Selecting Live Rock

I am setting up a 30 Gallon extra-high mini reef. Right now, I am in the process of deciding which liverock to use. The three top players for me right now are:

- Tonga Rock (not branch)
- Fiji Premium Rock
- Lalo (A pacific live rock sold as Dr's Foresters and smith's top choice)

The Lalo rock is the nicest as it is full of beautiful colors that the others do not have. It looks a little thin though, like plates on their web-site... I spoke to Foresters and Smith who tell me that actually it is a boulder like shape, not plate-like and that for a extra-high tank, it will stack the best of the three. Anyway, I think I'm leaning towards this stuff right now. The question is have any of you used this stuff ? Any advice ?

Thanks,
Allen

 

Welcome Allen...and please become a member...it's free!!! ;D
Make sure you check out our newest sponsor:

http://www.liverocks.com

They also have several different varieties and their rock is aquacultured. It seems that the rock that they are selling has a lot of different coralline colors and and added extras. The rates are very reasonable too!!

And again welcome to 3Reef!!
Drew

 

Liverocks.com does look like great aquacultured rock.

I've always said go for the most porous rock, not the prettiest.

Got a link to the Lalo rock Allen? I'm not familiar with that one.

 

[quote author=Matt Rogers link=board=Newbie;num=1092322144;start=0#2 date=08/12/04 at 21:43:28]Liverocks.com does look like great aquacultured rock.

I've always said go for the most porous rock, not the prettiest.

Got a link to the Lalo rock Allen? I'm not familiar with that one.[/quote]

Right here Matt.

 

About how many pounds of Live Rock should I have to start a 30 gallon tank? I'm on a budget here so I don't want to spend an outrageous amount of money.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

That rock looks nice, but more like branch rock to me. In other words, not very porous. But that's just one pic. Hard to tell.

30 - 60 pounds would do fine in your tank. Back when I started, people were doing close to 60 pounds (2 lbs/gallon), now it's closer to 1 lbs/gallon.

If you order online, most sell 40 pounds to a box. That sounds good to me for your tank.

 

[quote author=Matt Rogers link=board=Newbie;num=1092322144;start=0#5 date=08/13/04 at 12:56:34]That rock looks nice, but more like branch rock to me. In other words, not very porous. But that's just one pic. Hard to tell.

30 - 60 pounds would do fine in your tank. Back when I started, people were doing close to 60 pounds (2 lbs/gallon), now it's closer to 1 lbs/gallon.

If you order online, most sell 40 pounds to a box. That sounds good to me for your tank.

[/quote]

I'm Canadian so it's very hard for me to order online. My LFS charges $13/lb! Kind of extreme I think.

 

Wow! That's nuts!

Prices like that, you might want to go DIY.

 

[quote author=Matt Rogers link=board=Newbie;num=1092322144;start=0#7 date=08/13/04 at 13:37:50]Wow! That's nuts!

Prices like that, you might want to go DIY.[/quote]

Could be a fun project.  ;D

My only concern is that I've heard DIY live rock isn't particularly effective and it's difficult to get corraline and macro algae growth.

I don't know if that's true though. How's your DIY LR, Matt?

About how long does it take to make this stuff?

 

My diy rock is getting a lot of coralline and crawling with bugs now.

It did take a long time to make (couple weeks playing around), longer to cure (couple months, didn't do enough water changes in the kiddie pool) and even longer to get things to grow on it. (close to a year, due to bad parameters in my tank until I got dosing down.)

Now it looks great though and I am pretty proud of it.

If you do it, get a masonary drill bit and drill the hell out of each rock. Makes it incredibly more realistic looking and more porous for bugs and bacteria.