Which would you pick?

[ChrisRD]

If you were choosing live rock for your next reef and had to pick from these types, which would you prefer? Please comment below as well.

(...seems to me that Fiji has gotten progressively worse over the years and I'm thinking about alternatives...)

 

[Unarce]

I voted Marshall, but I always feel rock is rock. At times, Marshall seems to be the most porous, but it isn't always the case. Kaelini, just seems to come straight from the shore with everthing still on it, good or bad. What are you noticing as being progessively worse? Cooking any rock beforehand seems to be the best precautionary measure before placing it in the main tank.

 

[Len]

I am getting 4 boxes of Fiji today, so you know my answer

 

[LA-Lawman]

I kind of like a mix of textures... if you look at my reef from the top down it looks like it would if you were diving it in open water. lots of places to hide and zip in and out of.... if all the rock is the same shape and size it makes it hard to aquascape...

I like Fiji the best... but mixing is fun....

 

[Anonymous]

The last Figi I got was totally without any life!

The vendor did have a warning about how the quality has been declining and people have been disappointed. I still like it for the nice shapes and how light it is.

 

[Len]

Laura,

Doh! I guess I will know in about 6 hours. I'll take some pics.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm a Fiji man.

 

[SnowManSnow]

I like a mix of Marshall and Fiji.... Fiji I use for the "loadbearing walls" of the structure, while I like to make caves and so forth from Marshall.

B

 

[Anonymous]

Laura,

Doh! I guess I will know in about 6 hours. I'll take some pics.

The stuff I got was still good rock, just not covered with fun stuff.


Hopefully yours will have goodies. I was still very pleased with how light it was/is.

 

[Len]

I didn't take photos since i was soooo tired doing all the lifting and what not but you're right Laura. The new Fiji isn't as good as the old one. I didn't get Walt Smith rock though, so I wonder if that makes a difference (old rocks were WS). I know it's 10 years ago and memory should be hazy, but I remembered more life on my other rocks. I guess we'll see in a month or two after things settle down.

I'd take a pic of the tank, but all you'd see is one milky soup

Len

 

[Anonymous]

I bought some Marshall from PA for my 300g. I like it alot. I also got some hand picked pieces of Tonga deep water rock from my LFS. Not the branch rock. Big rock. One actually wieghed 50 pounds. I finished my 300G with some hand picked pieces of Fiji from my LFS.

I was picky about my rock. You are going to be looking at it for a long time.

Louey

 

[middletonmark]

I really like the Marshall Island I've gotten ... though prefer it elevated as that loose structure is easily clogged with crud.

The `large size' Tonga/Branch rock I've really liked for the lower rock structure + aquascape uses .... allows for flow around/through the lower part of the aquascape + great swim-throughs/etc for the fish to hang out in.
Also, some corals [zoanthids for one] look great IMO fully grown onto some thinner branch-rock.

As I like a nice, loose structure - the two seem to work together quite nicely IMO.

 

[Len]

Now that the tank is settled a bit, I can see my Fiji LR now. It's definitely not as nice as the batch 10 years ago. I can make it work just fine, since in a year, it'll be covered with corals anyhow The rock is still nice and light, but it's not as packed with diversity of life or shapes as I remembered. I may have to do most of my aquascaping with careful coral placement It will make for fun planning.

 

[Anonymous]

I kinda prefer my rock not to have all kinds of stuff growing on it now anyway.

It was cool when I set up my first reef with figi and I would sit and look for new things popping out of the rock, but now I really just need somewhere to place my corals! So for stocking a reef tanks I think rock that is more of a "blank slate" is better.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, likewise. For me its all about shape and porosity. Light rock with tons of caves etc. But I haven't bought any lately to have any good advice about which is best...

 

[middletonmark]

In my experience, talking with the places within a drive of your house, so you can go and cherry pick a new rock shipment ... that's been best.

Keeping an eye out, while not the cheapest method, has found me a couple pieces a year that are just wonderful. Easy enough to have a tub in the basement, with about 40-50# of rock now that's just settled and ready for my upgrade in 6 months.
Water change it monthly, not much light on it ... but cherry picked arch piece, cherry picked structural piece, etc Shame I didn't have money when a LFS here moved and brought in a few HUGE loads of rock for their new display tanks. 1000# to pick out of ... there's gotta be a few amazing pieces, whatever the source of the live rock.

Given you're working with it for a while, it's a fundamental part of how you arrange the tank ... at least for part, I'd argue for picking it out yourself - and from as large a batch as you can. There's lovely shapes of most kinds of rock - provided you can choose it, and the place has a lot.

 

[Len]

The sand/detritus storm has settled further and I've changed my mind again The Fiji rock looks pretty good in the tank. There wasn't the diversity of shape that I remembered getting before, but after aquascaping, everything came together nicely.

I will be ordering 40 lbs of Marshalls this week since I need a few rocks to finish off my aquascaping. I'll let you know how the Marshalls is.

 

[ChrisRD]

Thanks for all the great input everyone.

 

[Len]

I got the Marshalls in last night and spent some time reaquascapping. The Marshalls is nice rock and much like I remembered it (very knobby with big pores). Coralline coverage was average, and there still wasn't the diversity of life that I recall from my first batch of Fiji. All in all, nice and attractive rock. The biggest issue for me was integrating its dissimiliar appearance with my existing Fiji.