Gulf-View Rock Today! (Pic Test)

[musashi666]

I just got 30# of Deco Rock earlier today. I'm a novice at posting but I'll try. My first time..be gentle...

Tell me what you think!

[epson2k]

If it wasnt too much trouble, try taking pics from the front display of the tank. Im curious about the colors and shape of the rock

[musashi666]

Here is another one.

[musashi666]

Here is one more.

BTW, these are in a 55g tank and with 30# I got 8 rocks the size of nice sized cantaloupes.

[musashi666]

Sorry. Here is #3

[musashi666]

Those pics kinda suck. Any advise on how to get better images (larger)???

[liz+russ]

have you added anything to that tank other than sand and rock? If not you got a lot of good stuff on that rock! I should have gotten my rock from there.

[boardbox]

I was thinking the same. That couldn't have all come on the rock.
Could it?

[musashi666]

The Zoanthids and the purple mushrooms I had before the gulf-view rock. There is nothing else in the tank other than the SD sand I had before, maybe 15# of Kaelini and Fiji Rock, the 30# of gulfview rock, 5# of Gulfview live sand, a tiny critter rock from gulfview, and some hermits & cukes.

No fish. It's a refugeum/display tank for my 75g. Reef that is one foot away from it.

The tank is plumbed into my 75 gallon reef, 2 x 18g. rubbermaids (1 sump, 1 refugeum) through a 3/4" bulkhead.

[kozmo02]

that rock has tons of life on it!

cool stuff, i like your more traditional fiji rock myself but nice stuff.

:D

[XxAngelzDustxX]

Nice growth, lot's of life :)

[musashi666]

I like the Fiji too. I just see so many "Fiji sucks compared to Gulfview!" or "Gulfview rocks are like boulders w/ corals on 'em that die in 1 week!"; so I wanted to draw my own conclusions. I'm going to wait a little to give my final verdict.

So far however... it truely is LIVE rock.

LIFE - That stuff from LFS's is almost devoid of life. This stuff has crap all over it that moves. I like that. I don't even know what half of the stuff on the rock is! After a couple of hours looking I've seen, worms, dusters, clams, oysters, scallops (maybe?), cup corals; red, blue, & orange, sponges, a Dead Mantis (yaay!) 'lil crabs, caulerpa, sargassum & other macro's; and ... other stuff too!

SIZE/WEIGHT - Well, the Pacific rock wins that one. The Gulf-View rocks are far from boulders, but lack all the crevices and unique shapes of Marshall/Fiji rock.

Ok. I'm going to eat now. I've been waiting for the delivery truck and been playing w/ the rock all day. I'm starving!

Later.

[musashi666]

Here is #4

I'm still trying to work w/ Photoshop 7 to get the best image...

How do you post pics that just display on the post rather than have the pic as a link?

[godlyme]

hey keep posting pics!!!!i wanna see more!! that rock and algae look so awesome....i would love to add a little to my tank...

one question:: if adding this rock to an established tank with fragile inhabitants ...would the bad hitchhikers be easily spotted since there is not many crevices on these "boulders"??? have u seen any thus far?? take more pics please we luv this stuff!!

[boardbox]

did all that macro come on the rock?

[musashi666]

Yes, all that macro was on the rock except for the feather and one bunch of red macro that I bought from gulf-view for $5.

Here is a pic of 3 of the gulfview rocks.

I just added my 3 favorite gulfview rocks into my main display (75g. tank).

[musashi666]

-"hey keep posting pics!!!!i wanna see more!! that rock and algae look so awesome....i would love to add a little to my tank... "

Here, this one's for you godlyme!

[godlyme]

thanx very much...ive gotten in contact with gulf view becuase of this thread and am getting some very soon =) thanx for the awesome pics!!!

[Python73]

Originally posted by godlyme
one question:: if adding this rock to an established tank with fragile inhabitants ...would the bad hitchhikers be easily spotted since there is not many crevices on these "boulders"??? have u seen any thus far?? take more pics please we luv this stuff!!

Um... let's back up. Though these rocks can be considered boulders, they have plenty of holes and nooks to hide hitchhikers. In my experience (I have 50 lbs from TBS, and a friend who has 50lbs) there are THREE main things that hitchhike on FL rock that you don't want in your display.

1 mantis shrimp - this rock is notorious for little smasher mantis shrimp. Not a danger to fish, but h*ll on snails, crabs, shrimp. Most common find is Neogonodactylus Wennerae, if you'd like to know more.

2 crabs - both the hairy legged kind, and the smooth big clawed kind. In my 50lbs, I had a ton, and still find them a year later. I usually catch them any time I see one in the open, and feed it to my pet mantis (see above).

3 TULIP SNAILS - I'm doing you a real favor here, don't find out the hard way. There are snails on that rock that have brown and white pretty shells, and have a snout like a nassarious snail. I've seen them anywhere from 1/4" to 3/4" in size. These snails EAT OTHER SNAILS! Here is a small list of snails I've SEEN them eat:

- nassarious
- strombus
- turbo
- astrea
- olive
- limpets

I had to empty my 90g the other day of rock to catch some anthias. As I took out each piece of rock, I took all of the tulip snails out. There were 20 or so, and I've been catching these out of that tank for a year. Needless to say, there are no other snails in the tank.

Also should be noted, that unless you have a good algae eating fish (tang, foxface, etc) that the macro on this rock will get out of control in your tank in a hurry.

I love Florida rock, and will be getting more this summer. But you need to know what you are dealing with to have the best experience with it.

HTH.

S !

[godlyme]

that was a very informative response!! and thanx very much... ive seen all too well in teh wild how afraid other snails are of tulip snails....they are considered by some marine biologists as a very fierce predator..ive seen huge queen conchs "run like hell" when put anywhere near a tulip snail..

ANY IDEAS how to catch bad critters without killing everything? thanx any more pics?? =)

[musashi666]

Also, since I got my rock yesterday I've been killing (trying to) Aiptasia. They are on every rock. Kinda irritating but good 'ole distilled white vinegar does the job pretty well.

[justletmein]

Man, I wish I would have gotten nice rock like that. I got a bunch of home-made looking stuff loaded with aiptasia and two mantis. I'm still killing aiptasia 7 months later even when buying a CBB to get rid of them. In all fairness I must note that I have one great looking rock, but out of 100 lbs I think that's not all that great.

[Python73]

Originally posted by godlyme
ANY IDEAS how to catch bad critters without killing everything?

Well yes, but you are keeping me from doing my work... oh what the h*ll. :)

The best way to go is not to put this rock into your display directly. If you have a sump / 'fuge, that'd be better. Think containment. Take each rock out of the shipping water into it's new home. Turn the rock 360 degrees while examining it. Pull off any tulips, crabs, etc that you can get to. If you can quarantine the rock in a cycled environment for a few days, then you can use this method. Buy a clam from your grocery store / fish market. The live kind. Split it, and put each half on your sandbed or tank bottom near the rock. Wait 10 minutes or so. All sorts of things will come for a snack, including the tulips. Catch them and feed to your new mantis. :D

S !

[musashi666]

justletmein, where did you get that 100# of rock from?

[godlyme]

i love being kept from my work =) thats why i keep asking questions thanx though guys

[justletmein]

Originally posted by musashi666
justletmein, where did you get that 100# of rock from?

Gulf-View

[musashi666]

What type of rock was that 100#'s? Was it the coraline or the deco rock? I got the Deco Rock.

Can anyone compare Gulfview rock to TBS - Tampa Bay Saltwater? Is one prefered over the other or do they each have their perks?

This Gulfview rock is pretty cool. Last night an entire 4-5# rock MOVED because the way I set it down, it was resting on a giant clam and the clam was opening and closing. Neat.

[justletmein]

Supposed to be mixed Deco & Coraline

[Python73]

For all intents and purposes... they are the same. Same base rock, same area (Gulf, Keys) same critters. I've only ordered from TBS, but I've seen plenty of GulfView. Never heard a bad word said of either place, or of Dale or Richard. There's room in the market for both it seems.

S !

[musashi666]

OK, I'm a crazy bastard cuz I just ordered the 15 gallon package from TBS to compare the 2 places.

Dont worry I'll post pictures tomorrow!! I love pictures...

I wonder where i'm going to get the $$$ to pay for all this? LOL.

[kaw3]

Originally posted by musashi666
Also, since I got my rock yesterday I've been killing (trying to) Aiptasia. They are on every rock. Kinda irritating but good 'ole distilled white vinegar does the job pretty well.
I received an order of 50# of mixed corraline/deco a week ago from gulf view. It looks just like yours. I was wondering if you've had an ammonia spike? My ammonia went through the roof and the water turned a little milky. A week later, I'm still getting die-off and consistantly high ammonia levels.
Also, how do you kill aiptasia with ammonia? I've got tons of them on the rock. thanks
( this is just a little warning for those who plan to order. I would keep it in a tub for a week before putting it in an established tank).

[kaw3]

Originally posted by musashi666
Also, since I got my rock yesterday I've been killing (trying to) Aiptasia. They are on every rock. Kinda irritating but good 'ole distilled white vinegar does the job pretty well.
I received an order of 50# of mixed corraline/deco a week ago from gulf view. It looks just like yours. I was wondering if you've had an ammonia spike? My ammonia went through the roof and the water turned a little milky. A week later, I'm still getting die-off and consistantly high ammonia levels.
Also, how do you kill aiptasia with vinegar? I've got tons of them on the rock. thanks
( this is just a little warning for those who plan to order. I would keep it in a tub for a week before putting it in an established tank).

[Python73]

Kaw3 - my bet is you made the same mistake MANY people make with this rock. You DO NOT cycle Florida rock in an empty tank or tub like Pacific rock. That will only kill everything that you bought that rock for. What you have to do is place it in a working tank that has a proper bio-filter in place.

The reasoning is this... Pacific rock is full of dying critters when you get it. No matter what you do, those animals are going to decay, thus the normal cycling rock methods. When you buy Florida rock, it is shipped in water, so there is very little die off. You should treat this rock like a live animal. Placed into a tank that has a sandbed and some base rock that has already been cycled, you should never see any ammonia spikes.

Once you put your rock into a bare / new tank, you will start to get ammonia spikes, because the LIFE on the rock is creating ammonia, which must be processed. After a couple of days, the ammonia producing life turns into ammonia producing DEATH, and now you have to cycle just like it was dead Pacific rock.

I am very sorry if this is the first time you are hearing this. Maybe you have time to save your rock with water changes. Don't let anyone feed you that BS about "no water changes while cycling rock" that is for PACIFIC rock. This is not conjecture on my part, it is fact.

S !

[justletmein]

Python73,

All my Gulf-View boxes were shipped wrapped in soaked newspaper, and had little mantis flopping around in the bottom. I don't think they would have all leaked and obviously wouldn't of had newspaper in them if they were shipped in water.

[Python73]

Newspaper... damn. I was sure they shipped in water. Sorry everyone. What I said applies to Tampa Bay Saltware rock. They ship submerged. Not sure how you'd have to handle damp shipped FL rock. I can tell you that the rock I got would have been a real mess if it hadn't been shipped in water.

S !

[kaw3]

Originally posted by Python73
Kaw3 - my bet is you made the same mistake MANY people make with this rock. You DO NOT cycle Florida rock in an empty tank or tub like Pacific rock. That will only kill everything that you bought that rock for. What you have to do is place it in a working tank that has a proper bio-filter in place.

The reasoning is this... Pacific rock is full of dying critters when you get it. No matter what you do, those animals are going to decay, thus the normal cycling rock methods. When you buy Florida rock, it is shipped in water, so there is very little die off. You should treat this rock like a live animal. Placed into a tank that has a sandbed and some base rock that has already been cycled, you should never see any ammonia spikes.

Once you put your rock into a bare / new tank, you will start to get ammonia spikes, because the LIFE on the rock is creating ammonia, which must be processed. After a couple of days, the ammonia producing life turns into ammonia producing DEATH, and now you have to cycle just like it was dead Pacific rock.

I am very sorry if this is the first time you are hearing this. Maybe you have time to save your rock with water changes. Don't let anyone feed you that BS about "no water changes while cycling rock" that is for PACIFIC rock. This is not conjecture on my part, it is fact.

S !
I put the rock into a recently set up tank with sand and bio filter. The rock was not shipped in water, it came wrapped in wet newspaper. Dale from gulf view recommends putting it right into the tank. Luckily, I don't have any livestock yet.....

[justletmein]

Yeah, you gotta keep those Aiptasia alive ya know ;)

[fishfarmer]

This is how I cycled my 30 lbs of Gulfview coralline rock last April and this is how I treat rock shipped via mail.

I had a tub waiting to recieve the rock, 20 gallons or so. If you don't have an established tank you could cycle it in your new tank. I prefer to do it in a shallow container so I can inspect the rocks daily for dieoff.

The tub had a skimmer, heater and a couple of cheap flourescent tubes which I light for about 6 hours.

I first opened my box of gulfview which was shipped in newspaper. Since I was at work, I rewrapped the rocks in wet paper towels and went home.

When opening the rock at home some of the crabs and brittlestars were crawing around the towels. I inspected each rock and removed what hitchhikers I didn't want and smelled the rock for dieoff. I scrubbed any sponges that smelled dead. I then placed my rock in the tub and left it in there for about a couple of weeks. I monitored the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate cycle every couple of days and did partial water changes. Sometimes I'll use Amquel to get the ammonia down, don't know if it is necessary though. The ammonia was very high for the first week. For the first couple of days I inspected the rock for more rotting things like sponges that didn't make it and scrubbed them off.

During the second week I was seeing lots of life emerge like urchins and small crabs.

Too bad my tank went through a major heat wave last July which wiped out much of the life, but I still have various macro algaes, tube worms and most of the corals that came on the rock a year later.

[kaw3]

Originally posted by fishfarmer
This is how I cycled my 30 lbs of Gulfview coralline rock last April and this is how I treat rock shipped via mail.

I had a tub waiting to recieve the rock, 20 gallons or so. If you don't have an established tank you could cycle it in your new tank. I prefer to do it in a shallow container so I can inspect the rocks daily for dieoff.

The tub had a skimmer, heater and a couple of cheap flourescent tubes which I light for about 6 hours.

I first opened my box of gulfview which was shipped in newspaper. Since I was at work, I rewrapped the rocks in wet paper towels and went home.

When opening the rock at home some of the crabs and brittlestars were crawing around the towels. I inspected each rock and removed what hitchhikers I didn't want and smelled the rock for dieoff. I scrubbed any sponges that smelled dead. I then placed my rock in the tub and left it in there for about a couple of weeks. I monitored the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate cycle every couple of days and did partial water changes. Sometimes I'll use Amquel to get the ammonia down, don't know if it is necessary though. The ammonia was very high for the first week. For the first couple of days I inspected the rock for more rotting things like sponges that didn't make it and scrubbed them off.

During the second week I was seeing lots of life emerge like urchins and small crabs.

Too bad my tank went through a major heat wave last July which wiped out much of the life, but I still have various macro algaes, tube worms and most of the corals that came on the rock a year later.
Thank you! That is excellent advise for anyone planning to purchase rock from gulf-view. I would never put it right into an established tank. There is bound to be die off during shipping and you don't notice it until the second day when your tank water turns milky and your ammonia goes through the roof. It has been a week since I added the rock to my tank and I am still seeing die off. Live and learn...

[tbmelvin]

Between the Gulf View and the Tampa Bay are they both a heavy, dense rock? I have bought small pieces from LFS on rare occasions and its hard to tell. I agree that there is a huge amount of life but all this stuff needs to eat. Has anyone had any long term success (more than a year or two) in keeping the various life alive? Fishfarmer mentioned a heat related die off - I have read that the water near FL tends to be on the cooler side for most of the year How does the life on the rock handle consistent 80 + deg temp? Does the sponge come back after being exposed to air? I also read that different things are available at various times of the year. Is there a "better" time of the year to order the rock in that you would get more of a variety of life or is it better to order during the moderate temps of spring and fall so that you dont heat or cold stress the wildlife?

[Hemmie]

I have to disagree with Fishfarmer to an extent because thats exactly how I did my last LR, and I lost a LOT.

I ordered 30# GV last week and added DIRECTLY to my established tank. No die-off to speak of, no Ammo spike at all. Dale at GV recommends adding it directly and he was right.

My last batch..I Q'd it, had numerous Ammo spikes and die-off and even after 2-3 weeks of Quarantining and curing, I added it to my tank and STILL got an Ammo spike.


Here's some pics of my new stuff. That Xmas Tree worm..I doubt if that would have survived a Q in a separate tank. I have Chitons, numerous "Clam" type things, worms, dusters, lots of plants, Coralline. I would never again take GV and Q it.

I did brush a few sponges off that were dead, but I have quite a few that survived too, one of which is pretty big.

I turned my Skimmer up, added floss, and have done a couple of water changes to be on the safe side.

So far so good!






http://www.machiasvet.com/rock2.jpg

http://www.machiasvet.com/rockcritter.jpg

http://www.machiasvet.com/tree.jpg

[hesaias]

I put GV rock and LS in my 58 when I set it up. It had tulip snails, a mantis, and a ton of feather dusters, worms, bugs, macros and aptasia. Florida rock is heavy, but covered with life.

Nuke the aptasia with a syringe full of boiling kalk paste. 1.0 cc will do about 10 aptasia. Catch the tulips at night. They hide in the day.

I will buy GV rock again.

The LS is kinda chunky. I put 50 lbs in my 58 gallon with 100 lbs of SD playsand. This time, Im gonna get 10 lbs and 100 lbs of SD.

Nice lookin rock.

[hesaias]

Oh yeah, the turkey wing bi-valves are numerous on Florida rock too :D

[Hemmie]

fishfarmer said
The ammonia was very high for the first week. For the first couple of days I inspected the rock for more rotting things like sponges that didn't make it and scrubbed them off.

The Ammo that will kill your Fish will kill the life on your rock as well. IMO, the high Ammo and die-off is due to the fact that the rock is in a Q tank and not an established tank. It would be the equivalent of adding several fish to an uncycled tank.

I did just what you did and lost so much life from the Rock. If I hadn't JUST added 30# more directly from the box to my tank, with NO problems, I would tend to agree with your method, but as scary as it was, I did what GV and TB both recommend and added it directly.

I couldn't be happier. I'm over a week into it now, and no problems at all, everything looks good, my tank is stable and I'm enjoying my new rock immensely!

[fishfarmer]

I've seen both Tampa Bay and Gulfview. The life on the Tampa bay was great, but it was their premium rock shipped with "The Package". Lots of corals. I even have a frag of one of them in my tank. I think my friend (Butt.doc) bought that a couple of years ago. The rock was more bouldery than my Gulfview, BUT I did request certain shaped pieces and got exactly what I wanted. My rock is denser than Fiji, the 30lbs of Gulfview took about the same amount of space as 20 lbs of Fiji. With regard to interesting shapes, in my tank the Fiji and the Gulfview are about the same. I have pieces of Fiji in my tank that are some what brick like in shape.

I've had some sponge life survive. There was one huge sponge that didn't survive the shipping, but there are brown and yellow sponges doing well now.

I run my tank from lower to mid 80's in the summer to upper 70's in the winter. I've had the rock in my care for about a year. Last May my tank had been upgraded and moved (fully stocked with corals and fish). Everything handled the move well and was running the tank around 84. In July three days of 96 degree heat cooked my tank. I was away at the time so the house was closed up and I didn't have my A/C hooked up yet. Two days after the wave passed I was home. Pretty much the tank was a total loss. I salvaged what I could and recycled most of my rock and remaining corals in a smaller container and left the tank, base rock and sandbed untouched so it could cycle on its own. I pulled the sump DSB and found a sea cucumber in it. I still have this cucumber now. I think most of the fanworms and other worms did fine as well. I think all the brittlestars died.

[fishfarmer]

Hemmie,

If it's working for you more power to you.

Sure, if my tank wasn't full of two years of coral growth and had the space I might risk it, but why. In my opinion, you have a rock that has been shipped out of water, some things have died but you really don't know HOW much stuff is dead. If you add this to your tank, it's kind of like tossing in a bunch of food that your fish aren't going to eat, it's going to rot and cause water quality problems until your bacterial filter can catch up. In a perfect world I would have a fully cycled large Q tank so I would minimize the initial spike of ammonia so most of the life would live, but life aint perfect:D .

[BrianH]

I bought 30 lbs of Gulf-View's coraline rock about 10 months ago. I spoke with Dale about the size of my tank and what shapes/sizes of rock I prefered and he picked better pieces than I could have.
I had a 20gal rubbermaid container with a heater, 2 powerheads and some NO lighting waiting for the rock. It did come in wet newspaper. I had my wife put the rock in my container since I was at work when it was delivered. I did daily 5 gal water changes and watched the ammonia go up to .25 and back to 0 in 7 days.
To my surprise nothing on the rock died, including a caribbean green open brain that has now doubled in size.

Brian