REVIEW: Tampa Bay Saltwater
- The Florida Live Rock Farmers
By: Gregory
S. Taylor
I happen to live within
10 miles of one of the most popular suppliers of Live Rock and Live Sand--Tampa
Bay Saltwater. A few days ago, I spent some time in the store and thought I'd
pass on my thoughts.
Most of the Live Rock they sell is aqua-cultured; however, you can get other
types of rock on request.
What does 'aqua-cultured' mean? Well, this supplier actually hand-picked rock
and placed it on a barge and moved it to a remote location in the Gulf of Mexico.
There, they leave the rock for several years, until it becomes ‘live’.
This unique process results in an amazing amount of color and life on the rocks.
Unfortunately, the rock is much more ‘dense’ than a true ‘chunk of reef’ would
be.
Bottom Line
I was treated very well, and
all my questions were answered sincerely and accurately. The downsides to aqua-cultured
rock are, very dense, heavy rock, not true ‘reef’ rock. Also, you usually get
a diversity of life in the rock, which occasionally means an undesirable hitchhicker,
like a mantis shrimp.
The upsides are that there is no damage done to the real reefs in collecting this
rock. The life and color of the rock is fantastic and it just generally looks
very good.
I would rate Tampa Bay Saltwater very highly due to their environmentally friendly
policies and their general consumer friendly business attitude.
Check them out at: http://www.tbsaltwater.com
This page last
updated on:
January 27, 2002
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2001 by Gregory S. Taylor. All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be
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S. Taylor.
