Rocks, the building blocks of the reef

Reef rocks made of calcium, or dead coral skeletons and coralline algae is one of the basic building blocks of a successful reef. Unlike the rocks you can skip on the water or those big round stones found in streams, rocks from the reef are often light, porous, filled with beneficial bacteria and interesting hitch hikers including corals and invertebrates. The live version of the rocks, or live rocks do not look like the pictures here. They are much more interesting and for the most part, purple.


Anyway to save costs, I've been wanting to start my next tank with part live rock and part base rock (old and dried live rock that's dead). Basically, mixing base rocks with live rocks for 6-8 months will make the base rock just as alive as the live rocks pulled out of the ocean. Granted it won't have as many hitch hikers or new surprises (which could be a bad or good thing). However, it will still have all the beneficial bacteria, which is the most important part. My first choice for base rock, after scanning the forums for praises was to order them from www.reeferrocks.com. One of the things I thought was cool is that they will send you pictures of the rocks before shipping them. That's the definition of customer service right there! However, a local reefer here was selling 100lbs of show size rocks for $50; a deal I couldn't refuse. So Reefer Rocks, you will have to wait...


Honestly, if there's something I learned this time around getting back into the hobby, it's that it pays to shop around for the best deals; preferably from people in your area who are getting out of the hobby. So far this has saved me a ton of money even though I will still end up spending thousands of dollars by the time this ends. However, buying used from local reefers is the smart thing to do. Take live rocks for instance... chances are you will not encounter a mantis shrimp and most bad hitch hikers will probably be plucked out (from a experienced reefer). Anyway, the pictures here are of my new addition... the rocks are really huge and amazing and it's hard to say how cool they are without examing them close up. However, if you're not into salt water fish, there's just no way you can get excited about $50 worth of rocks so it's pointless to try.

I will say this though... I took one of the more porous pieces and soaked it in a fresh water bath a couple of days ago. After I cleaned it tonight, I threw it into the 12 gallon to "seed" it with bacteria from my current rocks. While I know there are some cool nooks in this piece of rock, what I didn't realize, and what the dottyback showed me was that there are actually two tunnels in this rock which allow the fish to go in one hole and come out of another. This is so much fun! It's like giving my fish a McDonald's play gym. Well, I'm sure I look like a geek now, but you reefers will appreciate it. =D