Tonga branch may be hard to get

[rudedog40]

I was at one of my LFS's last night, and he had these two huge rubbermaid buckets filled with Tonga branch LR. I asked him why he had so much, and he said he was stocking up for the shortage. He had heard there's some new political unrest in the region where they harvest most of the Tonga branch, and the government there was halting all exporting of their products to the US and other countries. He's thinking that Tonga is going to start getting hard to get hold of, if you can get it at all.

 

[bjoe23]

ya, i only no 1 place that has it. Im gunna get some now that its harder than ever to get. But is $13 a pound alot for it?

 

[nacl+h2o fish]

Originally Posted by rudedog40
I was at one of my LFS's last night, and he had these two huge rubbermaid buckets filled with Tonga branch LR. I asked him why he had so much, and he said he was stocking up for the shortage. He had heard there's some new political unrest in the region where they harvest most of the Tonga branch, and the government there was halting all exporting of their products to the US and other countries. He's thinking that Tonga is going to start getting hard to get hold of, if you can get it at all.
Discovered a local purveyor by accident today. They are local to me in Broward Co., FL..... and they list beautiful & show 'Tonga' Live Rock, as well as many others. Here is the link:
http://www.aquacon.com/index.html hope you find what your looking for!

 

[renogaw]

just fyi, and i'm sure a mod will chime in....
it is against board policies to post links, especially to other competitors....

 

[mie]

Just my opinion but tonga branch is not that attractive, It is very hard to scape with, and it does not match alot of other types of rock, and i find it hard to believe that there is a shortage since it is one of the most readily availible rock in the ocean due to the fact that it breaks so easy, storms are constantly breaking this rock off and it just lies there on the ocean floor. You can retrieve this rock with out damaging alot of the reefs.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by renogaw
just fyi, and i'm sure a mod will chime in....
it is against board policies to post links, especially to other competitors....
Yes it is, thanks for helping to educate the new posters Renogaw.

 

[zeroc]

eh, save a reef and make DIY rock or use lace rock. There's a guy in this area that aquacultures lace rock. It's nice looking stuff and you can get HUGE pieces. His 450 gallon display tank at his coral farm is completely lace rock and he recently broke down his personal 500 in his house and replaced all the live rock with lace just to prove that you don't need to take rock from the ocean for your home reef and it'll still look sweet and get the job done.. I know live rock from the ocean is cool and all but after a few months you'd never know the difference. Most of my reef tank is DIY rock.

 

[krazekajin]

I concur with ZeroC,
I have a place in Toledo, OH that I can get lace rock for .70 a pound and tufa rock for .25 a pound.
While I will not be able to aquascape my new 90 with 100% lace, I am going to be using over 75% lace. I have been buying pieces here and there and placing them in my other tanks, so I can get them seeded. It looks great, easy to scape with and at .75 a pound, who can pass that up.

 

[mie]

None of that here in portland area.

 

[1journeyman]

The "conserve the reef, don't buy live rock" mantra is a two edged sword.
On several islands in the Pacific live rock and other species are the major economy. By replacing fishing, the lumber industry, farming, etc. they are better preserving the reef.
Homemade live rock will never be as good as ocean live rock. There are hundreds of thousands of hitchhikers that come into an aquarium via fresh live rock that will be absent in manmade rock.
Lastly, live rock is a renewable resource. A healthy reef system produces tons of it annually. Through proper conservation and harvesting techniques live rock "farming" can do a tremendous service by reminding locals the value of keeping their marine systems healthy.

 

[triga22]

Yes, but if there is ever a problem and its being farmed to vigorusly then you can make your own. I made about 50lbs of it for about $30 it now looks just as good or even better then real live rock. It has plenty of microarganisms. This is what you should do say 1/4 real and 3/4 fake. After about 5 months it will all look the same and saves you big bucks. Plus you can make whatever you want.