Walt Smith Fiji Premium from Phenomenal Aquatics Thoughts?

[offshored]

Hey everyone :)

I'm in the process of setting up a large reef tank and need around 200 lbs of live rock to go along with my old tank's 100 lbs of tukani live rock.

I spotted Phenomenal Aquatic' Fiji Premium which seems to be priced between 2 and 3 dollars a pound and wondered if anyone has had some long term results with it?

Did the rock need to be cured? How did you cure it? Do you have any pictures in and out of your tank?

With 200 lbs of rock needed, paying $2-3 a pound is a huge savings over $7-9 a pound.

Thanks for your input, not trying to flame... just want some real world thoughts on the most important part of the setup.

Thanks :)

[CoryDude]

I setup a 60 gallon with about 40lbs of their dry rock and used it as the reef foundation. Then I used about 20 lbs of some nice tongo lalo live rock to top off the tank and seed the dry rock. Worked out pretty well for me.

[offshored]

Is the Walt Smith stuff considered dry rock at $2 a lb?

Is their Fiji Premium @ $3 a lb then considered live rock?

Do they offer Tukani as well @ what prices?

[CoryDude]

Not sure about availablity or the brand name. When I got mine it was with the old owner Ed, and from the looks of it, the dry rock was a dense fiji looking rock. There was also some pukani rock too. The pukani is a large rock with lots of holes. Very good for copepods and other microfauna.

[offshored]

Have you heard much about the new owners?

Any idea how much the pukani goes for?

[CoryDude]

Yeah, check out their forum for the wednesday fish list, I think they list the current dry rock price. They also had some cool oystercrete man made rock.

I like the new owners. They pretty much kept the place the same, but cleaned it up which makes a big difference.

[Gseclipse02]

Yeah, check out their forum for the wednesday fish list, I think they list the current dry rock price. They also had some cool oystercrete man made rock.
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i know the guy who makes this stuff for them ... and he is a really good guy and has a good love for the hobby

[Kristy]

I saw that oystercrete there the other day. There are some really interesting manmade shapes (caves, etc.) going on and it purples up really nicely. I wouldn't want to do a whole tank with it, but a couple pieces might be cool.

[jroescher]

No matter what you get, your tank is going to cycle. For live rock, the more you wash off of it the lesser the cycle will be. But there will still be a cycle. Even 'cured' rock is still going to cycle in your tank. Clean dry rock isn't going to cycle, but will still take some time become become 'live'.

[johnsutter71]

For some reason the oystercrete doesn't want to purple up in my tank. I wonder if it has stricter light requirements cuz my figi looks good. I'm getting ready to upgrade my whole system and that includes my lights.

[profntbtr]

didn't see any dry rock last time i was there, though it's been a while. the new owners are great, really devoted to doing the best they can with what they've got. it is a refreshing change from the previous owners waning enthusiasm and subsequent sell off of most equipment. it's nice to feel like you aren't "rescuing" every purchase.

[Bill S]

Well, I'm going to chime in here: I no longer believe in the use of purchased "live rock". The hitchhikers are just not worth it. If I were starting over, I'd go completely with dry rock - even if it means buying "live rock" and drying it outside for a few weeks.

[ErikH]

Well, I'm going to chime in here: I no longer believe in the use of purchased "live rock". The hitchhikers are just not worth it. If I were starting over, I'd go completely with dry rock - even if it means buying "live rock" and drying it outside for a few weeks.

That's exactly why I bought new dry rock. I've got critters all over the rock now, and no bad hitchhikers.

[Europhyllia]

That's how did it as well. Bought very nice pukani dry rock which was also fun to aquascape and made it live with Fritz bacteria.
Unfortunately I still managed to bring in plenty of hitchhikers later but starting out with crazy stuff on the rock ... I am just not into that anymore.

Now if I just had a little secondary tank I'd go wild and load it with Florida liverock and see what pops up and let them slug it out. Just not willing to take that risk in my main tank...