Marcorocks

rickh · #1 12/15/2007, 01:32 PM

I purchased some nice looking "dead" rock from Marcorock. Will this cure like standard live rock?? I put it in a tub with a PH and sea water. The next day the NH3 went off the scale. After several water changes and two weeks in the tub the NH3 is about 1PPM but this might just be from dilution. Will the ammonia go to zero and the nitrate/nitrite thing happen or do I need to seed it with some other live rock to give it a jump start? Thanks. R

pdfb55 · #2 12/15/2007, 04:23 PM

i didn't seed mine and it had some decent life on it. I've got tons of pods and my tank is about 1.5 months old now. You may want to seed it though b/c the rock has little coraline algae. Your NH3 NO2 and NO3 should drop.

rickh · #3 12/15/2007, 10:47 PM

I am under the impression that Marcorocks was live rock--thousands of years ago. They quarry it somewhere inland, I believe mine was shipped from Maine. Any algae is probably fresh water. R

cccapt · #4 12/16/2007, 09:30 AM

Marcorock is dried out, dead live rock. It is not mined anywhere. I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is live rock that just sat out on the docks too long and dried out. I set up my cousins tank with it. There were even a few dried up star fish in the rocks. You will need to cure the rock just like uncured live rock.

rickh · #5 12/19/2007, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Dry collecting from an old reef is the primary source, storm clean up is another.

From Marc.

Tu Ku · #6 12/19/2007, 10:14 AM

I do not understand the recent hype over this stuff. Is it unbelieveably porous or something? Maybe really cheap per pound? All of the pics I've seen of people raving over it just had dead white rock that resembles every piece of dead white rock that I've seen in this trade. If it's the same price after shipping/handling then why not go get some well established, seeded, actually LIVE rock?

rickh · #7 12/19/2007, 10:39 AM

I purchased some rock from Marco rocks. It's dry and light so you get more "area" of rock per pound. With shipping my 25 lbs was about $2/pound. The LFS wants $2/Lb for "lace rock" and $8/Lb for LR that looks much like the Marcorocks. The LR from the LFS is also wet and heavy. R

adambaron · #8 12/19/2007, 10:40 AM

It is very porous, You can get very large peices, marc will pick out rocks for you specifically and it is a lot cheaper than live rock. Once it get seeded it is great looking rock.

Craig Lambert · #9 12/19/2007, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tu Ku
I do not understand the recent hype over this stuff. Is it unbelieveably porous or something? Maybe really cheap per pound? All of the pics I've seen of people raving over it just had dead white rock that resembles every piece of dead white rock that I've seen in this trade. If it's the same price after shipping/handling then why not go get some well established, seeded, actually LIVE rock?

Completely agree. I think it's the price. Never understood how people can get so excited over dead rock.

Most of the established great looking tanks out there have little visible rock anyway. The goal is to cover it with corals.

mille239 · #10 12/19/2007, 01:27 PM

A big plus to these rocks that people fail to see is that it is free of pests! (no bubble algae, no hair algae, no aptasia, no mantis shrimp, eunicid worms, gorilla crabs, manjanos, flatworms, redbugs, and my worst nemesis; colonial hydroids. Once these rocks are cured and placed in a system they will quickly become live rock, and can easily be seeeded with coralline algaes, and within a few months, will look like fabulous live rock.

People who have dealt with plagues of the above pests/hitchikers will agree. Some have gone so far as to take down their reefs, and 'cook' their live rock for up to 6 months in a dark, covered container to rid it of some of these problems. Basically turning their once diverse live rock into: marco rocks (with the exception being they already contain the denitrifying bacteria)

Personally, if I was to do it all over again, I would build my reef completely out of marco rocks, and simply seed it with coralline shavings from an older piece of live rock. JMHO.

The Saltman · #11 12/19/2007, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mille239
A big plus to these rocks that people fail to see is that it is free of pests! (no bubble algae, no hair algae, no aptasia, no mantis shrimp, eunicid worms, gorilla crabs, manjanos, flatworms, redbugs, and my worst nemesis; colonial hydroids. Once these rocks are cured and placed in a system they will quickly become live rock, and can easily be seeeded with coralline algaes, and within a few months, will look like fabulous live rock.

People who have dealt with plagues of the above pests/hitchikers will agree. Some have gone so far as to take down their reefs, and 'cook' their live rock for up to 6 months in a dark, covered container to rid it of some of these problems. Basically turning their once diverse live rock into: marco rocks (with the exception being they already contain the denitrifying bacteria)

Personally, if I was to do it all over again, I would build my reef completely out of marco rocks, and simply seed it with coralline shavings from an older piece of live rock. JMHO.

I totally agree and will be doing my new 210 in all marco rock because I will know that it is pest free. This is the main reason for me going with this rock. I do have a question about how to seed it though without using a piece of live rock. I can just use coralline shavings off of another piece of live rock? If so, how much shavings should I use for 250 pounds of live rock?

LarryW · #12 12/19/2007, 04:27 PM

I added 140# of it to my 120. I cured it in a 1000g system for 6 months, and added right to my tank. it's extremly porous and comes from Fiji and Tonga. The tonga is the Shelf. the nice thing is you can drill it really easy, and insert acrylic rods to build structures. there are no hitchhikers, and 1# of marco rock is like 2 to 3# of live rock.

here are some pics of mine with all marco rock.

Craig Lambert · #13 12/19/2007, 04:32 PM

Why would you "cook" dead rock for 6 months? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, it just makes no sense to me. It's dead. What's to cook? BTW, the Solaris is very cool.

rickh · #14 12/19/2007, 04:42 PM

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will spend all day in a boat drinking beer."

I think we have the same friends

LarryW · #15 12/19/2007, 04:48 PM

I ment cured. It was seeded with liverock and pods, and other goodies, so that once I pulled it from that system and added it to my 120, I was ready to go. the rock was fully cured, has coraline starting to grow on it, and my pod population is through the roof.

tylorarm · #16 12/19/2007, 05:50 PM

I got it because it has no pests and so much easier to assemble rock work. In fact, I assembled most of my rock structure on my deck over about a week. No worries about anything dying, it's dead already. I was able to use PVC, shelving and cable ties all out of water and of course out of tank. It's so light I could carry the towers myself, but needed some help getting them into the tank.

Tu Ku · #17 12/26/2007, 12:26 PM

I'm very glad that some of you took the time to answer my question. And you've all made very valid points, many of which I had overlooked.
While I was working at my LFS we usually recieved our rock dead and white and threw it into a "cultured" tub to cure and display for sale. Usually, it was only with coral that we received live rock. Which begs me to point out, many of the corals that you all will inevitably buy will run you the risk of recieving unwanted nuissances. Sure you will quarantine each piece before it makes it's way into the display. But you would be naive to think that this is a fail safe method.
I think the only aspect of this rock that sticks with me is that you buy it dry, which was always a selling point for the fish store, and one that was always overlooked by customers.

Once you realize that you just payed $8/lb. for the water in the rock as well as the rock, then you start to feel stupid.