Marco Rocks,anyone using them?

[Cove Beach]

I'm considering using their dry rocks for my next tank and was wondering if anybody has used them and what was their experience. as far as tank startup. I've done the traditional set up with cured LR, and want to know if its gonna be a big hassle.

[iairj84]

Their are a number of threads I've read through and it seems most everyone is really happy with their rocks. They say that since they're dry the weight you get it a lot more than cured or wet rock. I would've bought one of his packs if I wouldn't have found a killer deal on some nice rock here locally.

[bulldogfish]

I have some in my tank now. Marc sends some awesome looking stuff. I am very pleased with them.

[Wimby]

I love my marcorocks such nice shapes and sizes

[aquagurl]

I just got my order of some nano and rubble rock last night. He does send some awesome looking rock. I can't comment on the startup because it is still dry. I did come across some sponges and other dried matter - the rock definitely needs to be cycled.

[GrandeGixxer]

I took a scrub brush to mine before it went in the tank. I love it though. So many holes to put things in and great shapes. Make sure you specify the general sizes that you want. He has some really large rocks that get sent out.

[RicGio]

I soaked mine overnight in RO/di then rinsed them off. Smelled awful! They cycled for 5 weeks in a brute trashcan. Had a huge ammonia spike, now my nitrites are dropping, currently at .2. Hope to add them to my tank this weekend. Very nice shapes. Very porous and light.

[Sparkss]

you really can't go wrong with MarcoRocks. We setup our tank exclusively with MarcoRocks and LR rubble (ro avoid/minimize introducing any pests). As was stated Mark sends some sweet pieces

Here is what we got from him to set up our tank :









HTH

[daven]

I'll echo Sparkss. Set my 180 up with only Marco rocks.

[Amoore311]

If these rocks are man made and completely dry, how can they cause an ammonia spike??

These interest me to use in combination with some L/R I already have when i move over to my new 75 Gallon. But for a 5 week cycle time I would rather just buy fully cured l/r from Reefermadness

[aquagurl]

It isn't man made rock. It is fiji and tonga dry rock. There are still a few bits of dried up ocean bits on them. I guess it would just depend on your preference. Like it was mentioned it is very light porous rock and it is dry so you get a lot of rock for the poundage - and it is very nice shaped rock on top of that. And compared to LR prices the prices can't be beat for very quality rock. But you have to cycle the rock as opposed to buying cured rock. A short term inconvenience for me but maybe not possible for some.
Like I mentioned I just got my rock order in last night so I don't need to be sold on them. JMO
As with everything all a matter of preference.

[shred5]

They are not man made. They are live rock that has been dried out. They need to be cycled like any other live rock. what ever was living in the rock is still there just dead now.

But I love their rock, I have used their shelf rock to do my hole tank.

Because the rock is shipped dry it is lighter and also it does not need over night shipping so that is a massive cost saver.

Dave

[Amoore311]

Hmmm...

I'm looking into doing a nice DIY Rock Wall using pieces of rock and some foam+epoxy. I think I will look into picking some of this up.

[Sparkss]

I would have to go back and look at my invoice but I think that all of the rock in the 3 separate "dry" pictures came out about 250#, give or take. I can't say for sure right now because we also had Mark throw in a 30# box of rubble for our sump and a bunch of smaller pieces for use as coral plugs/bases in our prop tank (none of which was included in the pictures above).

As for porousness, it is incredible to watch a fish swim into one side of a 14" rock and then pop it's head out the other side a minute or so later (or out the top, or bottom).. I have seen our geometric hawk, orchid dottyback, indigo dottyback, both neon gobies do this ... and most of our bartlett anthias school sleeps in the top half of one of these rocks (I see them literally pouring out of it in the morning). And all of the rocks are like this, not just one or two of them.

Yes, they do need a chance to cycle and Mark does nor recommend adding them to an established tank (or even one with fish in it). We found that adding some LR rubble (and some LS) in with the base rock helped drop the cycle time down to between 2 and 3 weeks (after which everything but the nitrates were down to 0 in our tank). It may have even been shorter than that, but I didn't even start checking until after the second week. We also hosed down the base rock before adding it and trying to skim off as much of the dead matter that came off of it as we added the rock.

One more note on the porosity is in the last picture we posted (in the tank), you can see the bubbles coming out of the rock. When we added them it was like the water was boiling,what with all of the bubbles coming out of them. So when they say that "dry weight" is alot less weight than you would expect for rocks this size, they mean it. Once it had "taken on water" I could tell a huge difference in weight when I tried to move them around. Goodness forbid if I actually wanted to take one back out once it had been in there overnight !!!.. then it weighted like one would expect of LR this size !!!

HTH

[roscoe253]

How and where do I order these rocks from? Looks like some very nice porous rocks. Please LMK thanks, Sarang

[silvers]

Awsome rock but loaded with Po4 this rock needs to be cooked for a long time or given an acid bath. the acid bath is alot shorter and easer.

[aquagurl]

Silvers can you elaborate on that please? Is there a thread somewhere or is this your first hand experience? I am curious as I am getting ready to start cycling mine. Thanks!

[bigtex52]

Sparkss,

Nice big piece of Pukani sitting on the salt bucket. Marc sent me it's twin in my order. I bought 100# and need to add about 30# more. I may add some live Fiji pieces just to seed it with and to add some diversity and coraline cultures..

[shred5]

I really doubt these rocks are loaded with phosphate if that were the case i would have tons of algae growth at this phase. this tank has been set up for about 5 months and all I have is lots of coraline algae.






Dave

[Deuce67]

I love my Marco Rock. Very light so you get a lot of it. Have you ever tried aquascaping with wet live rock? Its a pain. With marco, no worries of dieoffs since there isnt anything to dieoff. Still needs to be cured thou. Heres 120# in a 5'X2'X2' tank. Filled it up nicely.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Apercula]

I bought 50lbs of Marco for my 75, then added 50lbs live rock when I actually set the tank up. Now that its all cured ive got more rock than I have room for in my 75 so im going to have to leave some out of the display. The shapes and porosity of the marco is incredible, I highly recommend it. http://www.marcorocks.com/

[uchiha]

Marco Rocks are pretty unique, very porous too. I would recommend them.

[UH_OH_5_OH]

So if they are loaded with PO4...they would be ideal for a brand new tank to jump start the cycle then yes?

[tnknkr3]

as a member of boston reefers, i've had the experience of buying some of marc's rocks locally. many friends and myself have found that his rocks are unbelieveable. planning on using his rocks exclusively on my next tank.

[aquagurl]

I got my order of rock in some water last night. It is the best rock I have purchased and I only orderd the nano and rubble Great rock and not to mention Marc is great to deal with.