Are you interested in aquacultured live rock?

[dendronepthya]

There are a few places that are culturing live rock that uses lace rock as the raw material. The rocks themselves come in really cool shapes, and after a while look very much like the real thing. Would you buy aquacultured live rock over wild harvested live rock?

[johnrags1234]

I would be happy to be aquacultured if it looked and feeled like the real thing. IME when I ordered aquacultured (from an RC sponser) I got what more appeared to be concrete than any 'rock' Ive seen.

If somone had a rock base matching the porisity of good pacific rok, then sure, id be in, Id even pay more per pound. Of course I would expect just as many hitchhikers as the wild rock has:D

Dendro- Hows the tank?

[Mako]

Hmmm, well if I remember correctly Walt Smith has been doing this for a little while already. Makes the rock, puts it out in the ocean, and comes back for harvest after a determined amount of time has passed. I have seen the rock and it looks good and contains a fair amount of life. As I recall from wathing his presentation at the last MACNA, the sales were not exactly going as well as he had hoped. I know none of the LFS's around me carry his cultured rock. :(

All the rock coming out of Florida now is also farmed and has been for some time.

I would buy the aqua over natural, although I would probably mix a few pieces of natural in with it.

[johnrags1234]

I jut checked out walt smiths' aquacultured rock. I would pay extra for that. It is some realy great looking stuff! Its nice and porise, with natural shapes, and great colors.

My aquaculture experience was with rock from florida, and it was just to dense for me, I thought it was unnatural. To each his own.

[dendronepthya]

My thinking was that the rock be cultured inland rather in the ocean. Lace rock can be acquired for less than a dollar per pound, and there would be less in terms of transport costs compared to say the Indopacific. In theory, the costs associated with aquacultured rock would be lower than wild harvesting. What swings the argument in the favor of wild harvested rock however is the scale. It would take a significant amount of water to produce the amount of rock that can be harvested from the ocean.

I can imagine the quality of aquacultured live rock really tailing off if the store tries to move it before it is really "live." I am assuming that the rock will actually be "live rock" when it is sold.

Dendro- Hows the tank?
OK I guess, a little full from the frag swap.

[technoshaman]

I like the idea of buying aquacultured LR but have only seen the stuff from Florida/Carribean to date. Nice diversity of life but seems pretty dense IME.

Have not seen the walt smith aquacultured rock but I'm guessing he uses local rock which is probably some type of coral sediment rock I'm guessing. Getting the rock to US/Europe affordably is the key - can't be cheap shipping boxes of rocks day in and day out.

[Mako]

Actually, they make the rock.

http://www.pacificaquafarms.com/cultured.htm

[MuldoonJT]

we ordered a case of the cultured walt smith . they were ALL the same shape doughnuts with like a handle on em , then entire case , every piece like it was made from the same mold.


I will never buy walt smith again . i think 2 pieces are viewable in my tank and one was by accident the rest went to base rock for a few reasons #1 they were all identical and #2 the rock was not very live infact it was pretty much whiteish black with some dead and dieing green/brown alge on it.

[bmcelhinn]

I would get "man made" rock, I'd order a small amount first, then if it was good I'd get more. I'd use real live rock to seed it though.

[Mako]

JT - Sorry to hear of your bad experience with the WS aquacultured. Frankly, I don't understand it. I have help a friend unpack quite a few boxes of this stuff and I never saw what you described. Everything I always saw was pretty much like what you see here (http://www.coralfragz.com/liverock.html). Scroll down to the Fiji aquacultured pics. The pieces were not all the same size either. Are you sure somebody wasn't pulling a quick one on ya?

[scubadude]

Interesting thread,

Ya know there are beginning to be lots of different types of cultured rock (which I think is great!)...Walt Smith does it on such a large level that its hard to make every single piece different and I havent seen any WS pieces larger than volleyballs but it would be nice to see a little bit more variety in the mix. Im going to be placing an order today with Pacific Aqua Farms and I think I will bring this up and see if maybe Walt has any future plans to start making more of a mix in variety of the cultured rock. As far as life goes, all of the WS cultured rock I have gotten has been quite abundant with life from what I have seen this rock is cultured in very shallow waters which appears to be more protected thus allowing much more macro life. One other point I want to bring up about WS's cultured rock is that it is much more porous then the cultured rock over here in florida. JT I agree w/ chuck if you got ALL the same looking pieces then whoever you bought it from maybe accidently (or purposely?!?) picked the rock over before giving you some of the shipment.

[SPC]

Originally posted by dendronepthya
My thinking was that the rock be cultured inland rather in the ocean. Lace rock can be acquired for less than a dollar per pound, and there would be less in terms of transport costs compared to say the Indopacific. In theory, the costs associated with aquacultured rock would be lower than wild harvesting. What swings the argument in the favor of wild harvested rock however is the scale. It would take a significant amount of water to produce the amount of rock that can be harvested from the ocean.

I'm not positive that I understand your point completely dendro. My understanding is that the Fiji rock does come from inland waters. In fact I have read where the best rock comes from river mouths in very shallow water with a mud substrate (the rock is half burried in mud). My point is that although we like to think of most Indo rock as comming from a reef environement, in fact it may come from a much different area which is easy to harvest.
Steve

[dendronepthya]

My understanding is that the Fiji rock does come from inland waters
By inland, I meant Ohio or Indiana. Places in the middle of the country that could never be mistaken for the ocean. The thinking is, there would be less cost in terms of transport since you do not have to deal with international shipping and taxes. The problem is, it is difficult to produce the desired quantity inland.

[SPC]

Originally posted by dendronepthya
By inland, I meant Ohio or Indiana. Places in the middle of the country that could never be mistaken for the ocean. The thinking is, there would be less cost in terms of transport since you do not have to deal with international shipping and taxes. The problem is, it is difficult to produce the desired quantity inland.

Oh, you meant real inland.:D
Steve

[MuldoonJT]

Our local shop is very high end. My friend is there head reef specialist there. At the time he was living here. he ordered a case it came in a walt smith box waxed interior rock in a clear plastic bag or wrap , we were bolth pretty ****ed. But it all worked out fine ,,, made good base for real rock. and was cheap anyway.


My personal opinion now is ,, if im paying for live rock i want it live , or ill just buy really nice sjaped and structured base rock and let it grow out in my tank myself and save myself 5 bucks a lb on cost

[dendronepthya]

The vibe I am getting is that some of the aquacultured rock sources end up selling you a wet peice of concrete and that has soured the consumer's mental image of aquacultured rock. It is a shame really.

From the pictures I've seen of the aquacultured pieces, they all look like the same shape.