LFS near me that came in almost completely covered in coralline. Being able to cherry pick shapes and sizes was great.

25% Gulf Live Rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater

25% dry Base rock

All was further seeded with a bag of Garf's Grunge
 

fishybizzness

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I currently have caribsea liferock and caribsea special grade sand in my 120 and live ocean rock and live sand in my 55. I love the aqua scape but I hate the rock. When I set up the 55, I really enjoyed watching all the new things appearing on a regular basis. It was just a great experience. I didn't experience any ugly phase. When I set up my 120, I took time building my aqua scape and really enjoyed that part. Once I had the tank cycled though, it became a very boring and stressful journey. A few weeks after turning on the lights the ugly stage started and I've been fighting it ever since. I seriously considered pulling out the rock and starting over several times. I'm hoping that this is my forever tank but if I ever do setup another tank it will definitely be with live rock and live sand. The pics are of both tanks at around 6-8 months. Big difference.
 

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MattB69

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I have 90 percent Caribsea liferock and I hate it. I cannot get any coraline to grow on it for 2 1/2 years. Grows everywhere else in the tank just not where I'd like it.
 

smokin'reefer

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I have a mixture of some Fiji live rock and something else I can't remember right now.
I did add some of the Marco foundation rock with my current system to give a more stable base. Because I have a peninsula I needed to stack my rock down the center of my tank.
I also have one of the Caribsea arches to tie in the scape.

You can probably make out the texture in these pics.
 

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CMMorgan

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I have a mix of shaped (circular) rocks and old, live rock that I suspect is some sort of Tonga branch rock that I acquired when I bought my tank used. My favorite rock is this shaped cave that I got from a young reefer that had to shut his tank down. I inherited his Xenia, zoas, this awesome cave and an orange Anthia that he did not know was hiding in it for $50. My mushrooms have since taken hold of it. We call this "the shire". When I transfer it to the new tank, I have to find a way to remove those mushrooms before they completely run over the zoas / palys. Anyone in Florida who wants watermelon mushrooms - come by. These things grow faster than GSP for me.
Best part of this is that that same young reefer is building a house and he is going to buy this tank and sump from me in August. I am going to use this old tank as a frag tank over the summer to get him started. He is not getting that rock cave back though. LOL I already told him that I will seed rock for him but he needs to furnish his own rock.
Maybe he'll get lucky and TBS will be operational by then.
I'd also love to add some real gulf shelf rock if the timing works out.
 

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Tonycass12

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Life rock from carib sea. After 4 months a few sections that the hermits and snails graze have gone white but overall its not bad. If I did it all over i would use at least a chunk of live rock to seed they system I do feel like you really lack the biodiversity without it. But not having to battle pests that come in on live rock has been nice too.
 

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MaxTremors

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I currently have caribsea liferock and caribsea special grade sand in my 120 and live ocean rock and live sand in my 55. I love the aqua scape but I hate the rock. When I set up the 55, I really enjoyed watching all the new things appearing on a regular basis. It was just a great experience. I didn't experience any ugly phase. When I set up my 120, I took time building my aqua scape and really enjoyed that part. Once I had the tank cycled though, it became a very boring and stressful journey. A few weeks after turning on the lights the ugly stage started and I've been fighting it ever since. I seriously considered pulling out the rock and starting over several times. I'm hoping that this is my forever tank but if I ever do setup another tank it will definitely be with live rock and live sand. The pics are of both tanks at around 6-8 months. Big difference.
Have you thought about seeding your 120’with some rock from your 55? I started the tank I have now three months ago and did 75% life rock and 25% live rock, and the ugly faze only last a couple weeks (knock on wood).
 

The_Skrimp

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I’m almost at the one year mark with this tank still dealing with the ugly stage and I think a huge part of it has to do with using dry rock instead of live rock. If I could start over I would have used at least half live rock. I’ve also watched a few aquascaping videos and I wish I knew what could be done with just super glue and rock dust back when I scaped this tank.
 

fishybizzness

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Have you thought about seeding your 120’with some rock from your 55? I started the tank I have now three months ago and did 75% life rock and 25% live rock, and the ugly faze only last a couple weeks (knock on wood).
i would but i have the occasional aptasia that pops up in the 55. The filefish usually keeps it in check but i am trying to avoid getting it in the 120 for as long as possible. I seem to be finally getting a handle on things in the 120 since i added a few pieces of live rock some time back. It just wasn't the same experience for me as i actually realize that i found the hitch hikers on the live rock in the 55 as interesting as the fish i added. Im actually going to be moving everything from the 55 into a SCA 50 cube in the future.
 

MONTANTK

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I use the real reef brand live rock and I love it. The only thing I’d change is that they would have better offerings for smaller tanks. Find cool pieces can really be hit or miss
 
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