Live / Dry Rock of Choice?

[cdw79]

Working on planning my new system. Went heavy on arches for my current system but ultimately felt a little underwhelmed. Any recommendations for live rock sources or premium dry rock? I'd ideally ,one to replicate Tonga / Fiji live rock from years gone by, with heir porous structures and varying shapes, but I know options are limited nowadays. Any recommendations as well as pics of your final scape would be a huge help! Thanks

 

[19Mateo83]

Here’s the rock work in my 14 cube. It’s Fiji rock mostly dry stacked with a few pieces super glued together on top.

14g cube rock work

youtube.com

And here’s the rock work going in the 50 I’m putting together. It’s marco rock broken and glued with tons of BRS extra thick super glue.

 

[Nano_Man]

I’ve always used live rock it got everything you want for a good start to your new tank . Live rock is a filter by its self . I don’t know any different because I have used live rock since the early nineties

 

[Bruttall]

Design process first 3 pics, and then a picture from just a couple days ago of what it all really turned out to look like. I used dry Marco Rock and gel cyanoacrylate (BRS extra thick superglue gel) to glue it together. FYI that is an 8foot long tank, inside footprint was 94inchs x 22inches. I do not think for one second mine looks natural, I am way to OCD for that, but I do really like the arches and negative spaces. I turned Foundation Rock up-side-down for my shelves, gives the bottom a more rocky natural feel I think. And Foundation was about half the price of Shelf rock.

 

[Waters]

Started with dry marco rock.....probably won't use anything different going forward.

This is about a year later........never had any issues at all with algae, dinos, etc.

 

[cdw79]

For the dry Marco rock folks- do people tend to use it as is? Or end up breaking it up and gluing the tiny pieces one by one to make this dramatic shapes?

I'm partial to live rock bc that's what I'd always used in my tanks back in the day and I love the unique shapes, not to mention all the benefits that come w live rock, but the stuff is seemingly really expensive nowadays. Don't really love the Florida options either, since they seem to come in with a bunch of macro algae and seem very boulder-y, but not sure if anyone has had experience with any live rock vendors (?) as of late

 

[cdw79]

Here’s the rock work in my 14 cube. It’s Fiji rock mostly dry stacked with a few pieces super glued together on top.

14g cube rock work

youtube.com

And here’s the rock work going in the 50 I’m putting together. It’s marco rock broken and glued with tons of BRS extra thick super glue.

Really like the way you scape that 50. How long did it take you? I feel like I'd be so obsessive over it (especially bc I'm planning on a hefty peninsula tank) that I would never finish! I love the outcome but the work to get there is admittedly a little intimidating for me haha

 

[19Mateo83]

Really like the way you scape that 50. How long did it take you? I feel like I'd be so obsessive over it (especially bc I'm planning on a hefty peninsula tank) that I would never finish! I love the outcome but the work to get there is admittedly a little intimidating for me haha

It was about 4 hours for the bulk of the work and an hour for the two smaller structures. It’s like figuring out a 3D jigsaw. As long as you have plenty of pieces to play around with figuring out the shapes are fairly east. I dusted the superglue with baking soda to quick cure it. Dust, hold and move on. Makes the assembly pretty fast. It was my first time doing rock like that. It was a little intimidating but once you get the hang of glueing and dusting it actually goes pretty fast.

 

[jda]

You can get cultrured rock both from the Pacific and the Atlantic/gulf. I am a live rock guy because I am cheap, impatient and know how well it works. Livestock USA should have cultured FIji and there are many places in the Gulf that ship base to premium rock.

I stack rock up. I have not found that fish care much for caves and arches and other things that humans like, so I just make them places where they can get completely away from everything. This is 1/3 of my 3 parts step to disease management which I feel is VERY important. Caves and arches are like throwing a bed into the middle of a flat with a bunch of other mattresses and people... sure the human can sleep, but not like if you give them a bedroom where they feel secure and safe (false equivalency alert).

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Im the same way. Live ocean rock will probably always be the way i go because I've never had any issues with it and enjoy the biodiversity so much. I'm not a big fan of the macro algae either. Here where i am we get rock shipped straight from the Indo pacific which is gorgeous and very cheap honestly. It's been in the ocean many thousands of years (not maricultured). Wish i could send some but the shipping would probably kill you.

For the dry Marco rock folks- do people tend to use it as is? Or end up breaking it up and gluing the tiny pieces one by one to make this dramatic shapes?

I'm partial to live rock bc that's what I'd always used in my tanks back in the day and I love the unique shapes, not to mention all the benefits that come w live rock, but the stuff is seemingly really expensive nowadays. Don't really love the Florida options either, since they seem to come in with a bunch of macro algae and seem very boulder-y, but not sure if anyone has had experience with any live rock vendors (?) as of late

 

[Waters]

For the dry Marco rock folks- do people tend to use it as is? Or end up breaking it up and gluing the tiny pieces one by one to make this dramatic shapes?

I'm partial to live rock bc that's what I'd always used in my tanks back in the day and I love the unique shapes, not to mention all the benefits that come w live rock, but the stuff is seemingly really expensive nowadays. Don't really love the Florida options either, since they seem to come in with a bunch of macro algae and seem very boulder-y, but not sure if anyone has had experience with any live rock vendors (?) as of late

Definately break it up and glue/cement pieces together....that is one of the primary benefits of using dry, light rock such as marco.

 

[slythy]

I uses tropic eden rock. Its about 1/3rd the weight of marco for the same size. Its expensive but looked great and im happy with it

 

[maxberter]

@jda: would love to hear more about your 3 step disease management. I just posted a thread asking if I had enough rock in my tank. I feel like I should create more hiding places...

 

[Azael]

I prefer live rock, but cured for about 2 weeks. Also, I look at it on all the sides with a flashlight to try and find any unwanted hitchhikers.

 

[hikebikebrew]

I'm another +1 for Marco.

Used it for my latest (3rd tank) after using a combination of seemingly everything, then purple arches.

I really love the Marco, and likely will stick with it. Buy the reef saver mostly (if you go this way) then mix in the other stuff as it suits you. I've seen people use it as is (you get all sorts of sizes) but I think most break it up and glue it back together. It's very porous and has lots of holes, so it jigs back together pretty seamlessly.

 

[jda]

@jda: would love to hear more about your 3 step disease management. I just posted a thread asking if I had enough rock in my tank. I feel like I should create more hiding places...

Quickly, step one is an introduction tank set up with sand and some rock that looks like a mini reef - here the fish can learn to eat food and not be afraid of you. Having a friendly fish in there to show them how to eat pellets or mysis works great. 40 breeder works well for this. Fish do not leave here until they rush out when they see you and eat pellets or flake. Step two is real ocean live rock with diverse microfauna that will eat parasites as they fall off of the fish - reef and introduction tank. Dry rock and fresh sand tanks are petri dishes for ich tomonts. Step three is to lower the stress on the fish in the tank, and the largest part of this is having places for them to totally escape and hide - going into a cave or arch is not one of these places and if you can see them, they are not likely secure enough. Feeding enough for the fish to grow is the other important step. I do dip some wild large angels for flukes.

I haven't have a spot on any of my fish for over a decade. Eating well. Feel safe. Healthy fish. It works for me.

Some fish don't care about hiding. For the ones that do, like tangs, angels, triggers, etc. they will be more healthy if you just stack up rock and let them get totally out of sight.

 

[maxberter]

Quickly, step one is an introduction tank set up with sand and some rock that looks like a mini reef - here the fish can learn to eat food and not be afraid of you. Having a friendly fish in there to show them how to eat pellets or mysis works great. 40 breeder works well for this. Fish do not leave here until they rush out when they see you and eat pellets or flake. Step two is real ocean live rock with diverse microfauna that will eat parasites as they fall off of the fish - reef and introduction tank. Dry rock and fresh sand tanks are petri dishes for ich tomonts. Step three is to lower the stress on the fish in the tank, and the largest part of this is having places for them to totally escape and hide - going into a cave or arch is not one of these places and if you can see them, they are not likely secure enough. Feeding enough for the fish to grow is the other important step. I do dip some wild large angels for flukes.

I haven't have a spot on any of my fish for over a decade. Eating well. Feel safe. Healthy fish. It works for me.

Some fish don't care about hiding. For the ones that do, like tangs, angels, triggers, etc. they will be more healthy if you just stack up rock and let them get totally out of sight.

Thanks so much for the detailed response!

 

[j.falk]

Fiji is my favorite rock...very hard to find these days!

 

[Sump Crab]

I used ocean live rock with a couple of pieces of the Tonga branch rock style "liferock" as accent to make an arch.