direct from diver

Wild live rock can not be harvested off of the coast, it's illeagal to do so.
It can only be aqua culture now, so basically someone has to have a live rock farm there.

 

Wild live rock can not be harvested off of the coast, it's illeagal to do so.
It can only be aqua culture now, so basically someone has to have a live rock farm there.


CyberJester-

How dose one aquaculture live rock?? It takes a long time for live rock to form. What do they do grow sps then kill it so live rock can form from it's skeleton?? Please clairify.
-Bill

 

Maybe they can't harvest in Florida, but Bali, Tonga, and Figi don't seem to have a problem shipping their rock here.

 

Posted By Bill on 03/30/2009 08:34 AM
Wild live rock can not be harvested off of the coast, it's illeagal to do so.
It can only be aqua culture now, so basically someone has to have a live rock farm there.
CyberJester-
How dose one aquaculture live rock?? It takes a long time for live rock to form. What do they do grow sps then kill it so live rock can form from it's skeleton?? Please clairify.
-Bill
How they do it is, a permit is issued designating you a space in the ocean off of the coast.
They rope of the permeter and section it off.
Then they take limestone that is dug out of quary, they place the limestone in their beds and wait for it to cure (grown coraline, corals, etc...)
Then they sell it the aquarium industry.

 

Saw an ad in TFH this month for direct from diver aquacultured rock - from the ocean, but how CyberJester describes it. At first glance, I missed the aquacultured part...

 

Getting live rock from the ocean is asking for issues, if it's not properly cured things could go bad in a hurry....and by the time you cure it properly everything that would have been alive is probably dead.

 

Live-rock can be culured. It is made via cement mized with some araganite chunks and aragonite sand. Once the cement dries, it is placed in a saltwater vet which is airated and circulated until it provides a steady pH, about 30-60 days. From there you just mix it with water that is already seeded with good live rock and give it time. This can take a year or more for good live rock to be formed. Indo-Pacific Sea Farms in Hawaii only sells live rock which they cultuer. Same with all of their livestock, all purely aquacultured. It can be done, but it needs a large facility and time to setup. Once it is setup, however, a cycle can be formed, and as customers purchase the rock they can just toss in new chunks of dead rock to begin the process all over again.

 

Man that is not live rock that's crap! I would be totaly pissed if some one sold me lime stone or cement as live rock!

-Bill

 

I've seen some crappy DIY rock, but I've also seen some pieces as nice as any from the ocean. Functionality, they are exactly the same as long as they have been cured properly and seeded with existing rock.

-JB

 

Some of it actually looks REALLY nice, and it does the job just as well as the "real" stuff, not to mention it helps sustain natural ecosystems by not putting stress on them. I am sure if you saw a GOOD piece of man made rock you would have no problem with it The difficult part is finding the good stuff /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/doze.gif