FL live rock too dense/not as interesting as Fiji/Tonga/etc?

[Banik]

Howdy,

So, I was pretty positive that I was going to do a big order from LR.com to fill my 55gallon with, maybe like 90 lbs. I started posting to a couple other forums and a few folks were commenting about how FL LR is much denser and not as interesting as Fiji/Tonga/Haitian LR.

Is this true? Anybody have both kinds of rock and can give an opinion?

thanks

 

[GrndHog]

I have both kinds and I'm going to agree w/ the Fl rock being to dense. I went down and got about 140lbs of Fl rock at LR.com. To tell you the truth I would not do that again, reason being is the rock is to dense and the hichikers are not pleasant. Fiji and Tonga is much more porous and acts as a better filter for your tank because of the surface area of the rock. Not to mention the better forms and shapes of the fiji and Tonga.

 

[JamesR]

no thoughts on the fl rock, but I went through dr. fosters and smith and got some figi, which i was very happy with. i received 2 45 lb boxes and they looked very nice. after 2 months i have some real nice coraline all over the rocks and some interesting life as well.

Jim

 

[Jason]

I have 1 piece of figi that is about 10" x 3" in my aquarium that is 12 lbs. I only have 2 big pieces of figi, they are both about the same size so I would say 20-25lbs of figi. I have about the same weight of tonga in my aquarium. The figi takes up about 20% of the space. The other 80% is taken up by tonga. So I Would go so far as to say that figi is probably 3 or 4 times as heavy as tonga from my experience.

I don't really know if you can look at it that way though because the rock is completely different looking. My figi rocks are big porous pieces, and my tonga branches off and has big gaps in between the branches.

I would buy what I wanted to look at in my aquarium. That's why I opted to buy all of my pieces separately from my LFS instead of ordering them and saving a ton of money. I wanted to make sure I got exactly what I wanted. So as for your original question, yes I think it's worth it if that is what you want in your tank. You pick out all of the fish and coral in your tank you might as well pick out what kind of rock you want the same way.

 

[Brad]

For me the most important issue was the environmental impact of the rock that I was purchasing.

How was it collected? Was it aquacultured specifically for the aquarium trade, or am I inadvertently responsible for the destruction of a coral reef in some poorly regulated country?

Know exactly where and how your LR came from. Then you can look at it without feeling guilty.

 

[dustybrannum]

if you look in my gallery there are both kinds in my tank, the rocks that appear to be "bubbly" looking are the fiji and the larger ones are the fl rock. I like the florida rock b/c it had a lot of life on it and the fiji had none. also the fl rock is aquacultured. there was no ammonia spike with my rock either, 120lbs florida and 50 fiji with 120 base. my tank has been up since memorial day and i have not had any bad things about it, i did get 3 mantis and 5 pistols but with a little patience and watching the tank the mantis were fairly easy to get out, they now reside in my fuge along with some crabs that are huge. i would certainly buy more fl rock and not the fiji, but for me diversity and letting the tank do its thing is key.

 

[phases99]

I have mostly Fiji with a piece or two of Florida rock. The Fiji is much more interesting looking. The Florida rock is loaded with life but the critters have been packing their bags and moving into the Fiji. There are tons more holes and crevices for them to hide in.