Premium Decorative Live Rock?

I am in the beginning stages of researching my first marine/reef tank and I was pricing out some live rock when I came across a site selling two types of live rock: Live Rock From The Gulf Of Mexico.

The first is what they call premium decorative live rock, comes covered in thick coralline algae on it and a mixed variety of plants, animals, hard and soft corals, and sponges.

The next type is coralline live rock without the critters. Used for base foundation.

My question is, starting with a brand new tank, is this deco rock a good idea? I'll be purchasing a 28g nano-cube so I figure I need about 40 lbs of rock. Does 20 lbs of the coralline and 20lbs of the deco sound like a good idea?

Thanks for your time guys!

 

Looks like fantastic rock, what you have to keep in mind is will you be able to preserve that life. You would experience a lot of die off with the Premium if you placed in a system that has not fully cycled. Most of what you see on that rock would not survive the cycle unless you soft cycled the tank by doing water changes to avoid spikes in ammonia and nitrites.
Along with all the cool stuff that comes on that comes crabs, predatory worms, pest anemones.
It cost more and basically you end up with perhaps a couple variety of different sponges and perhaps a macro algae or two when all is said and done.

 

I am thinking about this stuff from the gulf. I Had only considered liveaquaria rock until just now. I never noticed this company on Google. I love the SERIOUS variety of plants, algae and inverts. Thanks for the link..

 

If you want my advice, just get dry base rock. Start a cycle by tossing fish food in the tank a couple of times. Give it 3 weeks, do a water change, you'll be okay. Its cheaper and less of a headache this way. No pests to worry about.

 

I agree dry rock is half the price, no pest and easy to work with. And I would think allot would die off from cycle with live rock. I used dry rock and you can lay out the rock the way you want it before you put itin the tank.

 

I would get manado LR from premium aquatics....I've been researching this for over 2 months an they seem to have the best price and they will even be on the phone with u while u describe the pieces u want!!

 

I set up my 120 gal. tank with 140 lbs. of deco live rock in August. my tank cycled in 101 days. so far the only pests were a couple of aiptasia that my butterfly took care of. couldn't be happier for the price.

 

I am starting up a 50 gallon cube, 24" x 24" x 20". Would 50 lbs live rock be enough?

 

Yes, its a great start. But for a 50 gallon tank, 75 lbs of live rock is the recommended amount. And let the Live rock cure before adding any living things... Google "curing live rock"

 

I have used the Premium from that Saltwater Aquarium Live Rock, Base Rock, Reef Rock, Live Sand. Tank did a full cycle so I lost a lot of it. Wasn't my tank the first time. It's really nice. Wish the tank would have been properly cycled...

If you call the guy is really help full on how much fits in a box(Flat rate box shipping so buy by the box load). What size tank you have and what size rock you want. Wanted box filling boulders in one tank. Shelf's in another.

I got the base coraline the next time and it was still better than any of the local LFS Premium (insert SE-Asia here) live rock. Still had a punch of macro on it that lived because I cycled the tank properly.


I don't know what company is better than the other. But, I will always use Live Rock aquaculture from the Gulf now over imported from who knows where.