Recent purchase of Real Reef Rock.

[PurpNurp]

Decided to try something new and purchased 3 - 55lb boxes of Real Reef Rock. It was delivered today by freight.

One of the boxes looks like it has been outside, rained on for awhile. It's a little busted up too. Even the rock appears like it was left outside?
The box and the rock look like they have been sitting around for a little bit. (ie. Mold inside the box, leaves and some type of small branch thing attached to the rock, what looks like cobwebs on the rocks and a few rocks have a weird grayish soft spot...)
Inside the box has a very pungent smell and not like dead organic smell.. But like if wet, dirty socks grew mold.
Definitely not the best thing to put in a tank.
We also noticed something that resembles a feather duster worm tube.

The other two boxes aren't so bad, but we are wondering about the smell.. My husband says most of the rock smells kind of like weak dish soap. Is this a normal smell for this brand of rock?

What's your experience with Real Reef Rock? Notice any undesirable items or damage?

Should we be concerned with the mold in the one box, and the out of place smell in the other two?

We want to be extra cautious with this build after a long battle with Marine Velvet, and somehow keeping our 7in Blue Hippo alive this long. She deserves the best this time around.
And of course we will be contacting the store we purchased this from.

We are always trying to further our knowledge in this amazing hobby so we appreciate your input!

 

[PanchoG]

Never bought from that vendor but if they are live rock is normal to be wet and smelly.

 

[mfinn]

Many places sell the Real Reef Rock drop shipped from Real Reef Rock.
It is cycled in saltwater, then wrapped in paper and boxed up.
So yes it is going to smell funny. There will be a certain amount of bacteria die off, plus there might be a small amount of marine life ( no corals)

You should put it in saltwater as soon as possible to help preserve the bacteria.

I've order Real Reef rock 3 different times and this is normal.

What I didn't care for was the condition of some of the rock. Pretty beat up and lots of rubble. But I guess that's how it goes when you order stuff shipped, as opposed to buying from your local fish store. No rubble there.

 

[zukihara]

My box was broken into tiny pieces and I got 3 useable rocks and some rubble out of 55 pounds. COLLOSAL waste of money. Never again.

 

[PurpNurp]

Never bought from that vendor but if they are live rock is normal to be wet and smelly.

Of course. But there is mold on the inside of the boxes.. One box smells absolutely putrid, while the other two boxes don't seem as bad... Definitely not interested in even putting this in our tank.

 

[mfinn]

Of course. But there is mold on the inside of the boxes.. One box smells absolutely putrid, while the other two boxes don't seem as bad... Definitely not interested in even putting this in our tank.

Rock that has been in saltwater and then partially died from shipping is supposed to smell bad ( maybe not bad, but definitely not roses).
You should have seen what uncured harvested live rock back in the 80's and 90's smelled like.

 

[PurpNurp]

Many places sell the Real Reef Rock drop shipped from Real Reef Rock.
It is cycled in saltwater, then wrapped in paper and boxed up.
So yes it is going to smell funny. There will be a certain amount of bacteria die off, plus there might be a small amount of marine life ( no corals)

You should put it in saltwater as soon as possible to help preserve the bacteria.

I've order Real Reef rock 3 different times and this is normal.

What I didn't care for was the condition of some of the rock. Pretty beat up and lots of rubble. But I guess that's how it goes when you order stuff shipped, as opposed to buying from your local fish store. No rubble there.

We purchased through our LFS, and had it shipped from a wholesaler a few hours away.

Real Reef probably would have never let these boxes go out to a customer.
And I agree about the condition, as shown in one of my photos there is a soft spot in the rock. Like it's "rotten"
I'm just not confident about putting this shipment of rocks in our tank. Mold is not okay with me..

 

[Greybeard]

I bought my 'real reef' rock from a display at Reef Palooza in 2019. Since it was a big show, I'd have to assume they brought the best they had... and I was able to pick my boxes in person.

It did not smell overly bad. Was slightly damp. I'd expect, if you stored a box of wet rock and newspaper for very long, you would indeed get some smell... and mold. Unfortunate that they'd ship it this way.

After actually putting this rock in my tank, I've decided there was very little 'life' on it. The purple paint helps a little with the ugly stages, but IMHO, it's not worth the price over more standard, mined, dry rock. Didn't establish a bio filter any faster than dry 'reefsaver' type rock.

I'll not be buying it again.

 

[PurpNurp]

Rock that has been in saltwater and then partially died from shipping is supposed to smell bad ( maybe not bad, but definitely not roses).
You should have seen what uncured harvested live rock back in the 80's and 90's smelled like.

I don't expect it to smell like roses But I do expect to not have mold all inside the box with leaves and **** all over the rock.. Like I said, the other two boxes of rock we got don't seem to have all the same problems. It was just a very interesting sterile smell compared to the aroma of dirty moldy socks from the other box.

 

[KrisReef]

Looks and sounds sub-par for at least one box. These kinds of purchases (blind shipped) are hit or miss ime with all sorts of items that I have purchased this way. Let's hope your vendor can offer you a valid fix.

I would use the rock if you have it. I don't think a replacement shipment would improve the product you purchased. Thanks for posting your experience, it is helpful to see what they shipped to you.

(I am a huge fan of old school live rock and ocean farmed rocks in principle. )

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

A few pictures to show what live rock is supposed to look like fresh:

 

[PanchoG]

Of course. But there is mold on the inside of the boxes.. One box smells absolutely putrid, while the other two boxes don't seem as bad... Definitely not interested in even putting this in our tank.

Maybe some big hitchhikers died in there.... ;Yuck

 

[PurpNurp]

I bought my 'real reef' rock from a display at Reef Palooza in 2019. Since it was a big show, I'd have to assume they brought the best they had... and I was able to pick my boxes in person.

It did not smell overly bad. Was slightly damp. I'd expect, if you stored a box of wet rock and newspaper for very long, you would indeed get some smell... and mold. Unfortunate that they'd ship it this way.

After actually putting this rock in my tank, I've decided there was very little 'life' on it. The purple paint helps a little with the ugly stages, but IMHO, it's not worth the price over more standard, mined, dry rock. Didn't establish a bio filter any faster than dry 'reefsaver' type rock.

I'll not be buying it again.

The other two boxes seem "fine" other than a little mold on the box but nothing crazy.
This one box definitely seems like it has been around for awhile. We decided to try this instead of Caribsea (I didn't like the way they fit together and the color leached off of them)

We have contacted our LFS and he's working to make it right.
Good to know about your experience with the establishment of the biofilter.

I just can't, in good conscious, put this rock in my tank after the things we have encountered..

 

[PurpNurp]

Maybe some big hitchhikers died in there.... ;Yuck

And awhile ago too..

 

[PurpNurp]

Looks and sounds sub-par for at least one box. These kinds of purchases (blind shipped) are hit or miss ime with all sorts of items that I have purchased this way. Let's hope your vendor can offer you a valid fix.

I would use the rock if you have it. I don't think a replacement shipment would improve the product you purchased. Thanks for posting your experience, it is helpful to see what they shipped to you.

(I am a huge fan of old school live rock and ocean farmed rocks in principle. )

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

A few pictures to show what live rock is supposed to look like fresh:

We are going to examine the remaining rock closer when we get home this evening. Hopefully it is better shape than this other stuff.. We have coralline algae coming today and sure would love to have some rock in the tank...

 

[Thaxxx]

That is just man made.
It has very little, if any valuable former life on it. They paint it the put it in fresh water for 12 weeks, then in salt water for about 12 to 16 weeks. It's man made with differant aggregates, sand and minerals. I'm guessing the main ingredient is cement. Hopefully some of the phosphates that cement carries has leached out already.. But you might want to keep a eye on them.

I would cure those again in Saltwater until the cycle is done. Unless your tank has no current life in it. Then of course you can let it cycle in your tank.

 

[1Clown]

Never had an issue with it, best man made rock on the planet imo.

 

[PurpNurp]

Never had an issue with it, best man made rock on the planet imo.

The rock seems really nice. Hopefully we can get it cleaned up enough because this box of rock definitely wasn't given the best care before being shipping to us.

 

[PurpNurp]

That is just man made.
It has very little, if any valuable former life on it. They paint it the put it in fresh water for 12 weeks, then in salt water for about 12 to 16 weeks. It's man made with differant aggregates, sand and minerals. I'm guessing the main ingredient is cement. Hopefully some of the phosphates that cement carries has leached out already.. But you might want to keep a eye on them.

I would cure those again in Saltwater until the cycle is done. Unless your tank has no current life in it. Then of course you can let it cycle in your tank.

Their process of making the rock is the reason we decided to go with them. This box of rock has some unwanted items within it, which is why we aren't interested in putting it anywhere near our tank.
We are heavily cautious after dealing with marine velvet recently..

 

[Cell]

You don't want shipped live rock to go straight into your tank anyway. It should go in a brute or other container for curing/getting rid of the whatever died en route before going in your display.

 

[PurpNurp]

You don't want shipped live rock to go straight into your tank anyway. It should go in a brute or other container for curing/getting rid of the whatever died en route before going in your display.

I'm aware of that. Never said I was going to, especially since this box of rocks won't be going in or around our tank..
We will be attempting to clean off the leaves, what looks like mold growth and scraping off the white tube worm looking things... Hopefully it will look like the other two boxes of almost pristine rock when we are done..

Just definitely not impressed with this box, seriously looks like it's been baking in the sun.. The color is worn on the box and looks significantly older than the others, with an extreme amount of unwanted, biological growth that we have been told is not on the rock when shipped from Real Reef and the wholesaler says they don't open the boxes before shipping to the consumer.

We shouldn't have to scrap off possible hitchhikers from a company that claims there aren't pests or hitchhikers.