Live rock and a new tank

JSG

Joined
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Location
Nelspruit, South Africa
Hi guys,
Jacques here from Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. I have started looking at obtaining my first marine tank and have a few questions....don't all newbies have those? ;)

Any way; here they are:
1. I do want to get the environment as close as possible to the real thing and have started looking at Live Rock.
Thus far I have not really seen what I have liked...too many shops sell what they call "live rock" and it looks little more than dead bricks. I have now come across a guy who sells live rock from his home in small quantities and it looks great there. He says he guarantees up to 60% more life on his rock than anywhere else available in SA. He wants R130-00 per kg....is this a fair price? Price does not include postage and packaging.

2. By purchasing this rock from him...will I have to wait a while before introducing fish? I don't want to go ahead and buy rock and fish at the same time if the rock is going to affect the fish adversely?

3. How long after introducing the rock can I start with introducing fish?

Hope this is in the right place, I just thought aquascaping should be the beginning of my string of q's! Any help from you experts out there will be much appreciated.
 
Welcome to MASA JSG, glad you joined us.

After you made up the salt water and put the live rock into the tank, you need to wait for the nitrogen cycle to complete first. Meaning, there will be die-off on the rocks which will cause ammonia, then bacteria will convert the ammonia to nitrite, then after that, bacteria will convert the nitrites to nitrates. If your nitrates are slowly coming down, then you can introduce fish slowly giving chance inbetween to not cause an ammonia spike again. You need to get test kits for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.
All this, depending on the rock, can take up to 6 weeks.

I suggest you read the link in my signature on starting a marine tank - all the info regarding the cycle of a tank is there. A great read, enjoy ;)
 
O ja, R130/kg is not that bad, but difficult to tell if we haven't seen the rock.
 
Thanks Tobes and Oom Hennie for the great read! Helps me a lot before continuing with my first tank.

I will hopefully get to see 50 kg of this rock over the weekend and will try and get some photos of it as well that I will try and pass on to you guys. The guy promised me that I would not go wrong in purchasing from him as he said that most of the rock out there at LFS are almost dead bricks in comparison to his....will check his to see whether there is any proof in that pudding.

I've checked some other on-line stores and it seems as if Kenyan rock sells in the region of between R 100-00 to R 150-00 per kg, so yeah I guess R 130-00 is mid range then, but as he puts it; he sells quality to hobbyist rather than quantity. He apparently gets 50 - 100 kgs every month but the bugger doesn't want to say from where! :)

My wife told me to start with this hobby as a friend of hers suggested it....I have a patience deficiency second to none and she hopes this will help! :lol: We will see as like Oom Hennie mentioned; slower is better.

Keep you all posted! Thanks yet again!
 
Pleasure, but you missed the thanks button under my name :tt2:
 
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Welcome JSG you've come to the right place and read the best threads already. Oom Hennies a legends here. seank already calls him PA. He wants to fetch some corals from him you see.

Thanks Tobes and Oom Hennie for the great read! Helps me a lot before continuing with my first tank

Youve read the correct threads believe me

Pleasure, but you missed the thanks button under my name

HEHEHEHE:whistling:

My wife told me to start with this hobby as a friend of hers suggested it....I have a patience deficiency second to none and she hopes this will help! We will see as like Oom Hennie mentioned; slower is better.

Patience you gonna neeeed plenty of. My girlfriend also says slower is better. LOL.
 
Welcome! Haha yes this hobby teaches you to be patient! Is he selling you kenyan rock? There are also lots of guys selling LR in the for sale threads here. Check it out, rock is going for like R70 per kg. Could save you a nice bit of cash that you can put towards other stuff
 
Patience you gonna neeeed plenty of. My girlfriend also says slower is better. LOL.

Now we know why we cant get you ... animalia looking up and down for you and I'm covering looking left and right ... Where are lost ..... BTW welcome to MASA JSG ... sent you a PM with regards to Live Rock ..... Enjoy your stay here and ask away ... Oh remember we are picture hogs ... so get clicking
 
Now we know why we cant get you ... animalia looking up and down for you and I'm covering looking left and right ... Where are lost

Mehahahahahaha im busy with big meetings babba if i pull this one off im getting me a bloody 10000lt system sameday with all the equipment controlled with electronics and probes and im freaking dead serious. Maybe get seank to come and help cause this is monsterous for me and ive done some huge ones chic. Was in a meeting when you phoned LOL. In another tomorrow and off we go for 3500km return to see all the sites hehehe. Get some kilos on the new bm motor.

There are also lots of guys selling LR in the for sale threads here. Check it out, rock is going for like R70 per kg. Could save you a nice bit of cash that you can put towards other stuff

Yes agree BUT remember not all stuff you buy is good. Make sure the tank you buy it from is healthy and does not have sicknesses like white spot and black spot like i picked up nowas the stuff can fall on the lr you buy and you just have shit (and it came buy lr) and i have R5k fish in mine and battling. Even chics powder blue. So i have six regals with white and black spot of which the regals the worst off. JUST M2C regarding buying lr or coral from other tanks again, be careful.
 
Ok guys it's been some time before I've been up here. The silence was not for nothing! LOL.
The bug has bitten me and I did a LOT, did I mention a LOT of research and reading?!
The end result being that I now have meself set up with a lil business.
Nope; Kenyan LR is definitely not what I'm interested in! I've seen MUCH, MUCH better stuff and it doesn't come out of a tank either!
And so sorry that I can't upload images here for you guys to see, I've taken photos but they all exceed the maximum size allowed by 100"s! but send me a pm if you are interested and I'll mail you some pics!
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welcome to masa.
im not quite sure but have you gone from starting in marines and looking for LR to setting up a small company and dealing in LR in the past three months?
 
IMHO, nice looking rock on the surface of it. Please remember though live rock refers to the bacteria contained in the rock, not the actual life on the surface. Most exporters go through great lengths to remove the surface stuff and with good reason as most of the sponges, mussels etc are going to die in a closed system as there is very little for these creatures to eat. Included in the cleaning of the surface is the eradication of crabs and nudi's etc, generally stuff that will become predatory in our systems, i for one do not want to add crabs, mantis or pistol shrimps to my system. I also see its got caulerpa on it, although easy enough to remove.
 
Where did you got the LR from is it from Theo?
 
am i the only one that sees aiptasia?
:lol:couldn't miss it, point being i dont know if i want all the life that this rock comes with in my system, so would still have to clean it and how do you seperate the good stuff from the bad?
 
Except for the Aiptasia and the odd mantis/Pistol shrimp.. why not? I'am asking here to get a feel of what and why we clasify as good LR.

Surely if the rock is bacteria rich, and has no known pests, but loads of filter feeders, algea, snails, stars etc. it can only be good? :blush:
 
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