Live Rock Photos
 

Dr Mac 70lbs of “ Tonga Ultra” Live Rock Arrives! I picked it up local but ordered it from Pacific East website.. for $205.00 US. Click here for more information on DR mac...Their shots look better under Actinic but you get the drift from my normal lighting below..

Im in LA so it was very easy for me to pick up since where it’s imported direct from FIJI to the U. S.   I preferred to pick up the rock for many reasons, not just money. The sooner this stuff hits water iMHO the better... that was my thinking anyway.. and yea saving 100$ in shipping didnt hurt either... but man the traffic! This will be my base rock, out of which I will build my reef wall, I plan on topping  it with TBS LR  using the 25 GAL “package” with their LS too.

Here are a few medium sized peices that is also basketball/Football sized

Here is a more “normal” about softball sized chunk!

Here is the problem!   Remember the boulder on the right of my tank?  Well, My tank was really smelly/cloudy after about 2 days since the rock was in... I couldnt figure out why? My skimmer was going crazy so the tank was filled with MB the first 2 days so I coudlnt see much or do much anyway. Of course  Being my first time curing live rock, I thought it was normal to have some odors during die off from all i read.. But it really started stinking today and also was cloudy more than it should have been so I figured I better do something..

So I got a powerhead out and started to blow off the rocks to try and remove as much dead stuff as possible and then vacuum the debri out and then do some water changes..When I blew one section I noticed all this white guck come out and I saw what I thought was a round ball the size of a softball on the rock was actually some HUGE CLAM that started had started to open and was dead.. (Im assuming it died in transit) i never noticed it because it looked just like some ballish protrusion from the rock, not some huge clam??  Well I immediately pulled out the boulder pried the what was left of him out, and rinsied out the cavity.. I left the clam attached for some hiding place for something in the future.. Plus it will always remind me to CHECK my ROCK carefully BEFORE I put it in!  A lesson learned..

Here is another upclose of Dead Clammy...This guy was as big as a Softball! Kind of wish he lived in transit, but maybe not... probably open up and topple my wall.

This is the first of three Gigantic  Basketball sized Chunks of Ultra that i got! I wanted larger rocks for my base, and boy I got them!  Its hard from the pictures to tell actually how large these are, but they are BIG! The shapes are really neat as you will soon see once my tank clears, lots of nooks, tunnels shelves... just nice..

The great thing (that I really appreciated) with this rock was although it was large it was THIN enough to fit throug my tank opentings. It easily fit into my slots above my tank without chipping anything off.... Nice..

 This and three others came in and basically took up the width of my tank along the bottom. I would estimate each larger one weighed at least 20lbs dry.  It made setting up the wall pretty easy, but it’s good strong and very shaply rock I might add.. Seems like there is plenty of life on it too, we will see how much survives the plane trip..The rock seemed to still have lots of life on it, its UNCured..at this stage, time will tell how much survives the curing... there were a few hitchikers, but not many (worms, urchin, crabs, snails etc) I may see more as tim progresses and the water clears..Here area few picks of the Boulder basketball sized (or larger) rock so you can judge its size.. this one below it tipped over and stands 13” tall by at least that wide..:)