Marshall Island Live Rock

[Anonymous]

Is Marshall Island live really worth the extra bread?

My LFS doesn't carry it because it's too expensive.

There is an LFS in Miami that carries it, but wants $9.00 per pound. That's about the same amount my local LFS said he could order it for.

The vendor in Miami says that alot of online suppliers say they are selling Marshall Island rock, but really are not selling true Marshall Island rock.

What is the true market price of Marshall Island rock and is it really worth it?

Louey

 

[ChrisRD]

Premium Aquatics sells real Marshall rock. I've ordered Fiji rock from them several times over the years and it's always been good. Send Jason at PA an email if you're curious - he's a good guy and very helpful.

 

[fungia]

it is beautiful rock but i dont see as much life on it as i see in fiji. i still like fiji better

 

[Anonymous]

it is beautiful rock but i dont see as much life on it as i see in fiji. i still like fiji better

I understand that it has less in the way of polyps and mushrooms. I am okay with that since my new tank is going to be SPS. I really would be happy if I never saw another polyp or mushroom.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

ChrisRD wrote:

Premium Aquatics sells real Marshall rock. I've ordered Fiji rock from them several times over the years and it's always been good. Send Jason at PA an email if you're curious - he's a good guy and very helpful.

I mentioned this to the guy in Miami that PA sells it for $5.49 per pound uncured. He says there's no way anyone is selling true Marshall Island rock that cheap.

I'll email or call Jason to talk about this.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Premium Aquatics sells real Marshall rock. I've ordered Fiji rock from them several times over the years and it's always been good. Send Jason at PA an email if you're curious - he's a good guy and very helpful.

Ditto. MI is worth the extra. But, if I were you I would get some Florida LR, de-manits and hairy crab it, and put it in because of all the microorganisms that come with it, heck you probably pick it up at lunch where you are.

 

[Anonymous]

Kevlouie wrote:

de-manits and hairy crab it,

How exactly do you do that?

because of all the microorganisms that come with it

What kind of microorganisms to Florida LR have that Marshall or Fiji don't have?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Well its not easy. I usually cure it in a tub for a while with a bunch of LR that is not going to go into the tank in there. You don't want to go crazy with hypo or anything. The biggest thing you will get are dozens of species of amphipods, copepods etc, polychaete worms, spionid, spaghetti, and bristle worms, snails. More bacteria...just trust me. As far as shapes and looks the florida stuff isn't all that, but for critters, I highly recommend you put a few pieces in. The MI live rock is the bomb for shape, denisty and aquascaping (to me). But a small percentage of life makes it the whole way from there alive, mostly bacteria and simple organism and a few pods/worms. I'd say 70% of my 120 right now is MI, with some fiji and the rest florida. The mantis shrimp and hairy crabs were mostly dead in the box when I got my rock from florida. One hairy crab made it through and he was a hell of time getting out, but my tank is crawling with life due to the florida stuff.

 

[Anonymous]

Where'd you get your MI, Kev? And how much did you pay?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Premium Aquatics. just cure it for about 3 weeks

link

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/LiveStock.htm

 

[Anonymous]

I think the Florida stuff is too heavy.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe I'll get a few pounds of Florida Aquacultured and put it in my fuge. That way I can get the microrganism and keep the crabs and stuff out of my reef.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

My fl rock came in on New Year's Eve, freezing cold. It had more than 12 hairy crabs survive 8O I thought I had gotten them all out, two days ago I found another one! Time to crab trap.

The fl rock would/is great to use as base/foundation rock. Just place your nicer rock on top.

 

[Anonymous]

De-mantis your florida/gulf LR:

Locate mantis burrow in rock.
Remove rock from water.
Place in bucket.
Bucket needs some water in the bottom.
Fill a turkey baster with seltzer water.
Squirt seltzer water into mantis burrow.
At this time make sure his hole faces down into the bucket.
He comes flying out.
Rock goes back into buhquarium.
--> Take pix of mantis.
--> PM said pix to Hwarang, friend of all stomatopods
--> ship mantis to hwarang, who gives u a nice tip as well.
--> View pix of mantis in its new home.

 

[Anonymous]

I was at my local LFS today, trading in $107 worth of monti frags , and he showed me some large Tonga rock that he has for sale that looked great. He sells cured Tonga for $7.00. If my tank were ready today I would have taken all of his Tonga off his hands. The pieces were large, interesting, and had different colors of coraline on it.

I also asked him to find out how much he would charge for Marshall Island live rock. He's going to let me know this week.

I hope he can get MI for a reasonable price because I would rather buy it locally if I could. It's nice being able to hand pick your own rock.

And I can trade frags to offset the price.

 

[cklayko2000]

I set my last tank up soley using Marshall Island LR. The rock itself had some really cool shapes to it, very "branchy" however it never seemed to grow stuff. It made my tank very hard to keep happy. In the end I was dissapointed that I spent all that $$ on rock that never really took off. I prefer FIJI, more bang for the buck.

 

[Jolieve]

I have a hundred dollar chunk of MI rock in my tank. It was purchased for the shape more than anything else. It does not grow *anything* as well as the other rock in the tank (the rest of the rock is Fiji), and coralline doesn't seem to stick to that piece as well, which I find sort of odd.

The shape is really cool though.

J.

 

[Anonymous]

ChrisRD wrote:

Premium Aquatics sells real Marshall rock. I've ordered Fiji rock from them several times over the years and it's always been good. Send Jason at PA an email if you're curious - he's a good guy and very helpful.

I mentioned this to the guy in Miami that PA sells it for $5.49 per pound uncured. He says there's no way anyone is selling true Marshall Island rock that cheap.

I'll email or call Jason to talk about this.

Louey

That LFS is sorta right, you can't make much money on selling MI rock at near pennies to the landed cost The concept of "lost leader" comes into play here.

 

[Anonymous]

Jolieve wrote:

I have a hundred dollar chunk of MI rock in my tank. It was purchased for the shape more than anything else. It does not grow *anything* as well as the other rock in the tank (the rest of the rock is Fiji), and coralline doesn't seem to stick to that piece as well, which I find sort of odd.

The shape is really cool though.

The shape is what has me interested in MI. I already undestand that it doesn't have as many polyps, mushrooms, etc. I don't want those anyways. I want a place to mount SPS corals too.

Odd that coraline doesn't want to grow on it. That's the first time I've heard that.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

GreshamH wrote:

That LFS is sorta right, you can't make much money on selling MI rock at near pennies to the landed cost The concept of "lost leader" comes into play here.

Actually, here's the reason premium aquatics sells it for less. I sent Jason at Premium Aquatics an email asking why and here is his response:

We do sell real Marshall Island rock, we buy it direct from the country. We
have know the guy that started up Marshall Island for many years. It's a
small country and not a lot of rock comes out of there. Premium Aquatics
imports in more then 50% of the rock that the entire USA gets. So we get a
very good price. We are one of the few that can buy direct.

Most likely the pet stores are buying Marshall from a wholesale, someone
similar to us that brings the rock in and then resells to them. Since they
buy smaller amounts they have to pay more. They probably buy 200-300lbs at a
time, where we'll buy 1000-1500lbs at a time every other week. We would buy
even more if they could keep up the supply, but there is only one flight out
of Marshall a week, so you can only get so much.

It is very expensive rock and they did just have a 25 cent price increase
which we haven't adjusted for yet, so our price might go up, but would only
be 25-50 cents at the most.

I'm sure Jason doesn't mind me quoting him here.

Louey