Base Rock All The Way

Hey everyone,

So after reading all day yesterday about the differences between live and base rock, I've decided on base rock all the way. I won't have to deal with the nuisance live rocks bring.

I have a 72 gal. bow front.

My question is where can I get base rock online?

And what type of base rock do you guys and girls recommend and use? And what are the advantages or disadvantages to the rock? Like density, Amount of surface area, pours on the rock, weight, etc.

Thanks everyone.

 

I've heard reefcleaners, among others.

 

People seem to really like matcorocks.com and reefcleaners. I personally haven't ordered from them but from what I've seen they are trustworthy.

 

ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Home (also one of our site sponsors!)

I just did something with the rock I bought from John...here is my rock scape thread. You will be able to see how awesome John's rock is both inside and out.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-cleaners/my-deli-sliced-reef-cleaners-rock-scape-89206.html

good luck!

 

I used 80-ish pounds of base rock from Reefcleaners.org to set up my 90 gallon. The rock is pretty light and has lots of holes for the fish. I am very happy with it!

 

I, too, have used and am happy with rock from reefcleaners.org

 

The lighter the rock the less weight you have to use to take up space. bacteria doesnt need for the rock to be heavy. A rock that is 2Ibs and 4" will have the same amount of usable bio space as a 1ib rock 4". Also the more pourous the rock the more diversity the rock has for life.


I would also recommend cooking base rock. even if it isnt live. Just to be sure it is not phosphate laden.

Macrorocks is the place to go or reefcleaners

 

I've yet to buy rock from John @ www.reefcleaners.org but have made numerous other purchases from him. I would highly reccommend you contact him and get your rock from them. You won't be disappointed in the price, service or product.

 

I'm not disagreeing, but I'm not completely agreeing either. Weight for a given size is determined, by and large, by density. The density of a rock determines how much anaerobic (O depleted) pores it has vs aerobic pores.

I would not equate it as banthony has. A heavier rock may (depending of course) have better anaerobic qualities than a similarly sized lighter rock. I personally like to have a mix of dense(ish) and light rock in my tank.

An example of a dense rock that, IME, is excellent at anaerobic colonizing (and thus nitrate reduction) is TX holey rock. I wouldn't go any denser than that though.

Of course, if it's too dense, it'll have no pores at all that are usable (river rock for example).

 

I vote for the same size rock with LESS weight and more porosity for more surface area for more bacterial colonization.
If you are buying wet, only compare wet to wet. If you are buying dry, only compare pieces that are dry with others that are dry, otherwise you can be picking a piece of dry rock that seems to be ideal, and in fact, there probably are wet pieces of similar size that are better, but could be set aside because of the problem in determining actual porosity.
Similar sized pieces that weight twice as much as another, cannot have the same porosity and surface area.