Snail eating paint off live rock

[Aronsaquarium]

Is this ok/normal?
My
Snails are polishing the red paint the live rock comes with

 

[KrisReef]

I hope they didn't use lead base paint or else your snails are liable to get lazy?

. It doesn't sound good.

 

[braaap]

That’s coraline. Unless you actually bought painted rocks. If you did then it should be “reef safe” and won’t hurt anything.

 

[Tamberav]

I have seen this but with urchins..

Painted rock is bleh. I am sure eating paint isn’t ideal.

 

[slingfox]

That doesn't look like live rock from the ocean. It looks like artificially painted mined man made rock. I painted my white Marco Rock with reef safe paint. The artificial coloring did not last long. In retrospect painting was a mistake and waste of money for me.

If that was coraline then the only critter that could strip it down to the white rock underneath are urchins.

 

[Aronsaquarium]

That doesn't look like live rock from the ocean. It looks like artificially painted mined man made rock. I painted my white Marco Rock with reef safe paint. The artificial coloring did not last long. In retrospect painting was a mistake and waste of money for me.

If that was coraline then the only critter that could strip it down to the white rock underneath are urchins.

I believe real live rock is illegal in California..
But yes it’s man made and they paint them which I hate!
But it’s the only live rock you buy here..

I’m assuming if it’s purpose made for this, it wouldn’t be toxic?

 

[slingfox]

I believe real live rock is illegal in California..
But yes it’s man made and they paint them which I hate!
But it’s the only live rock you buy here..

I’m assuming if it’s purpose made for this, it wouldn’t be toxic?

Live rock is not illegal in California (that is also where I live). There are no issues purchasing live rock or live sand from Florida and getting it shipped to California. Also, the various LFS also sell rock that has been baking in their systems.

If that is Caribsea Life Rock you may be in for a rough ride. It seems like that specific brand causes problems for many new and old reef keepers.

 

[Tamberav]

I believe real live rock is illegal in California..
But yes it’s man made and they paint them which I hate!
But it’s the only live rock you buy here..

I’m assuming if it’s purpose made for this, it wouldn’t be toxic?

hmm I think you can buy live rock from florida and have it shipped there?

Or you could buy macro rocks or BRS saver rock which is white but basically mined natural aragonite.

 

[PharmrJohn]

That doesn't look like live rock from the ocean. It looks like artificially painted mined man made rock. I painted my white Marco Rock with reef safe paint. The artificial coloring did not last long. In retrospect painting was a mistake and waste of money for me.

If that was coraline then the only critter that could strip it down to the white rock underneath are urchins.

Well, painting anything (as the act itself at least) is never a waste of time. I rattle-canned a '73 Chevy Pick up once. Can you guess what it looked like? Yep, like someone spray painted a truck. Still looked better though!!!!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Is this ok/normal?
My
Snails are polishing the red paint the live rock comes with

This is LIFE rock, not live and has a thin layer of epoxy. Ninja star and conchs are the only snails that MAYBE can penetrate the coating but seems very off

 

[Tamberav]

I think it looks better with it scraped off… left one resembles a cyano rock to me.

 

[Aronsaquarium]

This is LIFE rock, not live and has a thin layer of epoxy. Ninja star and conchs are the only snails that MAYBE can penetrate the coating but seems very off

Yes so when they say live, they mean it’s been sitting in water with live bacteria’s for a long time.
It’s not the live rock we used to get in the old days.

But the snails are polishing that paint lol.
That white rock was fully pink/red a couple days ago..

If that epoxy or paint isn’t harmful, then it doesn’t both me.. I don’t care for the paint.. I just wanted the established bacteria when I got them however long ago..

I’ve seen these types of snails (with the black body) do this in the past too.. but here it looks like most of their meal has been paint! So I was a little concerned

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yes so when they say live, they mean it’s been sitting in water with live bacteria’s for a long time.
It’s not the live rock we used to get in the old days.

But the snails are polishing that paint lol.
That white rock was fully pink/red a couple days ago..

If that epoxy or paint isn’t harmful, then it doesn’t both me.. I don’t care for the paint.. I just wanted the established bacteria when I got them however long ago..

I’ve seen these types of snails (with the black body) do this in the past too.. but here it looks like most of their meal has been paint! So I was a little concerned

The coating is deemed reef safe

 

[B&CinB.C.]

Live rock is not illegal in California (that is also where I live). There are no issues purchasing live rock or live sand from Florida and getting it shipped to California. Also, the various LFS also sell rock that has been baking in their systems.

If that is Caribsea Life Rock you may be in for a rough ride. It seems like that specific brand causes problems for many new and old reef keepers.

Please explain what the problems with Caribsea Liferock are

 

[Aronsaquarium]

Just that the snails have the ability to eat the paint off :)
Otherwise I like the product
I don’t think all snails do, but the black foot ones I have which move and eat better do..

 

[B&CinB.C.]

Just that the snails have the ability to eat the paint off :)
Otherwise I like the product
I don’t think all snails do, but the black foot ones I have which move and eat better do..

@slingfox makes it sound like there are more problems than that

 

[BeanAnimal]

I believe real live rock is illegal in California..

Everything is illegal in California unless you are a criminal committing a crime, and that (committing a crime) is the only thing known to the state of California to not cause cancer.

As for your snails, I think they will be fine.

 

[Dom]

I believe real live rock is illegal in California..

What isn't? :rolleyes:

 

[Aronsaquarium]

Live rock is not illegal in California (that is also where I live). There are no issues purchasing live rock or live sand from Florida and getting it shipped to California. Also, the various LFS also sell rock that has been baking in their systems.

If that is Caribsea Life Rock you may be in for a rough ride. It seems like that specific brand causes problems for many new and old reef keepers.

It depends on what you define as Live rock ;)
Harvested from a reef is illegal in California, and I’d assume the whole US.

What shops sell is usually rock that has been baked in their systems which is what I mentioned above :)
And they usually use Carinsea life rock for their curated “live rock”.
It’s really just a kickstart for different bacteria’s. And because it’s made out of the same kinda Calcium as reef live rock (dead coral), it’s more porous etc..

(20 years ago you could get reef harvested live rock that had the scariest looking critters and long slimy black starfish come out of them in the middle of the night lol
It’s different now a days..)

 

[twentyleagues]

Please explain what the problems with Caribsea Liferock are

I dont know if you would call this a problem actually but what I have seen from life rock is it is mostly agracrete so man made formed rock structures made using concrete and other bits. If properly cured its not usually an issue, I have made and used agracrete in the past. The problem with it is that until cured it will greatly effect water parameters, hardness, ph, and phosphate. I find it a little hard to think with a manufacturer making a ton of this stuff they are letting it properly cure and leach out, way too time consuming. I have seen quite a few cant get rid of this algae threads where life rock was used could be just new reefer could be from life rock leeching phosphates??? I guess the only way to know would be to buy some and test it out in fresh clean water. I know that the process to let agracrete leech and cure is a fairly long process.