在线盐水牲畜零售商DRS。Foster＆Smith的潜水员在Live Aquaria的Diver's Den在过去几周中引起了我们的注意，新产品悄悄地“偷偷摸摸”了《每日潜水员》的Den电子邮件。在无脊椎动物类别下列出，它是您所看到的。As if WYSIWYG live rock wasn’t unique enough, we’re not talking about just any live rock, but fully-cured, man-made, no-reefs-hacked-apart-in-the-making-of-this live rock. Given all the renewed fever pitch about sustainability and aquaculture in the marine hobby, and knowing we always have a need for more rock, we asked Kevin Kohen, the director of LiveAquaria.com, what these new rock offerings were all about. Kevin in turn went one better and sent a taste test of two aquacultured live rocks for a head-to-head battle royale. Which rock pummels the other into rubble?
Hobbyist DIY Rock?
Perhaps we should preface this article by looking at the DIY rock that has been popularized over the past several years on internet forums. I myself was struck by a particular recipe my local club used to make our own rock. The recipe is roughly two parts portland cement, four parts oyster shell, one part aragonite, 2 parts solar salt. The rock created is very porous, a little brittle if you make it too thin, but generally not too shabby. Water pours through it like it’s barely even there.
The big problem? Even after 6 months of soaking and water changing, trying every internet trick in the book, my man made rock still pushes the pH of soak water right off the charts within 24 hours. Even with all sorts of lead time, we don’t know many hobbyists who are going to hold up an aquarium build for a never-ending wait on man made rock. And it’s not even purpled up yet!
沃尔特·史密斯’s Fiji Cultured Live Rock
由沃尔特·史密斯公司（Walt Smith Inc.）发行的斐济文化活岩（Live Rock）已经存在了很多年。吉克生产过程的概述可以在Sasalu Tawamudu Fiji网站。有趣的是，从一开始，岩石“空白”是完全彩色的。在泻湖住了6-12个月后，收获并运送了岩石。潜水员的书房的船员进一步走了一步，在提供Wysiwyg Rock之前完全固定了岩石。
我收到的两件作品仍在进行固化过程，因为它们是从预期的DFS发布日期开始的三个星期。总体而言，现场岩石在视觉上令人愉悦。一般共识是，这些岩石的形状有点均匀，大多数是长方形巨石型。该构图似乎提供了一些孔隙率。有传言说这岩石包含矿山的材料可能不是完全准确的 -这些岩石确实利用浮石（火山岩），在岸上洗净，但这与矿山的材料一样近。
正如您在上图中看到的那样，融合岩石的基本颜色是珊瑚粉红色的红色阴影。即使被砍掉时，岩石在视觉上似乎也似乎没有造成损害，这可能对喜欢黑客入侵并钻入完美的Aquascape的人们有好处。
鱼头的真实礁石活岩
Fish Heads’ new Real Reef rock是对水族馆市场的人造水产岩石的另一种景象。仅在过去几个月中引入，这款岩石是另一种融合产品，被播种并允许在销售前殖民。鱼头在两个区域提供分歧。首先，鱼头产品永远不会接触海洋，而是在封闭的系统中完全培养。这减少了害虫的任何可能性。其次，鱼头岩石似乎是碳酸钙钙基钙基钙基的更均匀的混合物。
The appearance of the Real Reef rock is more akin to the larger old “coral skeleton” type live rock. Externally, there is more shape, branches, nooks and crannies than the Walt Smith Fijian rock.
将其分开后，岩石看起来更加密集，实际上可能会按数量增加更多。内部的着色是珊瑚骨骼 - 岩石上的紫色和红色颜料似乎更像是表面涂层。应该指出的是，这就是礁石的真实礁石。
And the verdict? It’s a DRAW!
Truly, both of these products have their strong points; Both cultured rocks offer a look that effectively mimics what you get with rock harvested from wild reefs. Walt Smith’s product may be a bit more “biologically functional” and is probably closer to the real product in that regard. Walt Smith’s offering also may help provide income opportunities for Fijians who no longer can harvest reef rock. Meanwhile, Fish Head’s rock may have the edge on diversity of shape and visual appeal and safety (with no exposure to “critters” other than what Fish Heads intends to seed the rock with), but I do wonder if the rock will provide biological benefits that match what real live rock is thought to do. In that regard, both man-made products may fall a bit short, being denser and less porous than some natural or DIY rocks. However, both rocks will be stronger, and in that regard more workable, than their natural counterparts.
最后，这两种产品确实都非常接近真实的东西。当然，他们击败了我在车库里炮制的东西，当归结为归根结底时，考虑到6个月的时间里，我并没有真正省下任何钱，我自己的DIY岩石仍然无法使用！这两种人造的现场岩石也均可舒适地定价 - 皇家礁石目前的底座底座约为8美元（25磅的$ 199.99），养殖斐济的价格约为7.20美元/磅/磅（25磅的179.99美元）。Although this is more expensive than some live rock, consider it takes more work and expense to create and culture rock than to simply hack it off the reef and the Diver’s Den crew takes the extra step of quarantining and fully curing these products before offering them up.
Keep an eye onLiveaquaria的潜水员书房在经典的Wysiwyg产品中，将两种岩石，完全固化和隔离的岩石倒置。目前，岩石没有额外的活岩或重量附加费（这意味着，如果您的潜水员的DEN订单为225美元或更多，则在促销活动中继续发货 - 该促销不会在常规的Live Rock BTW上提供）。我们要再次感谢凯文·科恩（Kevin Kohen）和克里斯·穆勒（Chris Mueller），让我们为我们为不希望从礁石环境中收获的现场摇滚的水族师品尝这些替代产品。
FTC regulations require that we inform you that we were given this product for review, but our opinion of a product is never affected by how we acquire them
