Real Reef Rock

[SurfTrack]

Im having second thoughts about the rock that I chose for my new reef setup (CaribSea Life Rocks Shapes). Im wondering if any of you have any experience with Real Reef Rocks. Any reviews? Ive used the CaribSea Life Rock and the color fades so fast.

 

[IPHY]

I bought a 40lb box of Real Reef “mixed sizes” to add to my already up and running (but seriously neglected and basically getting restarted) mixed reef 100g tank.

My tank already had live rock in it, and a very long-lived favia colony plus a few soft corals, hydroids, and a bazillion ‘pods. The Real Reef rocks were, indeed, an excellent mix of shapes and sizes. And, they were fairly “natural” looking. They were a lot redder than any coralline algae already in my tank. That was my main concern.

Here’s one of the bigger pieces, where you can see the color and the little shells and stuff in it. Also, notice that it’s _really_ white where it was broken apart.

There was a lot of rubble in the bottom of the box, as you can see:

But, I got lots of great pieces and feel like I definitely got as much rock to go in my tank as I was expecting when I ordered the 40lb size.

I scrubbed all of it thoroughly with a toothbrush. There was a lot of dust from the rubble and breakage and whatnot, and also the paper they wrapped it in was thin and did more sticking forever to the rock than protecting the pieces during shipping, in my opinion.

Here’s what the stuff I decided to put in my tank looked like scrubbed:

This was by no means every single piece. And I did go ahead and scrubbed up everything so I could put the leftover pieces in my sump.

And here’s what it looked like in my tank on June 1:

Remember that I already had live rock; so this looks like a lot for 40lbs because it’s sitting on top of and slightly intermingled with existing rock. But this gives you an idea of how the color looked. Since I mentioned it earlier, it still looked really red to me and the whites from the break points was _REALLY_ white. However, a couple of weeks in the tank and some film algae and some new coralline growth and whatnot and now it looks better. Here’s what it looked like in my tank on June 22:

I just scrubbed it thoroughly with a toothbrush under tap water and then let it dry out for a day (because of my schedule, not because I thought it needed it) and then put it right into my tank. No cycling and no problems.

The color has really evened itself out. As with all things in this hobby, patience was the key. I was very happy with this whole experience and would definitely buy Real Reef rock again.

 

[Devaji]

I really love real reef rock! IMHO caribSea looks dirty to me...
I have about 50# or so of real reef rock.

 

[VR28man]

Real Reef and Life Rock are, to my understanding, both some kind of artificial rock structure (and fairly dense and nonporous) that's basically white. They spray some kind of reef-safe purple dye onto it, as well as seed dry bacteria. I'm not so sure that there's any functional difference between them, especially in terms of the dye's durability.

That being said, they get some interesting patterns. @IPHY I like the rockscape! :)

 

[Tiger Brown]

@IPHY : I see you are a newer member so welcome to the forum #1, but also that was a great post with great pictures on the Real Reef Rock thank you so much for that! I spoke with the rep at Reef a Palooza and looked at his samples and I am sold on the product and will use it next tank upgrade.

 

[IPHY]

@IPHY I like the rockscape! :)

Thanks!

 

[IPHY]

@IPHY : I see you are a newer member so welcome to the forum #1, but also that was a great post with great pictures on the Real Reef Rock thank you so much for that! I spoke with the rep at Reef a Palooza and looked at his samples and I am sold on the product and will use it next tank upgrade.

Thanks! Glad if it can help.

I’m new to REEF2REEF but an old reefer. My tank’s 12 years old, and an upgrade from a 5-year-old 55g FOWLR. I need to get a build thread going since I’m kind of rebooting right now. :D

 

[flchamp89]

Caribsea life rock shapes looks different. Should have an arch or two. A couple pieces with holes in it and a cave.

 

[mfinn]

I bought 200lbs. of Real Reef rock from Live Aquaria. Suppose to be pieces from 5" to 16".
There were no 16" pieces in 5 boxes.
When I separated the pieces in groups based on size.
There was 50+lbs of nothing but 4" -5" pieces.
Another 35lbs. of nothing but rubble. 2" and smaller.
The rest was 8" to 12" pieces.
I ended up buying another 100 from Premium Aquatics.
All the pieces were in the 8" to 15" ranges.
Aside from the crap from Live Aquaria, I'm very happy with the product.
I got the cycled rock from both places.

 

[flchamp89]

I bought 50 lbs overall very happy. Bought a box of shapes and regular. Used some of each and gave the rest away.

 

[SurfTrack]

I already have some caribsea shape rocks. I might just use them in my new tank

 

[IPHY]

I bought 200lbs. of Real Reef rock from Live Aquaria. Suppose to be pieces from 5" to 16".
There were no 16" pieces in 5 boxes.
When I separated the pieces in groups based on size.
There was 50+lbs of nothing but 4" -5" pieces.
Another 35lbs. of nothing but rubble. 2" and smaller.
The rest was 8" to 12" pieces.
I ended up buying another 100 from Premium Aquatics.
All the pieces were in the 8" to 15" ranges.
Aside from the crap from Live Aquaria, I'm very happy with the product.
I got the cycled rock from both places.

This is very interesting. It never occurred to me that it might matter who the retailer is, especially since it arrived in a Real Reef branded box. So, just to add a data point, I bought my 40lb box off Amazon, but it was shipped from and sold by SaltwaterAquarium.com. I had several pieces in the 10-12” range, many 6-10” pieces, and a lot of 4-6” pieces.

 

[Devaji]

I already have some caribsea shape rocks. I might just use them in my new tank

yeah if you like the shapes and style of what you got I say use it. BUT if not I say get what you like and here is why.
I did not love my rock scape kept thinking about changing it so i did not glue frags down ended up loosing a 5 frags.
stupid I know....

good luck! post a pic when you get her done.