(upbeat music)
- Okay, so best of 2019 dry live rock,
this is gonna be a fun one.
'Cause some of these
we haven't talked about a whole lot before
and they're definitely gonna get in there today.
So the first thing we're gonna talk about
is the most popular, as voted by you guys,
what's the number one rock out there,
and then what?
- Yeah, lowest cost per pound,
which is important when you're starting to buy
a lot of this different stuff.
We're also gonna look at what looks best
day one in your tank,
and what's the easiest to aquascape with.
- Yeah we're also looking at what's the best
for avoiding that ugly brown phase at the beginning
of most tanks.
As well as the best for bare bottoms.
And then of course the best in show 2019,
finished up with what we'd like to see for 2020.
Okay so, most post popular as voted
by all of you reefers out there.
This is another one of there's where it's a total landslide
like two to three times as much as the next one.
And it's this guy right here.
- Yeah this is the reef saver rock,
we've been carrying the reef saver rock for many years.
Probably, you know a $2.99 a pound,
easily those most popular.
- Yeah, so this is actual Marco rock for reef saver,
and I'll just let you guys in on a little bit
of insight on this while we're at it.
So we've been buying this rock from Florida for EONs, right?
Not always from Mark, you know.
Eventually we started buying from Mark
and that was the end of it.
There were a couple places that we could get it
a little bit cheaper from,
but Mark provides the cleanest source of rock out there.
The other stuff would come with little bits of crust on it
and like iron deposits and whatever.
This stuff is always super super clean.
He takes the time to make sure that it is
what I'd wanna use in my own tank.
And why his is so popular at MarcoRocks,
just like synonymous with reef saver and dry rock.
And this is like the number one by two to 3X
for that reason as selected by you guys.
All right, so lowest cost per pound,
which one is it?
- [Randy] Same as the most popular obviously.
The MarcoRocks reef saver, $2.99 per pound.
On a lot of them it saves you like a buck or more per pound.
- Yeah and some others, it's all the way up to like
three bucks a pound or double the cost of this guy here.
And, you know again, it's super super porous
you can see all the holes in it.
And it's also the lowest cost out there
which is probably why it's the number one
most popular rock out there.
And, really if you do the math,
you're gonna buy 100 pounds of this,
a dollar more's a 100 bucks,
three dollars more is 300 bucks.
And it's a pretty significant savings.
All right, so best of 2019 looks the best day one.
And so what this is trying to get at,
is like all of these are gonna end up looking the same
once they get covered in coralline algae a year from now.
- Right. - But day one
you want a insta-tank,
I will say that white rock here
tends to show algae and like bacterial films
and stuff the most.
You have those exact same types of things that are growing
on these darker surfaces and you just don't see 'em.
So, we're gonna rule out the white types of rock for this,
evenutally they'll all end up in the same place
a year from now.
But if you want insta-tank day one,
which is the best of 2019?
- We're split. - Yep, we are.
- So for me, I really like this CaribSea liferock stuff.
The purple color, the texture, to me looks more similar
to this Red Sea max tank to by right, right here
than, you know, this other purple one.
I really like the color on this one.
They really hid it.
And then there's the shapes that are fun to aquascape.
- Yeah, so they do have shapes in there.
So they come in, little guys here
you can see that there's like a little tunnel in there
and what not.
So that is one of the cool things about that thing.
They all do, and I think actually Real Reef
has some shapes that we don't stock right now,
so that's probably gonna hit best one 2020
when we bring those in.
So, for me, I'm gonna deviate from that,
and this is just an aesthetic thing
so there's no right or wrong answer,
it's just whatever appeals to you.
I will show 'em both under water here
so you can actually see which one it is
that really appeals to you.
Because out of the water like this
doesn't really give a great representation
of what it's gonna look like. - No, not at all.
- So for me though, it is the real reef rock here
that looks best.
I just like the color purple that it is,
it's a deeper purple.
Kinda matches some of the older tanks,
this tanks been up for five years
and just tends to have deeper color coralline algae on it.
You can see all the worms and the super rough edges to it.
It just looks a little bit more natural to me.
It is a little bit more expensive.
One of the benefits of this guys also,
in terms of looking best day one,
is it's been soaked live for many many many months
to get it cycled, and again you can see all the worms
and stuff that grew on it.
And when you get it, it's wrapped in a wet paper
to keep a lot of the bacteria and stuff alive.
That bacteria that's already existing on the surface
of the rock will make sure that it cycles faster,
including some of those bacterias that like to eat algae
and what not, or out compete 'em.
So for me, looks best day one,
gonna be the easiest to cycle,
is probably gonna be this real reef stuff right here,
'cause it's partially live, looks good,
and already has some live critters already on it.
All right, so best or easiest to aquascape of 2019.
I'm gonna say there's been major advances in this
in all fronts and there's no real winner
because they're all really so much easier to aquascape
than the old Fiji boulders that you just used
to stack on top of each other,
and it's super hard to create
the things you're looking for.
So we'll just start with some benefits of the different ones
and you can decide for yourself which ones are here.
You'll definitely hear our favorite through the mix,
but this is definitely a personal decision,
we'll let you make up your own decisions.
So this one. - Yeah.
I mean the CaribSea liferock,
you have some of the standard, you know, rock type shapes,
but what's really cool about this stuff for me,
is like going back to the shapes here,
like this is not naturally or one in a very few chance,
naturally occurring shape here.
Obviously a manmade rock here,
but I mean it gives you something to play around with
in your tank, you can makes these arch ways,
you can make these different caves, and you know,
type of caverns for your fish to hide in.
It's just a really cool aspect of the aquascape.
- So if you're super nitpicky you would say
I don't like that because it is obviously not shape
a rock comes in. - (laughs) Right.
- It doesn't come in a cave like that.
But I would say in action when you see it in a tank,
you would never ever say anything like that.
It looks pretty, really cool.
And it is a shape that you cannot do,
and I keep saying shapes
because they have a shapes version of the rock.
And I think it's a little bit more expensive,
but you get molded pieces instead of just a rock, per se.
So, yeah that makes this a lot easier to aquascape,
you wanna make caves and overarching stuff.
The same thing here is one of the things
I always liked about the Marco rock
is how the two edges interlock with each other
and create this super stable form.
And so, that wasn't, again, the way with Fiji
and even pukani and stuff was really hard to create--
- [Randy] Yeah, true.
- You know, seamless aquascapes like this.
So you wanna do, maybe just pile the stuff up
in what, like you know, a minute and a half?
- Yeah, exactly.
- Yeah so, same thing here you know.
All of this stuff is really rough edges
that just kind of really lock together into itself.
Now with the real reef, it's super easier to stack
this stuff to create.
And one of the things that they have now also,
is like branch rock and stuff.
You know, when Terrence was here doing a live,
in his tank, you know, when it got all full of coral
he would just take a branch and put it
into the normal aquascape and then he could put
a coral on the branches and it just starts
to fill in, right? - Right, yeah.
- So cool things you can do with aquascaping here.
But like one of the favorites lately
has definitely been the shelf rock.
- Since I've seen Joe aquascape our 750 XXL
with this shelf stuff
and seen him do Greg Carol's tank.
This stuff has caught my eye,
being an SPS stick head,
my biggest thing with like the pukani of the old
and Fiji of the old was, you know,
it's rounded surfaces it's not flat surfaces.
So, you know, SPS isn't hard to find real estate
to put your sticks and allow them to grow out.
Because you're going to take up
a lot of space down the road.
In which case the more flat surface area
I can get the better.
So when that 750 grows out with all of these different
flat shelf type areas,
you're just gonna see all the more coral, less rock.
- Yeah it's also, if you can imagine,
like wanting it for a display purpose in your tank.
If you had like, you know, tiers of egg crate, right?
It would look terrible as a display tank,
but you get the most coverage for the corals
in there, right?
You can create those kind of natural tiers
with this shelf rock.
And it fits together, and you can, you know,
put your little caves and stuff in it the same way.
And this isn't the greatest representation of that
but you can go watch the aquascaping episode
of the BRS hybrid XXL 750,
and you can see how they really put together,
Greg Carol had an example of his tank in that episode, too.
And you can see, the shelf stuff
looks really really really cool and put together.
And so, this is proably like one of my favorites
or easiest to aquascape.
If you've never aquascaped before,
you're probably gonna produce something really cool
with the shelf reef saver from MarcoRocks.
Okay so this has kinda been a strange one,
but best for bare bottoms.
Really, this has been a growing theme
for a lot of people-- - True.
- Is to go to bare bottom tanks.
I've seen it for like ten years now,
and it just kinda keeps creeping up
for different reasons. - Yeah, yeah.
- And, but really for the foundation of almost any aquascape
and best of 2019 is called...
- It's the MarcoRocks foundation.
Now this is the same type of shelfing type rock,
but only this time they've flattened out the side.
Which, this stuff can be hard to cut on your own.
If wanted to do it you could probably do it,
but I mean it's gonna take a lot of work.
They've done it for you.
The best part here is, for me is it lays flat
on your bare bottom, which makes this super stable base.
I've had a bare bottom tank before, a couple of 'em.
And I've used like the pukanis and the Fijis and stuff,
and you just can't find a flat piece
so what I ended up doing, is like,
taking a piece and propping it up underneath
with another little rock and kinda just supporting
the base of it so it doesn't roll
or it has less tendency to roll.
This flat stuff lays flat on the bare bottom.
- So there's two things really for me,
is it's stable.
You know, so when it's flat like this.
it lays flat on the bottom of the tank.
So it doesn't roll or anything.
But it looks seamless.
Like the rock is coming out
of the bottom, right? - [Randy] Really cool, yeah.
- So in bare bottoms it's absolutely, absolutely
the coolest look.
It is definitely worth a couple extra bucks
for the bottom pieces.
Pick up, you know, three or four of 'em
so that the bottom piece.
But, say that even if you're using other MarcoRock
out here and have sand,
this is the stable-ist bottom you can have.
And again, what will happen now,
is instead of having this big round rock
that like comes around the edges and what not
and you can see it come out.
This will look like it's emerging out of the sand
and looks super super natural.
So I would use this on the foundation of almost anything.
It's kinda like one of those unknown pieces,
like I don't know how to use it until somebody tells you,
and you're like, "Oh man that is super cool."
- Yeah I agree. - Looks right,
works exactly the way you thought it would.
So, best for bare bottoms as well as the foundation
of almost anything,
and oh, one other thing,
then also in bare bottoms,
is you really have a hard time keeping detritus and stuff
out from underneath rocks. - Yeah, true.
- It's just gonna collect.
With this, that is not the case.
It's really difficult for it to get under there.
And so it is a much better option for that purpose.
All right, so similar note, best in show 2019.
This is a total personal decision,
but my belief from myself,
is that it's the foundation rock here
with Marco shelf rock on top of it.
It's not the best looking
day one. - Right.
- But long term it provides the shelf look that I want,
it looks super sharp.
And the surface area for all the corals I wanna put on it.
And so I think over the long term,
it's gonna produce the type of tank that I want.
I don't blame anybody for picking something different,
but those looking for advice,
so maybe you're a bit different.
Let us know.
- I mean, my choice,
no I have to pick the same.
Being a, you know, a stick head you know SPS,
I love to see these big giant colonies
and to provide them with the best available space
to base out and a foundation for them to kinda make this,
make this tabling colony.
This stuff does better than anything else I've done
as far as other rocks.
So, I'm in the same boat.
And when I'm gonna start thinking about my next tank,
I'm gonna buy a bunch of this stuff
and get it in the bucket,
get it to cycling right off the bat so that way
I can aquascape with, get my tank up and go.
- You know so, the only thing, a caveat to that for me,
is the dry rocks of the world are what I call
intermediate to advanced reefer stuff.
And it's a little bit more challenging for a new reefer
in some cases.
And so, you know if best in show,
if you're a brand new reefer and you're looking, you know,
really to have like instant success
and have a much easier time ramping it up,
it's worth the few extra bucks
to make sure that you get the right thing.
In this case, my personal belief
is it's gonna be the real reef rock.
It looks purple day one,
so it looks nice in the tank day one.
It's gonna come with that bacteria on it,
it's gonna make it easier to cycle for you.
And less likely, probably, to run into algae issues
and stuff and even if you do run into those issues
some of those issues are a lot harder to see
on the purple surface.
So visually, the tank's just gonna look round.
So if you're brand new to reefing and you're looking
for somethings that's gonna produce maybe
an easier path to the best results, it's probably this.
If you're intermediate to advanced reefer,
you got a little bit more patience,
this isn't your first rodeo.
Then that's, I think Randy and I here,
so that would be the shelf rock with the foundation,
- Yeah, for sure. - in almost every case.
All right, so what we'd like to see for 2020,
always a fun one for me.
What's the first thing that you'd like to see?
- For me, I mean it's hard to decide on.
If I got a 40 gallon breeder tank or 120 gallon tank,
I mean there's some standard size tanks out there
that you can build a bundle kit for me.
Or gimme some examples of an aquascape and then be like,
"Yeah, I want that."
And just send me that, I've got the same tank.
So, you know a bundle type of kit
with everything I need, whether it's foundation, shelves,
or just regular rock shapes.
Gimme some options and then send me that option.
- So, I agree.
In the spirit of kits as well.
Like so, there's a huge opportunity here,
there's some things that can make
starting a tank way easier.
And I got rock here.
Why not send me like a starter kit with it.
I mean like, a vile of different colors
of coralline algae or what not.
Maybe some nitrifying bacteria.
Maybe, like some bacillus bacteria
or bacterias that like to eat algae.
Like a little, you know, something like the vibrance.
So like right from the beginning I'm like maybe avoiding
some of the algae stuff.
But like here's you're dry rock,
here's your little kit to be successful.
- Yes. - I like to see
that kind of stuff packaged with it.
And in reality, I'd like to see somebody take these things
and like turn them live. - Oh yeah.
- You know, so like, let's get back to live rock.
You know, there aren't a lot of sources
for actual live rock coming out the ocean these days.
So like, that's kinda dried up.
But like, lets take some of these things, you know,
and aquaculture 'em or what not.
And hopefully in a sterile environment
rather than the ocean, actually.
- Right.
- And bring 'em back then we can have
the best of both worlds,
we're not like taking stuff out of the ocean,
I have a stable source,
it is a little easier to cycle for all the people out there.
But yeah, get a kit, get it live.
Get it kit for the actual sizes and shape for a tank
rather than just poundage.
All of those things would be really awesome for 2020.
All right so if you wanna see that 750 XXL
that Joe did, you can watch him do the aquascape down here.
But up here, you can go ahead and check
all of these rocks out.
You can see all the different shapes
that this stuff comes in,
all the different options for the real reef rock,
all the different options here,
there's little pedestals even.
There's a foundation, there's thin little slices.
You can see all of the different rocks that are available
and kinda make your own choice,
so you can see that up here.