real live rock

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spieszak

spieszak

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not just rock that has been sitting in saltwater.. but the 'real' stuff. i'm considering rock from tampa bay salwater for my display fuge. it will stay 'un plumbed' from the system until i think its stable enough to bring online.
so, what i'm wondering about is your opinion on it. i know i'm going to get some hitchhikers, good and bad.. and i have an idea how to deal with the bad. i also already have bubble algea and aiptaisia in small numbers in my tank that i beat back at water changes.. its not a sterile enviroment, so its not like i'd be at risk for the 'normal' bad things as i already have them. i'm interested to see what i might see, or learn that i just payed a lot for rock that wasn't really all that different. at worst, it won't come online until after i've bleached the crap out of it, literally...
has anyone tried the 'real' stuff? if so, were you happy with your choice? impressed or no?
 
IMO
I would not use rock in a fuge. Just a place to collect crap, then you need to spend time and energy to clean it.

Your fuge can work with or without the rock. IMO it is only there to export unwanted nutrients. Why would you want to put something in there that would make it harder to export the un wanted nutrients?

Live rock from the ocean is a risk. IMO an unneeded risk. Not worth the price difference in my opinion.
Lots of members here will sell live and ry rock a lot cheaper than you get online. Support your local reefers!!
 
since it is a display fuge, i intend to have some macros that prefer to attach to rock, not just cheato. not talking about large amounts, just a few small pieces.. thats part of why i'm a little more willing to try something actually from the ocean. i also have rubble rock in my 75 that i collected in Maui. (i talked to fish and game, it was ok if the rocks were under three inches at their largest point) i tend to find it hard to imagine with the number of folks using nsw that its all 'that' scary, even though i do understand there is a risk there..
have you seen the stuff that comes from tampa bay saltwater? not really just live rock, its seriosuly inhabited... while its risky, i wonder if some of that life makes it worh the risk.. in that in reality, i'd be qt'ing it until i felt a little more confident.
i'm not set on the idea, but i am leaning that way (hard to tell right?)
maybe i've just gotten too comfortable with my tanks lately and am working on a way to screw them up. lol
i'd like to hear something a little more 'powerful' to talk me out of it... i'm not one who asks a question that they steer the answer on, or wasn't going to listen regardless.. i 'm just looking for a little more that 'unnecessary risk' to put in the con column.
 
spieszak said:
since it is a display fuge, i intend to have some macros that prefer to attach to rock, not just cheato. not talking about large amounts, just a few small pieces.. thats part of why i'm a little more willing to try something actually from the ocean. i also have rubble rock in my 75 that i collected in Maui. (i talked to fish and game, it was ok if the rocks were under three inches at their largest point) i tend to find it hard to imagine with the number of folks using nsw that its all 'that' scary, even though i do understand there is a risk there..
have you seen the stuff that comes from tampa bay saltwater? not really just live rock, its seriosuly inhabited... while its risky, i wonder if some of that life makes it worh the risk.. in that in reality, i'd be qt'ing it until i felt a little more confident.
i'm not set on the idea, but i am leaning that way (hard to tell right?)
maybe i've just gotten too comfortable with my tanks lately and am working on a way to screw them up. lol
i'd like to hear something a little more 'powerful' to talk me out of it... i'm not one who asks a question that they steer the answer on, or wasn't going to listen regardless.. i 'm just looking for a little more that 'unnecessary risk' to put in the con column.
Click to expand...

If you want to try it, dont let anyone talk you out of it.
There is no reason you can not put it in your fuge.
Just look at it like an experiment. If you dont like what you see after 6 weeks or so, break it down and re do it before you put the fuge on line
 
well, thats the thing, and kind of why i posted this. i want to make sure i'm not totally missing a terribly obvious 'bad'. i think i understand the risk, with crabs amd mantis and bacteria and algae.. and i think i can manage those risks in a small non connected system by treating it as a QT for 11 or 12 weeks so that it goes through a fallow period... so, i think the worst that can happen is that i spent too much money on rock. now if that isn't the case, and i'm totoally missing something, i'd need someone to point it out because it means my evaluation is off and i'm taking a larger risk than I calculated. if it weren't for the fact that i can run it disconnected for as long as I need it wouldn't be a risk i'd take. its also a bit scary to think about how long things take to pop up sometimes, so the timeframe on the QT is kind of hard to manage too. we have a habit in the hobby of kind of throwing things in two boxes, one labeled good, and one labeled bad, and it takes a long time for something that was dropped into the bad box to make it back out. (ask the bristleworm) i don't want to be living on the edge, but i also don't want to be stagnant, and stuck in my ways. when i see the amount of biodiversity that comes from some of the rock they have shiiped, it makes me want to try it, in the 'safest' way possible. since the fuge is the next thing on the list, and i'd want it offline for a while anyway while it goes through its little piece of new tank syndrome, it seems a safe place to give it a shot without taking on all the risk i would be taking with even a new tank.. since with a new tank you always want to rush and stock something, no matter how much you know better.

i was kind of thinking about it just as you describe, an experiment. so, i WANT someone to talk me out of it... i want to hear all the 'bad', and all the reasons why i'm just wasting my money, time and effort.. so that if i do take the risk, i'm as sure as i can be that i spent enough effort trying to educate myself on the subject.

hope that makes sense...
 
I wouldn't go with any rock from Florida. For some reason there sem to be alot of unwanted critters in that type of rock. Stick with something form the south pacific if you are gonna have rock in your fuge. I have some rock in mine, and my caulerpa grows like crazy in there.
 
what type of caulerpa do you have? Have you worried about it creeping into your display?
I agree on them always being another display anyway, but this one will BE displayed rather than in cabinet or in sump.. And I want to do it that way not only so that I actually get to enjoy it, but also so that it 'forces' my maintenance. The opposite of out of site out of mind.
 
Take a look at the thread I pointed you to in that PM Stacey :). You had to ask what kind of caulerpa huh..............................LOL. Me thinks it is the grape, not really sure. I have just had it since 2004 and I remove about 5 lbs. of it every 2 water changes, about every 20 days. My refugium also houses a pair of clowns and Gomer the Watchman Goby, and right now a few Acan frags.

I really have no idea why people hide their refugiums, they are a whole other ecosystem to me.
 
Ah, crap... Should have looked to see if you had a build thread. Sorry, not like me to need hand holding on something obvious. I will check it out in a bit.

I think people hide them so that they can look terrible, because they work just as well if not better regardless of trying to make them 'look nice'... I find that stuff interesting no matter how 'bad' it looks though. I've been fascinated by the stuff since I was little, and would have pursued the whole marine biologist trek if there were jobs there that paid you enough to be able to keep a tank. well, that, and I'm likely not smart enough to do it well, since I get lost in just looking. Its either this stuff or small shiny objects, lol :)
 
i'm a few pages in to the one you pointed me too... surfing between commercial breaks and stuff. your fuge looks awesome. mine will just be a 20 long so not nearly as dramatic... but it should still be fun.
 
yeah, *sigh* your fuge is as big as my tank.. someday i will have the dream tank though, and i'm thrilled to be learning on the 75. its my first drilled tank, and that in and of itself was pretty fun to figure out. :)
 
i've always given my tanks away when i took breaks.. along with equipment and pretty much everything else. doing so has always paid me back in karma it seems because when i'm ready to start back in, i tend to find some great deals on used equipment. i love handing them over though, because you can always see the reminder of that wide eyed soul you were when you first set up a tank in the person your giving them too... which is payback enough in itself.
 
That 75 was still active when I set up the 300, and actually was an after thought as far a being a refugium. I think I added it about 6 months after the display was up and running. The only thing that has changed was in 2008 when I redid everything, it got new sand. And FWIW, everytime I clean the glass in my 300 and sit back and look, it pays me back. It may not be what it once was, but it is still a beautiful tank in its own right. At least I think it is ;).
 
IMG_7999.jpg


whats this one called?
 
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