Rock solid aquascape: Does the weight of the rocks in your aquascape matter?

[Dburr1014]

Not really... let me see if I can clarify it for you.

Functionally, the same thing as saying Rock is Rock is Rock or Wood is Wood is Wood. We all know this is not the case...

The weight has not changed compared to what? As I have explained, a Marco Rock today weighs more than it did when it was on a living reef because of Geologic processes that occurred while it was calcifying over the last couple of million years.

The *mined* rock you get is millions of years old and has not changed at all (except over the course of the millions of years it has been undergoing calcification).

This is where you've made the biggest mistake though. 90's live rock was not mined marco rock, it was harvested from a living reef, and as a result, never underwent the long period of dry calcification, silicization, and crystalization that the mined rocks went through.

This (Mined "live rock"):

Is not the same as this (Havested Live Rock):

There are more diffrences than just its geographic location (ie Where it came from).

Thanks for your detailed point of view.
I wasn't really going in depth as you have showed us.

I saw it as:
1 million mined rock bought 20 years ago is the same as 1,000,020 year old rock bought today. It's not lighter, it's not heavier, it's the same.

All done, moving on.

 

[JNalley]

Thanks for your detailed point of view.
I wasn't really going in depth as you have showed us.

I saw it as:
1 million mined rock bought 20 years ago is the same as 1,000,020 year old rock bought today. It's not lighter, it's not heavier, it's the same.

All done, moving on.

Umm.. that's my point... The rock bought 20 years ago wasn't mined rock. Walt Smith Fiji, Pukani, Tonga Branch, and even today's Australian Live Rock, was/is rock directly harvested from a living reef. It's not millions of years old, it's thousands at best... Perhaps this is where your misunderstanding lies...

 

[Freenow54]

Rock solid aquascape: Does the weight of the rocks in your aquascape matter?

All the different types of reef rocks in the aquarium are not equal. There are different shapes, materials, colors, weights, porosity, and more. This may include real live rock from the ocean, man-made rock that has been made to look live rock, and man-made rock that has all the preferred features but doesn’t especially look like traditional reef rock. However, does the weight of the rock in your aquascape matter? There is a bigger difference in the weight between Quality Marine’s Ecoscape rock and real aquacultured rock that has been pulled from the ocean. Please let us know if the weight of the rock matters to you, both during the time that you are putting the rocks in place as well as during the life of the aquascape.

Photo by @Andre_Takahashi

This QOTD is sponsored by Nutramar: https://www.qualitymarine.com/nutramar/

“Nutramar’s 100% natural food products are used by public aquaria and breeders around the world. They offer superior nutrition to your most finicky and delicate fish and invertebrates.

I have not read any other responses so forgive me. When I " built" my new tank ( 90 ) I went by the popular advise and added one pound per gallon. I now do not see the reasoning. First and foremost is the surface area to accommodate the bacteria. It is easy enough then to make lots of caves ect. for the fish. In my new tank which will be small schooling fish maybe 6 or so the bio load should be very light . The reason for this is to double down on the coral

 

[JNalley]

I have not read any other responses so forgive me. When I " built" my new tank ( 90 ) I went by the popular advise and added one pound per gallon. I now do not see the reasoning. First and foremost is the surface area to accommodate the bacteria. It is easy enough then to make lots of caves ect. for the fish. In my new tank which will be small schooling fish maybe 6 or so the bio load should be very light . The reason for this is to double down on the coral

1lb/gallon was the old metric from back in the day when we used actual live rock, harvested from a natural reef, usually from Tonga, Fiji, or somewhere in the South Pacific. That rock was extremely porous and lightweight and gave a ton of surface area for bacteria. Today, most reefers are left with 2 choices, where one of them comes with a variation.

Choice 1: Man-Made rock. The recommendation for this should be something like 2lb/gallon because this rock is dense, not lightweight, and not porous at all.

Choice 2: Dry Mined Rock: This rock is the same composition as the rock from the early 2000's and before, but it has been dry and buried beneath the earth for some time, as a result, it is slightly more dense and some of the finer pores have been covered over (Due mainly to geologic processes, pressure, heat, etc causing further calcification and crystallization). I generally shoot for 1.5lbs/gallon of this rock.

Choice 2 Variant: Most of today's Live Rock is Dry Mined Rock that has been dropped to the bottom of the ocean for several years (Known as Mariculture). It's the same choice as choice 2 but comes with the biodiversity typically found on the rocks from the early 2000s and before.

You can get Australian Live Rock, which is similar to the old Fiji and Tonga rocks, it's just from Australia. It's super lightweight when compared to Choice 1 and Choice 2, has many more openings/swimthroughs etc as it's generally a branch-style rock or a fused branch-style rock.

The reasoning, as I mentioned, was mostly due to surface area, but it also was for Natural Habitat, Coral placement, and looks.

 

[Dburr1014]

Choice 2: Dry Mined Rock: This rock is the same composition as the rock from the early 2000's and before, but it has been dry and buried beneath the earth for some time, as a result, it is slightly more dense and some of the finer pores have been covered over (Due mainly to geologic processes, pressure, heat, etc causing further calcification and crystallization). I generally shoot for 1.5lbs/gallon of this rock.

[IMG alt="JNalley"]https://www.reef2reef.com/data/avatars/m/183/183972.jpg?1637864014[/IMG]

JNalley​

Valuable Member​

My Tank Thread

Thanks for your detailed point of view.
I wasn't really going in depth as you have showed us.

I saw it as:
1 million mined rock bought 20 years ago is the same as 1,000,020 year old rock bought today. It's not lighter, it's not heavier, it's the same.

All done, moving on.
Click to expand...

Umm.. that's my point... The rock bought 20 years ago wasn't mined rock. Walt Smith Fiji, Pukani, Tonga Branch, and even today's Australian Live Rock, was/is rock directly harvested from a living reef. It's not millions of years old, it's thousands at best... Perhaps this is where your misunderstanding lies...


LOL, and you told me they didn't mine rock 20 years ago. LOL.
Which is it??

 

[JNalley]

[IMG alt="JNalley"]https://www.reef2reef.com/data/avatars/m/183/183972.jpg?1637864014[/IMG]

JNalley​

Valuable Member​

My Tank Thread

Umm.. that's my point... The rock bought 20 years ago wasn't mined rock. Walt Smith Fiji, Pukani, Tonga Branch, and even today's Australian Live Rock, was/is rock directly harvested from a living reef. It's not millions of years old, it's thousands at best... Perhaps this is where your misunderstanding lies...


LOL, and you told me they didn't mine rock 20 years ago. LOL.
Which is it??

apparently you're slow...

Read more carefully...

The majority of rock BOUGHT 20 years ago (and before) in this hobby was not Mined rock. Walt Smith Fiji and Walt Smith Tonga Branch (The rock that I was speaking about in the other conversation to you) were not MINED rock. That was the majority of rock sold in the hobby 20 years ago..

They did Mine rock (that rock has been mined for 50 years or more for other purposes), and when the real Live Rock went away (Or more accurately, the writing was on the wall that the hobby needed a green alternative), it (The Dry Mined Rock) was seen a viable alternative and companies (Like Marco Rocks, est 2005) started buying it to sell Mined Dry rock for aquascapes... Some Companies, like TBS, KP, and a few others, decided to buy up stores of this rock (Before even Marco got involved) and drop it to the bottom of the ocean, so they could sell it and aid in the conservation of the reefs... TBS got their first lease in 1991 (2 years after Florida Banned the harvesting of Live Rock), and didn't start harvesting until years later.

Perhaps you need to go and really read what I wrote to you, maybe you will learn something...


Edit: One thing I didn't already know, was that Pukani rock (from TBS) was also Maricultured rock (was popular in the early/mid 2000's) from a Bahamian rock mine. But if you still don't understand the difference between Real Reef Harvested Live Rock, and Maricultured Rock, and Mined Marco Rock... I don't know what else to tell you...

 

[Dburr1014]

apparently you're slow...

Read more carefully...


Perhaps you need to go and really read what I wrote to you, maybe you will learn something...

I don't know what else to tell you...

Thanks for pointing out how slow I am, I appreciate it.

But I don't need to read anything more carefully. And you don't need to tell me anything else because you are now on ignore because I find you very insulting and your posts and how you write, show it. I'm happy you know everything rocks but you don't get my point.

My whole point of my very first post was rocks do not change over the years. This was how I read some of these posts. Tonga is always dense no matter when it was collected. Same goes for all the types but it sounded like to ME that the posts people wrote that they changed over the years. They don't, period.

And I will say again, so you understand, you are on ignore and I will not be reading anymore from you so please don't respond.

Good day, happy reefing.

 

[Freenow54]

1lb/gallon was the old metric from back in the day when we used actual live rock, harvested from a natural reef, usually from Tonga, Fiji, or somewhere in the South Pacific. That rock was extremely porous and lightweight and gave a ton of surface area for bacteria. Today, most reefers are left with 2 choices, where one of them comes with a variation.

Choice 1: Man-Made rock. The recommendation for this should be something like 2lb/gallon because this rock is dense, not lightweight, and not porous at all.

Choice 2: Dry Mined Rock: This rock is the same composition as the rock from the early 2000's and before, but it has been dry and buried beneath the earth for some time, as a result, it is slightly more dense and some of the finer pores have been covered over (Due mainly to geologic processes, pressure, heat, etc causing further calcification and crystallization). I generally shoot for 1.5lbs/gallon of this rock.

Choice 2 Variant: Most of today's Live Rock is Dry Mined Rock that has been dropped to the bottom of the ocean for several years (Known as Mariculture). It's the same choice as choice 2 but comes with the biodiversity typically found on the rocks from the early 2000s and before.

You can get Australian Live Rock, which is similar to the old Fiji and Tonga rocks, it's just from Australia. It's super lightweight when compared to Choice 1 and Choice 2, has many more openings/swimthroughs etc as it's generally a branch-style rock or a fused branch-style rock.

The reasoning, as I mentioned, was mostly due to surface area, but it also was for Natural Habitat, Coral placement, and looks.

Well since reading a book. I have decided to use the recipe and make my own. Pretty cool, and not trying to insult anyone with my post. idea