Aquadeco has released a new reef aquascaping rock called Jurassic Reef Rock. The hobby is enjoying a plethora of rock releases, both mined and man-made, and this one from Andreas Meyer looks pleasantly different. It’s a textured, brown/orange base color with purple sprayed on to make it look like live rock. At a glance, it does resemble live rock too with what looks like mini coral branches and cemented skeletons to give it that jagged, live rock texture. Although organic in origin however we feel it looks more like fossilized reed stems (plant matter,) close up, and we also think we’ve seen it before.
Purple spaghetti
In the UK the unpainted version of this rock is sold as Spaghetti rock and we personally used it in several reef aquariums as base rock, twenty years ago. Back then we used it to bulk out much more expensive live rock to form the super heavy mounds and walls that were the fashion at the time. It stacked easily, was coral safe, and became virtually indistinguishable from the real thing once covered in microscopic reef life. Seeing it again however reminded us how easy it was to break up and glue together and now we would use it as the sole rock material for much more daring, gravity-defying designs with overhangs and plenty of open space. Everything has increased in price but if Jurassic Reef Rock sells for base rock, not live rock prices it could be well worth looking into for future scapes.
