A
Anonymous
Guest
Who has used it? What has your experience been? Where do you get it? Pros and cons in general?
Kinda like the idea--but not a clue to the reality.
Thanks,
b.
Kinda like the idea--but not a clue to the reality.
Thanks,
b.
A
Anonymous
Guest
I've never used it. The main drawbacks from my understanding is that it will take awhile for stuff to colonize, including the all-important bacteria, and it may leach chemicals that increase the pH of your system after overwhelming its buffering capacity.
As an alternative, you could try aquacultured live rock, which is essentially limestone tossed into the ocean for several years. I have this and am generally satisfied. I got mine from www.tbsaltwater.com I like it overall, but also have some complaints I could go into if you are interested.
As an alternative, you could try aquacultured live rock, which is essentially limestone tossed into the ocean for several years. I have this and am generally satisfied. I got mine from www.tbsaltwater.com I like it overall, but also have some complaints I could go into if you are interested.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Sure. Fire away.
b.
b.
A
Anonymous
Guest
I bought aquacultered rock from TBSaltwater and was quite impressed. Filled with life. I had it air freighted from Tampa to Grand Rapids MI. It left Tampa at 8:30 AM and arrived in G.R. at 1:30 PM. This was raw rock that went directly into my tank.
NO problems! The freight charge was $60 for 140 Lbs. As I understand it this is'nt just limestone but rock that was coral and such many eons ago. I would recommend it.
NO problems! The freight charge was $60 for 140 Lbs. As I understand it this is'nt just limestone but rock that was coral and such many eons ago. I would recommend it.
A
Anonymous
Guest
As I said, I am pretty satisfied with this overall. Here are the main drawbacks as I saw it:
1. The rock is not cured. You get to do this. Either you have to do this for a new aquarium, or you have to have a second container in which to cure the rock. In my experience this required changing 50% of the water every day for 2 weeks, a real chore. Most of the sponges attached to the rock died. Also, I had 3 mantis shrimp. one of which made it into my system.
2. The rock is less porous than premium fiji rock, so you need about 2 lbs/gal. Also, the rock is generally approximately spherical, so it tends to stack like cannonballs.
3. It doesn't have deep purple corraline algae on it, which a lot of people equate with quality. Mine has sort of a soft lavender growth.
4. If you buy the package, they send you live sand and rock first, and then 2 or 3 weeks later when your aquarium has cycled, a clean-up crew. The live sand was underwhelming, and I did not at the time know that you need to have a 4" to 6" sandbed, so they only send you about 1/4 of what you need. If you get this, you should mix it with a 3-fold excess of "dead" sand. Also, the clean-up crew was not nearly as effective as the one I bought from GARF to replace it a few months down the road.
The main advantages of this are that the rock is environmentally sound, it comes with an increadible array of life on it including crabs, sponges, stony corals, fan worms, tunicates, caulerpa, and a number of other desirable species. Now that I have it up and running, it looks a lot better than the reef display tanks at local fish stores.
PS: I believe ALL limestone is fossilized coral.
[This message has been edited by flounder (edited 29 January 2000).]
1. The rock is not cured. You get to do this. Either you have to do this for a new aquarium, or you have to have a second container in which to cure the rock. In my experience this required changing 50% of the water every day for 2 weeks, a real chore. Most of the sponges attached to the rock died. Also, I had 3 mantis shrimp. one of which made it into my system.
2. The rock is less porous than premium fiji rock, so you need about 2 lbs/gal. Also, the rock is generally approximately spherical, so it tends to stack like cannonballs.
3. It doesn't have deep purple corraline algae on it, which a lot of people equate with quality. Mine has sort of a soft lavender growth.
4. If you buy the package, they send you live sand and rock first, and then 2 or 3 weeks later when your aquarium has cycled, a clean-up crew. The live sand was underwhelming, and I did not at the time know that you need to have a 4" to 6" sandbed, so they only send you about 1/4 of what you need. If you get this, you should mix it with a 3-fold excess of "dead" sand. Also, the clean-up crew was not nearly as effective as the one I bought from GARF to replace it a few months down the road.
The main advantages of this are that the rock is environmentally sound, it comes with an increadible array of life on it including crabs, sponges, stony corals, fan worms, tunicates, caulerpa, and a number of other desirable species. Now that I have it up and running, it looks a lot better than the reef display tanks at local fish stores.
PS: I believe ALL limestone is fossilized coral.
[This message has been edited by flounder (edited 29 January 2000).]
A
Anonymous
Guest
bmw, check out the post I put on tb's thread.
Flounder not all ls (thats what the call limestone in the geology community
)is made of fossilized coral. Where I live most of the bedrock is ls that is less than 1% coral. Much of limestone is shells of forams, brachipods, crinoids and others. Some localities are almost entirely coral though. The lemestone that they use is aragonite. This is a geologically young limestone that hasn't been converted to calcite. Aragonite is the same stuff but has a different crystal lattice that allows it to dissolve better. That is why aragonite sand is better than crushed coral (calcite) for buffering, calcium addition etc.
HTH
Matt
Flounder not all ls (thats what the call limestone in the geology community
HTH
Matt
A
Anonymous
Guest
bmw,
For what it's worth, nearly half of my rock is artificial. I bought it at the LFS. It was cheap (sold as aragocrete) but obviously man made.The shapes resembled rejected donuts. I used it as base and built around it with live rock. It quickly became encrusted with coraline and has become "live". It is not anywhere near as porous as I would like, but for the money - I would do it again. I also have used some lace rock that has done very well. Again, porosity is minimal but it is aesthetically nice. At one of the 'fish nerd meetings' (that's what my wife calls the monthly aquarium club meetings) someone had a tube of coraline starter. I have no idea where they got it??? (looked like purple toothpaste) But they said they spread it all over aragocrete and it grows like crazy. You might check that out???
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http://www.xmission.com/~mikeb/heil.html
For what it's worth, nearly half of my rock is artificial. I bought it at the LFS. It was cheap (sold as aragocrete) but obviously man made.The shapes resembled rejected donuts. I used it as base and built around it with live rock. It quickly became encrusted with coraline and has become "live". It is not anywhere near as porous as I would like, but for the money - I would do it again. I also have used some lace rock that has done very well. Again, porosity is minimal but it is aesthetically nice. At one of the 'fish nerd meetings' (that's what my wife calls the monthly aquarium club meetings) someone had a tube of coraline starter. I have no idea where they got it??? (looked like purple toothpaste) But they said they spread it all over aragocrete and it grows like crazy. You might check that out???
------------------
http://www.xmission.com/~mikeb/heil.html
A
Anonymous
Guest
Hi Actinic1,
thanks for your response. And those of others who responded.
If anyone else has experience with actually using man-made rock, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks,
b.
thanks for your response. And those of others who responded.
If anyone else has experience with actually using man-made rock, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks,
b.
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