Walt Smith Reef Rock is ready for prime time

Reef Rock is a new man-made live rock substitute from Walt Smith International which is among some of the best we’ve ever seen. Walt Smith Fiji has been one of the leaders in supplying Fiji live rock all over the world, and for a really long time too.

So when the world leader in live rock supply decides to make artificial rock, the reef aquarium world takes note. But this isn’t Walt Smith’s first rodeo with man made live rock, he’s been making artificial rock as long as anyone too.What makes this batch of man made live rock special is that Reef Rock is a version 2.0 product, and as a world leader in exporting real reef rock, you bet your tail fin that they really have high standards for how “fake” live rock should look like.

And this is especially true of Reef Rock which is a product of ReefProject 2.0. We’ve been keeping a keen eye on the development of Reef Rock over the years, and have even visited the open air live rock factory in Fiji where earlier this year we reported on the progress of the branching form of Reef Rock 2.0. MACNA 2015 was our first chance to see the latest iteration of Reef Rock, in water, in aquariums, under aquarium lighting, and the results couldn’t be anything short of impressive.

When man made live rock was first offered to the reef aquarium market, nearly all of it looked like lumps of concrete with very artificial shapes. But this notion is all but extinguished with Walt Smith’s Reef Rock. If you teleported this rock to the heyday of live rock in the early 2000s, most people probably couldn’t tell the difference between Walt Smith’s new rock, and real actual live rock.

The new Walt Smith Reef Rock is super gnarly, comes in a wide range of shapes and sizes, including branch rock. Also of note is that Reef Rock has some of the best purple coloring we’ve seen, with multiple shades of purple and pink that is virtually indistinguishable from real live pink coralline algae. Purple man made live rock was a sensation when it first hit the market more than five years ago and we believe that Walt Smith has really gotten the recipe right for the next generation of Reef Rock.

Jake Adams

Jake Adams has been an avid marine aquarist since the mid 90s and has worked in the retail side of the marine aquarium trade for more than ten years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and has been the managing editor of ReefBuilders.com since 2008. Jake is interested in every facet of the marine aquarium hobby from the concepts to the technology, rare fish to exotic corals, and his interests are well documented through a very prolific career of speaking to reef clubs and marine aquarium events, and writing articles for aquarium publications across the globe. His primary interest is in corals which Jake pursues in the aquarium hobby as well as diving the coral reefs of the world.