102 LBS of Vanuatu Live Rock
 

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...l-med.JPG?7578
Just purchased 102LBS of Vanuatu Live Rock and put it in the tank for curing I will start placing it in a few days. There are a few nice yellow and green spots on this stuff. It looks pretty kool :biggrin:
This is my first salt tank

Rock looks nice. What are you using as a substrate?

Black Marine Sand I plan to add a bag or two of white live sand after the rock is cured for a salt & pepper look

Neat. Never heard of that stuff.

looks good congrats with the stuff

Mike

nice rock! but I have to be blunt, that sand has gotta go!!

I Tried black sand but I found it just absorbed to much light, didn't reflect any back.. went to salt and pepper, then kicked myself in the butt for all the money I had wasted.. finally went to regular sugar aragonite.. no more kicking myself now.

Doug

I like the sand.. in fresh water tanks black substrate is a trick to make colors stand out more. some times I wish I would have used black in mine also.

Steve

Well I'm going to give it a try. I am not going for any super light corals yet. I have 550 watts of CF light on the tank right now so i'll give it a try. Maybe in a year or so if I find I cant get the light i'll change it. A person has to try :lol:
Right now the skimmer is pulling a light "Chinesse resturant coffee" coloured goop :mrgreen:

Ok I splearged a little more I added 52lbs of Fiji Rock to it for a total of 154lbs of live rock.
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...l-med.JPG?6874
and a few close ups
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...l-med.JPG?8738

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...l-med.JPG?6937
I think I am getting the hang of placing rock :biggrin:
Please any comments if want
All the live rock was Aquired from Aquarium Illusions ( I left them a few lbs)

Nice - that is one serious wall o' rock! Hard to see real clearly, but it looks like you have plenty of caves and pass-throughs there.

That tank should fill in nicely when they're all covered over with corals.

:mrgreen:

Yup, looks nice. I am still a fan of the rock wall look.

(Splurge.)

The rock wall looks nice, but it can turn into a algae producer if you don't get enough water movement in the back. Try and stack it so there is space behind it, and use epoxy to hold it together once you get a structure you like otherwise it could topple later on and hurt some of the inhabitants. I would also recommend curing with the lights off, do many frequent large water changes and make sure you have a ton of water movement going.

Mike

I don't understand how lower flow will turn it into a algae producer? just have lots of flow in the tank and it will difuse through out the rocks.

I would have to disagree with curring it in the dark and epoxying it togeather.
by curing it in the dark you lessen any chance of photosynthic stuff to live through the shipping/curing process, and by gluing your rock togeather you make it inpossable to rearange easaly when you decide that rock would look better over there and when that 35 buck frag comes unglued and falls into a crack :rolleyes:
If you take your time and stack it so it is steady you will not have to worry about rock falling.

Steve

If you look under the outflow I have a 300gal/h powerhead moving water along the back glass. All the rock is very steady and solid (I made sure of that) there might be a few peices that are relying on another to hold them in place but I made sure that they were not woobly. I am also sitting on the fence with the light thing so they are off for most of the day and maybe on for 4-5 hours at night hoping that there is enuf light to keep stuff alive but not enuf for an alge explosion :biggrin:

I'm with Steve, keep your lights on, water movement lessens algae? um, okay, you're still going to get an algae bloom on your rocks etc, it's a given, it happens with all reef tanks (my opinion). If you've got a tang or a fox face you can borrow that will sure help with algae, if not you can rely on cleaner crews.
Alot of books recommend epoxying your rock together, well that's fine and dandy unless you have to move something, then trying to lift out that chunk of glued together rock will be a total pain, not to mention it still wont fit back the way you want it. I'd only epoxy rock that is in an obvious position to fall like you've built an over hang, or built an arch out of smaller peices.

Doug

Hey Steve and Doug,
Reduced water flow does lead to increased algae gowth. Things like algae spores and detritus settle out and take hold in low flow areas.Numerous books on algae control list one of the methods for controlling algae is increased water movement. Haven't you noticed areas where there is low flow, usually algae growth occurs when nutrient level increases. As far as adding cleaning crew, or herbivore fish you will definately decrease your overall deversity fom your rock. Curing with lights off may cause your corraline to bleach, but it will come back quickly when you add lights. I've cured two tanks this way, and have never had algae blooms occur on my rock from cycling.

Mike

The only algae I've seen from low water movment is diatomatious algae and or red algae. Green algaes grow well in strong current. Curing rock with the lights off to me is a waste of time but if it works for you that's great. I've seen people do things that make no sense to me and sometimes I do things that makes no sense to someone else but we do stick with what works for us regardless of what others say. Look at one of the guys here he doesn't do water changes etc but he's got a nice tank... who knows what goes on.

Doug

I get algae only where my water flow is the highest, but thats not the point you have to define low flow, I have a turn over rate in my tank of 50X / hour so even behind the rocks there is no such thing as low flow (my cleaner shrimp started giving me the finger when I put the second tunze in :mrgreen:

I cycled my tank with one powerhead but the rock had many holes like Dabblers does which allows current to penatrate through out the mass, I think what you are refuring to is "no flow" rather than low.

but even in my old set up, I never had algae in the very low flow areas.

I think the cause of algae growth directly in the path of my Tunze now is beacuse of the amount of highly oxyignated water blasting in thoes spots.

as for the light part I am not talking about coraline surviving but rather photosynthic sponges and polyps ect.. coraline is a dime a dozzen to grow :mrgreen:

Steve

How much was the rock at AI?

last time i saw it was 10 bucks a pounds :rolleyes:

It depends on how much you buy, don't quot me on this but i think if you buy 150+lbs the price is about $8lbs. But if AIman sees this he can confirm the price (Mastercard paid for the rock :lol: )

Jeez $10 a pound?... I still have trouble paying $5.50 a pound when I know the stores are buying it for $2 a pound... Oh well.. I'm makin my own

Doug

Thats expensive, I just bought about 120 lbs at J&l and paid 4.29 a pound, even with shipping cost it was 5 bucks, and the rock as a tong of coraline algae and also believe it or not some macro algae. I find that most things are much more expensive at AI.

I still have problems with mail order stuff. I like supporting local shops and dealing one on one with the owners they get to know you and you get to know them. This works in all industry. Once you know them and they know you things come a little easier, for eg.where I take my truck and van to get work done they can always squeeze me in know matter how busy they are, but if I can wait another day on say an oil change and they are busy I will accomadate them. The same with A I the price was higher than J&L but A I gave me a good price on my tanks and good service and and that is worth me supporting them :biggrin:

mmmm.... I think this should have been in another post :mrgreen:

If you got to hand pick the rock 10.00/lb is a deicent price. If you just bought a box, then I would have done mail order.

Steve

Um, pretty sure last time you were looking at hand picking rock, you thought $6 was too much. :razz:

HAHA

Hmm I guess I ll get into the conversation here....From what I have found in my tank, I find it that in the area of direct water flow, there is a lot of algae growing on the rocks, and when the flow is low, the algae seems to grow on the glass....Am I repeating what some of you have said????? :cry:

when was I looking at rock in edmonton? :mrgreen: but thats cuz the rock I wanted was 32lbs :rolleyes: and I don't ever recall a hand picked price of 6.00, maybe you ment 16.00.

Steve

Steve, I have always paid $6 per pound when picking it from the tub at the LFS. I assumed this price was offered to you also? Many times you were holding a piece of rock you liked but thought the price on the wall of $10 was too much.

Well i know from shopping around Edmonton buying 10-30 lbs of live rock you are paying $10/lb for Live Rock it doesnt matter where you go. A person who is buying 150+lbs has a better chance of getting a deal on the price :cool:

that is also the average price in Victoria, but you can generally do better just by asking. Since I can order online and have it shipped for $6/lb, I can't justify payig $10.
I do recall though that I used to pay about $20/lb in 1992. :eek:

One LFS here will sell a box for about 7/lb if you pre-order, which I guess isn't bad if you prefer to not order online.

naa at that time the price onthe wall was anywhere from 10 to 16/lb.. but it was mainly the fact that the rock I was holding was over 100.00 and the fact that I realy didn't need anymore rock that stopped me from buying :mrgreen:

and why didn't you answer your cell yesterday?

Steve

I've bought live rock At 7.99 a pound once in Edmonton and Calgary. I've seen it at 6.99 once somewhere but i forget. And i've only bought no more than 15 pounds at anytime. And i got some really nice pieces.

I"m glad you have some good experiences with AI. I did have some but i've lost repect for AI now. I plan on doing most of my shopping on the net for now on.

There is no way one should be paying 8 bucks for uncured rock, Ya I wanna support local fsh stores, but I first support my pocket book , and paying 3 dollars a pound for the same rock I can get from Vancouver, hey thats 450 dollars more, that the price of stocking a tank that size, sorry guys this is a no brainer. Thats only my opinion. By the way thsi weather really sucks!!!

I agree 100%. I had to actually put on a jacket today...sheesh!! :razz:

:mrgreen: I didn't think you guys owned jackets in tropical Victoria :razz:

When it comes time for me to retire I'm strapping a snow shovel to the front of the car,driving untill they ask"what the heck is that thing on the front of your car?",thats where I'm retiring!! :biggrin:

hahaha :lol: