Live rock dry rock debate

[Joeys Tank]

Danger, danger. Hijack post incoming.

TBA, I started looking over your website and you have some nice stuff up, congrats!

In the first pic on your home page, there are some coral which look like white, circular disks with green tinged clear tentacles. What are those? I have some on my rock and haven't been able to ID them.

Also, love the third pic with the basket star! This has to be by-far the best starfish I have had in my tank and I was very worried when research said they do poorly in reef tanks. Mine has been loving life in there.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Hi tbaquaculture,

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Would love to have you become a sponsor and help support RS !

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/index.php?page=subscribe

 

[BigAl07]

Welcome tbaquaculture

It's always nice to have someone so well known in the industry join and take part in our community. I think you'll find Reef Sanctuary is a great place to really get to know your "fans" and interact with them in a very friendly and supportive atmosphere.

I'm with Glenn in that we would love to have you as one of our Sponsors here at Reef Sanctuary and I can assure you we go out of our way to support our sponsors.

Again welcome to Reef Sanctuary

 

[Creekview]

Its called tamps bay aquaculture. WWW.tampabayaquaculture.com He had some rock with him and it was amazing. Also his rock has been in that water for 14 years. not 6 months like tampabay saltwater. All I am saying is check this guy out. He is new so give him a chance. I almost always start with dry but my next system is going to be live from these guys.

At $45.50 a pound, it better be freakin' spectacular. I'm sorry, but that's way outta line. I've purchased from K P Aquatics in the Keys most recently. Their stuff is $5.00 a lb, air freight included. It's very nice, at 1/10th the price.

 

[Blndbunny]

According to the website that's for 10lbs, I clicked on it earlier cause I was like WTF that's a lot per pound

 

[tbaquaculture]

Danger, danger. Hijack post incoming.

TBA, I started looking over your website and you have some nice stuff up, congrats!

In the first pic on your home page, there are some coral which look like white, circular disks with green tinged clear tentacles. What are those? I have some on my rock and haven't been able to ID them.

Also, love the third pic with the basket star! This has to be by-far the best starfish I have had in my tank and I was very worried when research said they do poorly in reef tanks. Mine has been loving life in there.

Sorry, I am just now seeing this. Those are cup corals, very common, they range from clear to brown and sometimes even get some green in them. I think they look like tiny elephant teeth.

 

[Mayja]

I'm trying to make this decision as well for my new tank and I'm thinking about purchasing dry rock from BRS and then hand picking some choice LR pieces from my LFS for seeding. Considerations are cost, cost, cost and hitchhikers. Just my two cents.

 

[Blndbunny]

I ended up going with all live rock from Tampa bay aquaculture, and don't regret it for a minute. Sure I've had to remove some hitchhickers but there has also been so much beautiful wonderful life

 

[Mayja]

Which hitchhikers did you have to remove?

 

[Blndbunny]

I ended up with two mantis shrimp. First one was tiny and swam right out of the rock and I netted him and removed him. The second I beive was killed with a fresh water dip. Haven't seen him since I dipped the rock he was in, nor any evidence of him still in the tank. I had to pull a few welks, but that's easy and a few small crabs. However I have ended up with a number of good hitchhickers. I got a beautiful ruby mithrax crab, multiple porcline crabs, cup corals, a branching lps coral, sea squirts, tunacites, sponges, some small pistol shrimp, duster worms, jewl clam, other bivalves, micro brittle stars and a tiny urchin. I'm still finding new critters in the tank. I also have an amazing pod population, that my fish enjoy munching on

 

[DaveK]

At $45.50 a pound, it better be freakin' spectacular. I'm sorry, but that's way outta line. I've purchased from K P Aquatics in the Keys most recently. Their stuff is $5.00 a lb, air freight included. It's very nice, at 1/10th the price.

How do you come up with $45.50 a pound? I'm looking at their web site, here (offsite) - http://tampabayaquaculture.com/live-rock/ and the price is 129.80 for 20 pounds. That would work out to 6.49 per pound. As a note shipping seems to be included in live rock prices. While that is more than what you paid, it's typical for live rock.

 

[cracker]

I'm curious TBA. Where (no specifics) is Your pile of rock and what did You have to go thru to get the permits and such. I understand it's about a royal pain and costly!

 

[tbaquaculture]

I'm curious TBA. Where (no specifics) is Your pile of rock and what did You have to go thru to get the permits and such. I understand it's about a royal pain and costly!

I have a couple of sites, they are roughly about 15 miles off the west coast of Florida almost due West of Hudson.
My sites are through NOAA so we went through them, they are very picky about what and where you do any aquaculture, so the sites had to be clear of any natural rock and they sent someone out to survey the sites. Then they wanted a sample of the dry rock we would be placing on the site. Any aquacultured rock has to be different than the natural rock and they kept a piece in case there is ever an issue or dispute.

The permits are crazy, I have to have permits from both the FWC and the FL Dept. of Agricultural, I also have to let NOAA know at least 24 hours before each time I plan to harvest so they can "meet" with us if they like.

It isn't a cheap thing to do for sure. You have to get the permits, then the dry rock and a boat/truck that can haul the extra weight, then you have to have a facility to store the rock and boxes/bags to ship it. Not to mention the dive gear/wet suits/and air fills. The cost may seem high for just a rocks (I always thought Live Rock cost too much too) but it makes sense when you really see what goes into it.