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msu
11/17/2004, 01:58 AM
I have been thinking of adding about 50 more pounds of live rock to my 110 gallon tank. I have been looking at all the different types of rock that are sold on the different web sites. The rocks that have caught my eye are Kaelini and Tonga Deepwater Live Rock form liveaquaria. The reasons these have caught my attention are first they are both less dense than Fiji rock and in the discription it says both types have green, pink, purple, red and yellow coralline algae and i think the diversity of colors would look great. The discription also says both types are uncured which isnt really an issue since i will keep it in the 55 gallon tank that i am not using untill it cures. So to get to the point I was wondering if any anyone has ever bought any rock form livaquaria and if so when you got it did it look as good as they make it sound? Also do you all think it will actually have color diversification in an aquarium? If anyone has any other suggestions on places to look for rock I would appreciate it if you would pass them on to me.

Neptune's Nemesis
11/17/2004, 03:33 AM
I am not a big fan of the solid purple Figi you usually see so I bought the deepwater Tonga from them and I really like it. Mine came as 1 huge 30lbs piece whith great shape. Mine has green, red, light purple, and even some off blue spots (if my emerald crab would leave it alone). Coraline colors are affected by your lighting, more intense less diversity usually. Their Lalo also has some great color, while the Haitian is mostly green with some pink.

LowCel
11/17/2004, 07:40 AM
The rock in my tank is from five or six different places. Off hand I can think of etropicals (www.etropicals.com), TBS (http://www.tbsaltwater.com/), and JoMars. I have gotten base rock from ReeferRocks (http://www.reeferrocks.com/), HIRocks (http://www.hirocks.com/) and JoMars. My favorite base rock is form ReeferRocks, mainly because I have won two monthly give aways from them now for a total of around 70 pounds or so of rock. My favorite live rock etailer is TBS. The life on that rock is amazing, the rock is never out of the water so it doesn't lose life like the other rock does. As far as I know they are the only people that actually ship the rock in water.

BTW, I am a big believer in buying half live rock and half base rock. I have had my base rock for around 4 or 5 months now and I can barely even tell the difference between it and my live rock. You just have to get some good live rock to seed it.

hmott
11/17/2004, 11:49 AM
I agree baserock is so much cheaper and in time it looks great. I've never bought from liveaquaria but I have from phishybusiness.com (in central ohio). They have some of the best prices and the rock is Awesome! I would buy from them again in a second.

sixliner6
11/17/2004, 09:53 PM
I have bought both fiji and lalo rock from liveaquria and I was really impressed. It was totally covered with coralline algae. I do agree that fiji rock is mostly purple but it still looks great. I think that you would be very happy with rock from liveaquaria.

firefish2020
11/20/2004, 12:31 AM
The rock I got from Liveaquaria (we ordered 3 separate times) was awesome. Fiji select which was our first order way back when and another Fiji select later on about 5 months in after that a few FL aquacultured and an order of Tonga from LA again. The new 120 is the only time I have ever used "base rock� and I am having a hard time getting used to it after having an incredible pink and purple 55 for over a year now but all will be fine soon. I recommend LA I had no problem with them, very easy to deal with and the rock we got was pretty much cured only took about a week before I started moving the first piece into the tank and no problems at all. You won’t be disappointed.

LowCel
11/20/2004, 07:47 AM
Originally posted by firefish2020
The new 120 is the only time I have ever used "base rock� and I am having a hard time getting used to it after having an incredible pink and purple 55 for over a year now but all will be fine soon.

Don't worry Ron, as soon as you add a few corals and wait a few months you will never even be able to tell. The only difference you will see will be in your wallet........oh and in your corals since you will be able to afford a few extra.

firefish2020
11/20/2004, 12:01 PM
I agree Bruce :) Some of the base has a lot more character to it than the Fiji. By the way that was back when we started and before we found RC or JM's but we only got it when it was on sale so that helped some. Would I do it again? The Fiji no FL aquaculture looks just as good and in some cases better IMO.

Neptune's Nemesis
11/21/2004, 12:36 AM
I must say (even though it seems that I am the minority) that I am not a big fan of base rock. The price difference wasn't that much different when you consider that after shipping the LA rock was around $4.5-$5.5 per lbs and the 2 LFS in my area were charging $3.99 and $4.99 per lbs for base. I know it can be found cheaper but I figure if I spent all this money on equipment I better not skimp on the rock. IMO as long as you are going to be staring at rock for the first few months and prob longer if you take your time adding corals you might as well enjoy your rock as soon as you get it.

firefish2020
11/21/2004, 01:58 AM
That's a bit high for Base IMO so I can see your point.

LowCel
11/21/2004, 08:17 AM
Originally posted by Neptune's Nemesis
IMO as long as you are going to be staring at rock for the first few months and prob longer if you take your time adding corals you might as well enjoy your rock as soon as you get it.

If you are paying over $2.00 or so a pound for base rock then you are definately being ripped off.

As for the staring part that is correct, however you won't be staring at the rock in the back of your tank. If you go 50/50 base and live you will still have plenty to look at. Just put the cash that you save aside for a couple of months then you can buy twice as many corals in a month or two. :D Also, if you go with all live rock the rock in the back and in the bottom of the tank will end up dying off quite a bit and looking like base rock. They won't be getting enough light to support all of the life and coralline algae.

BTW, I am basing this on my tank. I have around 200 pounds of rock in my tank, I couldn't imagine having to buy that much live rock. If you are talking about a 29 gallon tank where you only need 50 pounds of rock then it is a different story.

firefish2020
11/21/2004, 11:19 AM
<b>"Also, if you go with all live rock the rock in the back and in the bottom of the tank will end up dying off quite a bit and looking like base rock. They won't be getting enough light to support all of the life and coralline algae."</b>

True it's just ot much per Lb to put on the bottom I think. I just know I'll never do it again. I always recomend 50/50 Live and Base to anyone starting out. Later on like you said Bruce if they set up a smaller tank LR is perfect plus it has an advantage of helping to establish a new system faster. In fact that was the #1 reason we started with LR, we cycled our tank with it and it was cheaper than anything at the LFS I found (at the time) localy.

Neptune's Nemesis
11/21/2004, 06:39 PM
Maybe it is because I don't have a huge tank because I can see the majority of my 100lbs and I am quite happy with it. I only mention my anti baserock views because I know a few people that have 180gal tanks that say if they were doing it all again they wouldn't have bought any baserock at all.

LowCel
11/21/2004, 07:55 PM
As long as you are happy that is all that matters.

Mine is just an opinion, not an arguement. :-D