What Is The Best Live Rock?

[fishstick]

What is the best live rock to get, and where from, mail order or lfs?

 

[@ombomb]

What do you mean by best? most attractive? most life? cured / uncured?

It's mainly down to personal preference really.

LFS is preferable to mail order IMO as you minimise the time out of the water which means less die off.

 

[Nim]

Fiji Grade A is regarded the best but some sources have also stated that the new indonesian rock is more porous and lighter than fiji. However, I would personally stick to the one that has been long trusted for years untill I have the funds to setup another tank and try the indonesian one. or unless someone has already tried.

I would get it from a LFS as I have been burnt badly by a couple of online shops (One insisted that because APC was not able to deliver for some reason on the next day, they would get that delivered after another day.. sitting in the cold warehouse for 2 full days .. I dont want that rock. drive 60 miles to APC depot to pick it up as the dealer would not listen/cancel/replace the order). If buying online, I would recomend STM and nothing apart from that.

Nim

 

[fishstick]

Thanks for your replies. What I really wanted to sort out was the difference between Indonesian and Fiji rock. Both seem to be very porous and therefore to be 'good value'. Is it just a matter of luck to get well covered and well shaped pieces? I shall have a tank of 280l (50g) so how much live rock should I look for? 20 or 30 kg?

 

[Nim]

280L would be 72 US gallons (We tend to use US Gallons as standard for aquarium terminology).

I have a percula 90 (80US Gallons) and I have about 35 kilos of live rock to start with but I will eventually need to put in another 10 kilos to get it upto the mark. I would assume at least 30 kilos for you to start with. I went with fiji despite reading lots of good reviews about indonesian but for the amount of money I was looking at, did not seem worth risking it.

I got 20 kilos online (which pretty much did not have any life on it except calupera, asterina starfish and aiptasia later 2 you really dont want on your LR). The 15 kilos I got from maidenhead aquatics also did have aiptasia but apart from that was teaming with life. From mini brittle starfish, tube worms, peanut worms, some shrimp like arthropods, a mussel, plenty of coral line algae, many polyps including a few yellow polyps, cerith snails and various types of snails, and much more that I cannot remember now. Compared to the online one that sat on a depot overnight, this was brilliant. However both rocks did work in filtering ammonia and nitrite as to test I added a piece of shrimp to the tank and never got any ammonia reading till date. Got 0.2 nitrite but that vanished in a week. After adding the live rock from the LFS, I have never got any ammonia or nitrite at all and nitrate which had previously crept up is also now as low as 2ppm.

You pay a little extra in a LFS for the live rock but in the long run, this extra will pay for itself.

Nim

 

[fishstick]

Hi Nim
Thanks again for v useful reply, I am amazed at just how much live rock one needs to make any impact on even a small tank. As you are not so far from me can I ask which M.A. you got your excellent sounding rock from? I am as interested in the life on the rock as in the corals and fish and look forward to the 3 months or so of rock-only before anything else goes in. I set up my first tank in too much of a hurry not realising how riveting rock-watching is.
Your Percula looks an interesting setup with lots included in the price. I am hoping to get a Betta lifespace and am trying to get everything together or sourced before it arrives (if it ever does) Fishstick

 

[Nim]

Rock watching is pretty interesting However 3 months may be a wait too long as you really do want to start adding fish once the tank is cycled to keep feeding the bacteria.

I got my 15 kilos from Maidenhead Waybridge. I shopped around all local stores that I can name if you want in PM. The reason I went with Weybridge was because they had live rock that had been sitting in their tank cured for over 3 months. Which means it is firstly fully cured and also housed critters from various other rocks. Unfortunatly that also had aiptasia but I have yet to see a shop that does not have aiptasia in their setup/live rock. Even the likes of STM had them . The best thing would be to get a bottle of joes juice along with the rock and nuke the buggers as soon as they come out.

When are you planning to buy the rock? I will keep a lookout around my stores to see if anyone has good stuff. MH live rock was priced £10.95 per kilo but they gave me 15 kilos for £120.

Nim

 

[fishstick]

Planning to get the rock just as soon as I hear tank has arrived. Loooooong delays. I saw someone on another forum had some LR at £6 kg. Tempting. How important to you think it is to have fresh LR rather than stuff out of an established tank?

 

[SkiFletch]

Just means you wait a little longer for it to cycle...

 

[Nim]

Live rock from an established tank would be good and probably have more life then freshly cured or mail order live rock and the price would be cheap too The only worry would be if they have used any copper based medication in the tank ever or not I dont know the consequences of it either so someone else may answer this better.

if no copper medication has been used then I think it would be a good buy.

I will be going on a shopping spree probably this weekend as we have to buy a pair or clowns and probably a green star xenia and if I find a good deal in live rock, I will let you know.. but the £6 certainly sounds lucrative.

Nim

Just means you wait a little longer for it to cycle...

If we get live rock from an established tank? What difference would it have in compared to cured live rock?

Nim

 

[Musho3210]

the best = cheapest high quality (amount of life) rock you can find IMO

 

[SkiFletch]

In theory, if the LFS/distributor is not lying to you, cured LR and LR from another aquarists tank are the same. Uncured stuff will take some time to cure if you purchase it. I agree with Musho, the best rock is that which you can find for a reasonable price with reasonable life on it, cured or uncured doesn't really matter in my experience. If the stuff from the established tank is very affordable (which it often is), I'd go with that.

 

[fishstick]

In theory, if the LFS/distributor is not lying to you, cured LR and LR from another aquarists tank are the same. Uncured stuff will take some time to cure if you purchase it. I agree with Musho, the best rock is that which you can find for a reasonable price with reasonable life on it, cured or uncured doesn't really matter in my experience. If the stuff from the established tank is very affordable (which it often is), I'd go with that.

Thanks everyone for useful replies. Think I will go with the £6 stuff then I can get a better skimmer and an RO unit for my 'water changes, water changes, water changes'