My TBS Experience: The Rock (w/ Pics)

[WoodlandsTXReef]

My TBS Experience: The Rock

This was my first order from Tampa Bay Saltwater, and I only ordered 40lbs...for my new 29 gallon “nano� reef aquarium. I chose the more expensive “Coral Rock� as Richard told me it would have the most variety of life. The tank is filtered only by a sponge (for mechanical filteration), a Tunze Nano skimmer, and the live rock itself. Additionally, I had Carib-Sea's Aragalive sand, and some staghorn coral liverock from the LFS in the tank. While the staghorn liverock has a nice shape, it is almost devoid of life. And since I would rather look at truly LIVE liverock, I decided to use the staghorn as a kind of shelf to lift the TBS liverock off the substrate.

Initially, I was somewhat disappointed in the TBS rock as I was expecting rock covered with life (but, keep reading!) The rock looked similar to some of the pictures I've seen here, in the TBS forums. It had lots of Caulerpa algae, red macro algae, sponges, barnacles, and some coral.

I had a rubbermaid container, with strong lighting, for preparing the new rock for the aquarium. In addition to searching for unwanted hithhikers (see my other thread on that), I cleaned every rock with a toothbrush and spoon...trying to remove sponge which looked likely to die. I may have, in the process, killed sponge that might actually have survived, or maybe not. I also removed most of the caulerpa algae. Although I like the caulerpa, I did not want it taking over the tank and smothering the corals on the rock.

After finally getting all of the rock cleaned and placed in the aquarium, I was slightly more pleased as more creatures were showing themselves. I could see numerous barnacles filter feeding, some of the corals were extended, a few tiny fanworms were out. Over the next few days, I noticed a few more creatures.

But, the ammonia started to rise well above the maximum Richard recommended (which is 1 ppm), though I did daily water changes. About a week after I had received the rock, the ammonia topped 4 ppm! I decided to get back out the rubbermaid container, toothbrush, and spoon as I could see lots of dead and dying sponge. The rocks with the most sponge had a very strong rotten eggs smell. I went over each piece of rock even more thoroughly than when I first received it, using the toothbrush to remove some of the sponge. But, much of the sponge required the spoon to pry and scrape it off. Within a day of this major “cleaning�, the ammonia levels were down to around 1 ppm, and the creatures on the live rock were looking better.

Today, exactly three weeks after receiving the liverock, I am extremely pleased with the quality and quantity of life on and in my liverock. I have spotted a number of invertebrates that were not obvious during the first few days. There are many red and many white spaghetti worms (Terebellid polychaete ) in the rock, a few of which have migrated to the sand. There are many more fan worms than was originally obvious. A clam of some sort (not terribly pretty, but still interesting...at least to me). Tiny starfish which extend their legs into the water after dark. I've recently spotted a couple of small tunicates. There is something yellow growing on one of the rocks...it is likely either a tunicate or some kind of sponge. Speaking of sponges, there are several areas where some sponge has survived and seems to be slowly growing back. I also recently spotted a couple of small anemones. The red macro algae is growing and looks nice, IMO. There's also a new red macro algae with a different shape just starting to show.

Oh, and the coral on the rock. I have 4 kinds of coral. One I believe is called brown cup coral. Another looks kind of like an anemone, but it is a hard coral. Sorry, I know I should know what kind of corals these are...but I don't. Anyway, for the most part, they are doing very well. Most extend their polyps nicely. See pics below.

In a year or two, I hope to set up a large, 200 to 300 gallon reef tank, and will likely use half TBS liverock, and half something else. Why “half something else�? Because, though I do like the TBS liverock with all of it's life, I would also like some rock with more interesting shapes such as I've seen from several other online retailers. I doubt any other seller of liverock can come close to the diversity and quantity of life on TBS rock.

My Opinion summed up on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 10 is superb)
Quantity of Life on TBS Liverock - 10
Diversity of Life on TBS Liverock - 9
Shapes of TBS Liverock - 5
[IMG] http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...i-IMG_1116.JPG[/IMG]

[WoodlandsTXReef]

[coralreefhugr]

wow... that is awesome rock!