Live rocks in water are awesome

marcwjj · Sep 8, 2020

Update, I’ve found one more gorilla crab through a hyper salinity bath and have since kept them in a marina breeder box , together with the Eunice worm. Maybe they can live there for awhile.

Silent · Sep 8, 2020

samnaz said:
Very nice rock. Is it just me or is live rock making a comeback? And rightfully so!

I believe live rock would if it were available. That is the main reason no one uses it anymore, too many restrictions on collecting now and it just is not available the way it used to be.

Larry L · Sep 8, 2020

marcwjj said:
No ammonia spike so far, I’m doing daily water changes and ammonia reads 0.25 ppm. I’m going to pause the water change and let the ammonia go up to 1 ppm to get the cycle going.

If the rock came in wet and without die-off, it's guaranteed to be loaded with a live bacterial community - why the need to cycle any further? Raising the ammonia will probably just kill off some of the stuff you already have.

marcwjj · Sep 8, 2020

Larry L said:
If the rock came in wet and without die-off, it's guaranteed to be loaded with a live bacterial community - why the need to cycle any further? Raising the ammonia will probably just kill off some of the stuff you already have.

Sorry I misspoke, ammonia should not really go high if the bacteria are alive. But it's day 4 and I'm not seeing much Nitrate yet so I'm waiting a few more days to see more nitrate before adding any new fish / CUC.

Does that make sense?

G Santana · Sep 8, 2020

Like finding that toy at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box!!!

Enjoy the freebies lol

Timfish · Sep 8, 2020

Nice rock! Stick the crabs in a bucket with an airstone. If you do small water changes with aquarium water they should be fine for weeks to months. In my opinion live rock should never have gone out of favor but we have science now showing how important some of the cryptic stuff is for a healthy ecosystem.

Revnobody · Sep 18, 2020

Nice post! My rock from KP should show up next week. Good to know there are still a few places to get quality live rock.

marcwjj · Sep 19, 2020

Revnobody said:
Nice post! My rock from KP should show up next week. Good to know there are still a few places to get quality live rock.

Super cool. By the way, I later found a clam attached to the rock as well, but he didn’t make it after the trip.

stanlalee · Sep 19, 2020

I remember when aquacultured Florida rock (more like maricultured since it's seeded in the ocean) first became a thing and videos of limestone rock being dumped in the ocean. This was when fiji rock was readily available and hitchhikers/diversity by virtue of being domestic was always the appeal of Florida live rock. There was a time when the hated and paranoia of hitchhikers was limited to mantis shrimp for the most part. I do think it's a bit risky if you don't keep the right kind of fish (larger wrasses, triggers ,tusk, hawkfish, puffers, your semi-coral but not crustacean safe carnivores) to keep the non desirables in check.

RobB'z Reef · Sep 19, 2020

marcwjj said:
First time reefer here, I received 15 lbs of live rocks from KP aquatics this morning , which they shipped in water (upon request) overnight. I was positively impressed by the experience:

+ Packaging was meticulous, there was no leaks, they triple bagged all the rocks , with individual wraps and an additional black waterproof layer in between. There was also an ice pack in there, When I opened the package, there were no odor which was not what I expected and the sponges look good
+ The rocks look amazing , they are various shapes and covered by different colors of algae patches (I don't know what kind, lol)
+ We found many live things on and off the rocks, and it was an exciting treasure hunting experience for both me and the kids what I think we found (thanks to some r2r help on id'ing ) a huge brittle star and 3-4 smaller ones, a horse conch, a couple snails, an urchin, 3 little crabs, 2 gorilla crabs, spaghetti worm, eunicid worm and other unknown worms
+ Also some coral and algae that I can't name, and a nice feature duster
+ I was really worried about mantis shrimp after reading some posts, I don't think there's one (not yet)

Had I knew how amazing these rocks are I wish I could order more , instead of ordering a mix of live rocks and dry rocks. But Philipp from KP told me they could only ship 15lb in water with UPS to make sure secure packaging.

Anyhow , would highly recommend.

BTW - I don't really know what to do with the 2 gorilla crabs and eunicid worm , I don't have a sump (it's a fluval flex 32g), nor do I have spare tank, LFS is 40 min drive away, any suggestions other than letting go down the drain?

I had a great experience with them as well. Kudos to you as well!