thinking of buying tampa bay live rock

[brob22]

is this a good quality rock and is it clean of phosphates
thx

[saf1]

Couple good threads out there that talk about this along with some tank shots.

[mcgyvr]

Yes its amazing live rock and phosphates are not an issue at all..
This is probably the "best" live rock you can get.. teaming with life.. little to no die off due to being shipped quick and fully in water..

[d2mini]

the best!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=24563960#post24563960

[flananuts]

So I completely agree about the quality of the rock and how you'll have virtually no cycle, however nitrates and phosphates will require dealing with in the short term until your bacteria can handle it on its own. I had to use GFO and then vodka dosing for about a month which got everything in control. My tank however in 8 months is thriving, low to no phosphates(via Hanna checker)no detectable nitrates and happy growing mixed reef. I would definitely recommend tbsaltwater and Richard to anyone.


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[Dmorty217]

If you want actual "live rock" and not something that has been sitting in a vat for weeks and completely void of all life except some coralline, then Richard is your guy. He sent me a single 60lb piece of the extra large pukani he has and it was LOADED with life. Sea squirts, sponge, clams, snails, hermit crabs, crabs, feather dusters, 2 pistol shrimp are just a few of the things that came in on the rock. Best stuff money can buy, especially for the price!

[Bent]

It's great except for one thing.

Sometimes you will get a hoard of undesirable predators. I ended up pulling out over 20 gorilla crabs over the years and I think I have a few more.

My suggestion is to buy a strong head light, a magnifying glass and a few buckets.

Fill the buckets up with tank water and put the rocks in it. Turn your light on, get your magnifying glass and really really really inspect each rock before you put it in the display. Make sure you seperate the goodies from the badies.

[lmm1967]

Personally I would highly recommend TBS rock.

You will get plenty of life on the rocks. I am happy to have the life but I also have a display tank, display fuge and sump so I have plenty of places to put the crabs and other things I don't want to chance in my DT. I have a "bad" crab that's practically trained - if I shine a light in his hiding spot he comes to the entrance to see if I'm going to hand him something to eat.

[Lsufan]

I have around 120 lbs of tbs I bought back in march. I love the rock, it's the best looking live rock u can get imo. It came with a ton of porcelain crabs, sponges, tunicates, snails, rock flower anenome, a couple sergeant stars, about 12 urchins, a bunch of pistol shrimp & probably some more that I'm forgetting. The only downside was I pulled out about 50 gorilla crabs & a Eunice worm. It didn't have any mantis which is what I was worried about when I heard the clicking but it is a bunch of pistols. Every time I change my filter socks I pull out a bunch of pods & 2 to 5 pistol shrimp.

My tank didn't even cycle so I was able to add fish within a couple days but I'm sure how long it takes to get to u will be a big factor with that. Even with the gorilla crabs if I setup another tank it would definitely be with tbs.

I have setup tanks with dry rock, live rock from the lfs & with tbs & the tbs rock is by far my favorite. It really isn't much more expensive then buying live rock from my lfs. As far as nitrates & phosphate, my nitrate got up to about 30 ppm but my phosphate never got really high, it has been on the lower side from the beginning.

[brob22]

thx for the replies everyone.

i have one question though. will all the sponges, tunicates, and ect.. stay alive in a well lit high flow display sps tank?

[saf1]

There may be die off but you can always feed photo plankton and other specialty food for filter feeders to give them a better chance. Not having purchased rock from TBS yet it is on my list has part of my upgrade in progress but this is my plan. I'll feed a mix of phyto or oyster feast along with IPSF's coral heaven. Between them I've had pretty good success with previous sponges or filter feeding coral in the past has well as my current tank.

[Bent]

I still have barnacles going strong.

[neiltus]

I got mine shipped in July. There was some die off resulting in some NO3 and PO4, but nothing some water changes or GFO could not handle. Still have a ton of stuff alive-sponges, crabs, shrimp, etc.

Honestly, for the price, it's quite a deal.

If you can't handle a gorilla crab, or think it's the end of the world to do a water change, it's not for you.

I never had ammonia test + on salifert.

[bitwise]

My experience with this rock has been fantastic. I'm about 4 months in with 25 lbs worth in a 43 gallon system.

[wonrib00]

The best mistake ever?: A shipment of theirs went to Monterey California, instead of Myrtle Beach. All I paid was shipping for about 20# of LR and a bunch of inverts. My only "complaint" was it was on the dense side. But it had TONS of life on it. You won't be disappointed.

[j_mazzy]

does richard do aquacultured pukani?

[Devaji108]

i'll chime in on the TBS fan club.
pros:
Richard is a great guy to deal with.
the rock in top shelf. lots of holes for the fish to make homes.
environmentally friendly ( as
this hobby goes)
gives jobs to the local fiji ppl.
shipped in water over night.
a few freebie just might come along. :D

now the cons:
there is going to be hick hikers. mostly good guys.
yes you will get gorilla crabs. I have a huge one in my tank think he might have taken out my purple fire fish but that is speculation.

because it's really live rock your not gonna want to keep it out of water to try a few dozen aquacapes like you will with dry rock. so scaping can be more difficult.

most of the sponges will die off. still nice looking rock tho.

communicate with Richard one what sizes of rocks you are looking for he will do his best for you- that's a pro BTW I did not and of 5 rock I got, 2 big pices are pretty big and are making it hard to scape the way I want.

all in all I a very satisfied with my TBS order. and just might order again could use 20#

[Devaji108]

does richard do aquacultured pukani?

I believe he does. not sure how much he has on hand tho...ask

[Grayhead]

If you go to his web site, there is plenty of info avaliable. He has charts showing the good stuff as well as the bad.
As for my rock, the only things I can tell that died is some of the barnacles. Some of the growth on my rocks has dwindled. Mainly because of direct intense light from my kessils and t-5. I dose sponge power a couple of times a week. As I said in another thread, the pros far outweigh the cons. With the new Walt Smith rock, it give creativity to aquascape and is less dense that his older stuff. When I placed my order, I asked for a mix of the oldest rock he had and some of the newer Walt Smith. I discover new things everytime I search the tank day or night.

[brob22]

u guys sold me on it

thanks for all the good info

[neiltus]

does richard do aquacultured pukani?
yes-see my build thread

[jonwright]

Another one. Bent has had better luck than I with the barnacles, so mine are almost all gone (pistol shrimp and crabs get 'em?).

Did have NO3 adn PO4 for a while like poster above. Carbon dosed for a while and now I'm off of it totally.

Satisfied. I wound up with a wild pistol that killed my leopard pistol (bummer). He's now 3-4". But it's not worth tearing up the tank to get him out.

Occasional crab removal, I have just one crab I probably should remove, but so far I can't pin any bad results or missing stuff to him. I did have one that munched SPS but I got him out.

I'd do it again in a heart beat. Hopefully next time I'd be able to keep the barnacles - they are fantastic to watch.

[ClownsRCoo]

I won't buy it again. I've been struggling with high nitrates for 7 months now and can't even begin to enjoy my tank until it's under control. Sounds like I'm in the minority but wished I never would have purchased it.


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[neiltus]

On the No3 and PO4, My NO3 reached about 50ppm, and my PO4 hit 1ppm about 3 weeks later. I did a 50% water change and started NOPOX at 6ml, then progressing to 9ml. I continued 15g water changes (72gDT), with NOPOX my NO3 went below 5 pretty darn quick. The problem was my PO4 was still high around .5, and I started to get 2 1" patches of GHA. So discontinued the NOPOX as I was right at the edge of bacterial bloom (had seen traces of it). A couple weeks later I came back in town to NO3 around 15ppm and PO4 around .5. Basically for me the NOPOX was effective on the NO3, but not so much on the PO4.

So on to GFO. Started with a half cup of GFO in a reactor, and I went from .44 to .19, then it clumped up, went to .26, I unclumped it and upped the flow yesterday and it was .17 today.

I don't want an ultra low nutrient tank...just a nice 10 or under NO3 and .1 or under PO4 (maybe less).

So, with the Pukani, it can be managed. It's prob easiest if you test often and adapt and read through others experiences.

Tank is still fishless, although I have added a CUC and some fighting conchs, few peppermint shrimp and a cleaner shrimp. I do have one glass anemone , but as I understand the ones from the gulf are less aggressive/invasive. The peppermint shrimp hide, but I can glue him in or steal my wife's laser from the office and smoke his rear.

There are a ton of mithrax crabs, emeralds, and one large pistol shrimp. The pistol shrimp will take a large mysis from my hand...pretty cool...I have a yellow goby in QT that will either be his friend or lunch. The whelks confuse me. If I kill a crab their on it, but they don't touch corals. Gorilla crabs and stone crabs are easily dealt with via a bamboo BBQ skewer. I pop a gorilla crab and the cleaner shrimp and whelks come running...it's funny.

There will be PO4 and NO3, it's just from die off. Not everything will live...I do have some things getting larger that I thought would die off-both orange and blue sponges....I have an orange sponge that has almost grown an inch in two months. There are a metric ton of feather dusters, some macro, pineapple sponges and even some dark black/brown sponges.

If all goes well, I will be putting in a yellow shrimp goby and Potter's angel in a couple weeks. This rock reminds me of the air rock I could get in the 80s and 90s. The Pukani is very dense...I had a large gorilla hiding and took a sawzall to a piece to get to him...cut some nice frag plugs out and viola...there he was....the plugs are nice...they don't look like plugs.

I personally would not use it for a nano tank...but others have with success. Nor would I use it for bio filters on a prized frag tank.

The high NO3 and PO4 is partially my fault. I was testing and waiting for a cycle, never had ammonia and only traces of No2, so never tested for NO3 and did not water change for a few weeks then had to play catch up.