The difference in live rock we should know!

[90_Berlin_joe]

Very new to SW with a 90gal reef tank(July 03, 05). I only have thus far 50pds of live rock ranging from Florida to Premium figi. All looks great except for the Florida, which I just added to my tank past weekend. The rock has allot of plant life, which I am not sure I should have. The rest of my rock has nice purple and pink coralline.

My question is what is the difference in live rock, is one better than the other? What live rock is coarser for less weight with my mase coverage?

All around question what Live Rock is the best for SW reef tank.

[kb.bear]

Florida aquaculture probaby has the highest density. this means less surface area per pound

[90_Berlin_joe]

I am really looking for more surface per pound. I need to fill up a 90g right now it looks like just a bunch of pebbles.

[kb.bear]

somewere on this site there is a thread about diffrent live rock I'll try to find it

[APC]

I like the FL Keys live rock. It is aquacultured, there is a lot of coraline on it - check out www.liverocks.com and select the FL keys rock, the pictures are very accurate depictions of the actual product. Plus it is the best choice for the environment - I think we should avoid chipping rock off of reefs if there is a economically viable alternative. I know there are pros and cons to both forms of rock, and I am not judging, this is just my opinion.

You may also want to look at www.garf.org. They have information on actually making your own live rock. If you look at their pictures, the rock looks good. I favored the aquacultured rock because I am not patient enough to grow it from scratch.

[Birdlady]

Pacific rock is more porous, requiring less pounds per gallon to aesthetically fill an aquarium and perform biofiltration.

Considerations,

FL rock is more dense and heavy, but usually has lots more of the pretty stuff on it Additionally, it comes from the atlantic and has different pathogens than the pacific. It may or may not cause problems in a system housing mostly pacific specimens. There is some discussion that the pathogens from the atlantic can be more hazardous to pacific life because they have no immunity to such pathogens (and vice versa) One can have a beautiful atlantic display!

Pacific rock is less dense or more porous, comes in unique shapes (eg. tonga branch or shelf rock). It comes from quite far away and therefore most of the external pretty stuff has died off, but the funtioning bacterial populations are usually still more than adequate for filtration of our aquariums.

Live rock is no longer 'cut ' from real reefs. Generally speaking, it is gathered from rubble that has broken of naturally during storms etc. (I am sure there are always folks going to break the rules tho). Be sure to order from reputable sources.

In the end, it is what you like! Either will work fine.

[Covey]

Got some of the Aquacultured Pacific rock from the Paul Reed Smith farms. I thought it was nice and covered in pink coraline until I saw pics of the farm in "Coral" the magizine and to my surpise the I noticed the rock was already pink. It is the man made argo-crete stuff like the DIY stuff but they added something to the rock to make it pink. Way shady. You try to do the right thing and buy Aquacultered only to get scammed.

[Birdlady]

Hehe,,, I think you mean Walt Smith... Isn't Paul Reed Smith a guitar player with his own brand of guitar?

Perhaps it is a natural material available to the folks there that is pink...making the rocks pink. I knew their rock was man made, and placed into the water...voila aquacultured! I have heard great things about Walt Smith (along with the occasional not so great )

[Birdlady]

Hmm, interestingly enough, I know I had seen articles on his site about the live rock, and how it was made, etc... but it would appear, I cannot find anything about it at all now....

[Covey]

Opps yeah I got the hobbies mixed up!