Pat24601
Well-Known Member
For a long time the idea of man-made live rock has really appealed to me. While there are many advantages, the two that really appeal to me the strongest are the lack of environmental impact on our reefs and being hitchhiker and parasite free. The easy cycle as well as some other benefits are also really nice.
As I did my saltwater restart, I wanted to use some of the man-made live rock and it turns out there appears to be more a variety of options available than when I first checked into it some years ago.
While I can't test everything, I chose 3 specific types to use in my aquarium set up and I thought I'd do a review of those three.
A couple of things I want to mention before I jump in is that this isn't really a pros and cons review. I like all 3 of these man-made rocks, but for different reasons. So, I'm going to be listing what attributes I like about them and not really doing a pros and cons list.
The second thing is that I'm not really going to be evaluating rock in terms of its scientific ability to act as live rock. I've talked to enough people and received enough feedback that I'm convinced they all work well. From what I read and hear, I doubt many reefers would really be able to tell the difference on how well they are functioning between each other and even real live rock. I know for sure I can't. So, I won't try to review something beyond my capabilities.
All that said, let's get started!!!
A Purple Reef
http://www.apurplereef.com/
A Purple Reef really seems like a pretty small business. If they weren't a sponsor on this forum, I don't know if I'd even know they exist. There really isn't a lot of information about them on the internet I could find. Although, there is one brilliant youtube review of the rock here:
.
That said, I think this is actually my favorite rock. I really like the colors. It has various shades of purple from more of a red to a dark purple and individual rocks have individual shades in them. I find them to be very good looking rocks and they really stand out in my tank under reef lighting.
I also like their "stackability". I find it very easy to construct the aquascape with these rocks without any awkward balancing acts. I read one review that said they are "like legos". I'd agree with that. I really seemed to be able to put them wherever I want and have them be stable without any real hassle.
Finally, I just want to mention the price and shipping. At $200 for 50lbs with free shipping, this was the cheapest of the rock options I looked at. The shipping was also super fast. I ordered this on a Tuesday morning and I had it by Thursday afternoon. I really wasn't expecting a 2 day receipt for free on an item as heavy as rock, but it was super fast, which is great.
Real Reef Rock
http://realreefrock.com/
Real Reef Rock and A Purple Reef rock really appear to be highly similar as near as I can tell in terms of what they are. The differences I can see are the color and shapes of the rock.
The color is a very consistent dark purple color (at least on all of the pieces I have). It also seems to less consistently cover the whole rock than I see with A Purple Reef. I'm not sure why that is and if it's by design or if the color has flaked off, but regardless, it's not really a bad thing. It gives it a look of coral line having covered all the rock in some cases, but having not quite covered everything in others, which is fine. I happen to like the color less than A Purple Reef, but that's clearly a personal preference thing and I could see someone else feeling differently.
So, as you can see, I'm OK with the color, but I like A Purple Reef a lot better when it comes to color due to its variation and having consistently covered the rocks.
The shape for Real Reef Rock is other thing that is interesting. Real Reef rocks have an "appearance" of being porous and have quite a bit of variation in their shapes. I like this variety a lot and I like the shapes and "texture" (is that the right word) of the rocks quite a bit.
CaribSea LifeRock Shapes
http://www.caribsea.com/
This appears to be a new product and is very interesting. Unlike A Purple Reef and Real Reef, where the rocks are fairly typical "chunks of rock", the idea behind CaribSea Shapes is to make it easy to create interesting aquascapes by creating man-made rocks in shapes such as arches, rings, and tunnels. It also claims to be infused with spored bacteria...whatever that means.
I like this rock a lot in terms of it really does make it easy to add character to the aquascape without much effort and without it just becoming a wall of rock. I don't think you'd want your entire aquascape to be this, but it's a great enhancement to go along with your other rock.
I'm not quite sure what to say about the color. It's been in my tank a whole day so far and I definitely don't like the color as much as Real Reef, let alone A Purple Reef. The color is really pretty bland so far. But, my LFS said to give it a month in the tank and I won't be able to tell the difference between it and Real Reef. So, we will see.
That's my brief review. My bottom line is I really like all 3 of these rocks for different reasons and I've chosen to do a scape that includes all 3 to give my scape some variety while still using man made rock. I'd be happy if I had to do my scape in only A Purple Reef or Real Reef rock, though. In either case, I'd add some Shapes to give it some easy character and variety.
I'll close with a picture of all 3 rocks out of the tank. There are two A Purple Reef rocks are on the lower left, a Real Reef rock on the lower right, and a Shapes rock in the top center (that happens to be an arch). I'm not sure how helpful this picture is though, because they really look very different under reef lightning in the tank. The Purple Reef rock doesn't look nearly so bright, for example. Hopefully it gives you an idea, though.
UPDATE:
I'm adding this as an update as I don't talk about it great detail above. I wrote about it in another thread.
-------
One thing I'm not sure I was quite clear on in my earlier post that I thought I'd mention in more detail just in case it matters.
One thing that very much surprised me with A Purple Reef rocks was the fast cycle time. I think this would be true for Real Reef rocks as well, but I haven't truly independently tested.
What I did was I set up a 32 gallon biocube using nothing but A Purple Reef Rocks. I then added Dr. Tim's ammonia so that my ammonia reading was 2ppm. The next day, both my ammonia and nitrites were 0, indicating a fully cycled tank.
This really ran counter to so much of my instincts on cycle time that it made me very nervous, but I went ahead and added fish and continued to monitor a couple of times a day and never had any problems.
I've been told that I should expect the same results if I had tried Real Reef rock, but when I used Real Reef, I used it in conjunction with A Purple Reef, so I can't independently verify that.
Either way, I WOULD definitely test to make sure your tank is cycled always rather than just assume it is, but that was my experience.
I seem to be one of the few people on forums I read that has even tried this type of rock, so I like to comment about it so people are aware another option is out there.
As I did my saltwater restart, I wanted to use some of the man-made live rock and it turns out there appears to be more a variety of options available than when I first checked into it some years ago.
While I can't test everything, I chose 3 specific types to use in my aquarium set up and I thought I'd do a review of those three.
A couple of things I want to mention before I jump in is that this isn't really a pros and cons review. I like all 3 of these man-made rocks, but for different reasons. So, I'm going to be listing what attributes I like about them and not really doing a pros and cons list.
The second thing is that I'm not really going to be evaluating rock in terms of its scientific ability to act as live rock. I've talked to enough people and received enough feedback that I'm convinced they all work well. From what I read and hear, I doubt many reefers would really be able to tell the difference on how well they are functioning between each other and even real live rock. I know for sure I can't. So, I won't try to review something beyond my capabilities.
All that said, let's get started!!!
A Purple Reef
http://www.apurplereef.com/
A Purple Reef really seems like a pretty small business. If they weren't a sponsor on this forum, I don't know if I'd even know they exist. There really isn't a lot of information about them on the internet I could find. Although, there is one brilliant youtube review of the rock here:
That said, I think this is actually my favorite rock. I really like the colors. It has various shades of purple from more of a red to a dark purple and individual rocks have individual shades in them. I find them to be very good looking rocks and they really stand out in my tank under reef lighting.
I also like their "stackability". I find it very easy to construct the aquascape with these rocks without any awkward balancing acts. I read one review that said they are "like legos". I'd agree with that. I really seemed to be able to put them wherever I want and have them be stable without any real hassle.
Finally, I just want to mention the price and shipping. At $200 for 50lbs with free shipping, this was the cheapest of the rock options I looked at. The shipping was also super fast. I ordered this on a Tuesday morning and I had it by Thursday afternoon. I really wasn't expecting a 2 day receipt for free on an item as heavy as rock, but it was super fast, which is great.
Real Reef Rock
http://realreefrock.com/
Real Reef Rock and A Purple Reef rock really appear to be highly similar as near as I can tell in terms of what they are. The differences I can see are the color and shapes of the rock.
The color is a very consistent dark purple color (at least on all of the pieces I have). It also seems to less consistently cover the whole rock than I see with A Purple Reef. I'm not sure why that is and if it's by design or if the color has flaked off, but regardless, it's not really a bad thing. It gives it a look of coral line having covered all the rock in some cases, but having not quite covered everything in others, which is fine. I happen to like the color less than A Purple Reef, but that's clearly a personal preference thing and I could see someone else feeling differently.
So, as you can see, I'm OK with the color, but I like A Purple Reef a lot better when it comes to color due to its variation and having consistently covered the rocks.
The shape for Real Reef Rock is other thing that is interesting. Real Reef rocks have an "appearance" of being porous and have quite a bit of variation in their shapes. I like this variety a lot and I like the shapes and "texture" (is that the right word) of the rocks quite a bit.
CaribSea LifeRock Shapes
http://www.caribsea.com/
This appears to be a new product and is very interesting. Unlike A Purple Reef and Real Reef, where the rocks are fairly typical "chunks of rock", the idea behind CaribSea Shapes is to make it easy to create interesting aquascapes by creating man-made rocks in shapes such as arches, rings, and tunnels. It also claims to be infused with spored bacteria...whatever that means.
I like this rock a lot in terms of it really does make it easy to add character to the aquascape without much effort and without it just becoming a wall of rock. I don't think you'd want your entire aquascape to be this, but it's a great enhancement to go along with your other rock.
I'm not quite sure what to say about the color. It's been in my tank a whole day so far and I definitely don't like the color as much as Real Reef, let alone A Purple Reef. The color is really pretty bland so far. But, my LFS said to give it a month in the tank and I won't be able to tell the difference between it and Real Reef. So, we will see.
That's my brief review. My bottom line is I really like all 3 of these rocks for different reasons and I've chosen to do a scape that includes all 3 to give my scape some variety while still using man made rock. I'd be happy if I had to do my scape in only A Purple Reef or Real Reef rock, though. In either case, I'd add some Shapes to give it some easy character and variety.
I'll close with a picture of all 3 rocks out of the tank. There are two A Purple Reef rocks are on the lower left, a Real Reef rock on the lower right, and a Shapes rock in the top center (that happens to be an arch). I'm not sure how helpful this picture is though, because they really look very different under reef lightning in the tank. The Purple Reef rock doesn't look nearly so bright, for example. Hopefully it gives you an idea, though.
UPDATE:
I'm adding this as an update as I don't talk about it great detail above. I wrote about it in another thread.
-------
One thing I'm not sure I was quite clear on in my earlier post that I thought I'd mention in more detail just in case it matters.
One thing that very much surprised me with A Purple Reef rocks was the fast cycle time. I think this would be true for Real Reef rocks as well, but I haven't truly independently tested.
What I did was I set up a 32 gallon biocube using nothing but A Purple Reef Rocks. I then added Dr. Tim's ammonia so that my ammonia reading was 2ppm. The next day, both my ammonia and nitrites were 0, indicating a fully cycled tank.
This really ran counter to so much of my instincts on cycle time that it made me very nervous, but I went ahead and added fish and continued to monitor a couple of times a day and never had any problems.
I've been told that I should expect the same results if I had tried Real Reef rock, but when I used Real Reef, I used it in conjunction with A Purple Reef, so I can't independently verify that.
Either way, I WOULD definitely test to make sure your tank is cycled always rather than just assume it is, but that was my experience.
I seem to be one of the few people on forums I read that has even tried this type of rock, so I like to comment about it so people are aware another option is out there.
Last edited:
