There’s something about branching rock that just gets our reefing juices flowing. Not the man-made stuff. We already buy that, use it, and love it. No, these are the real reef bones formed in nature, in far-off Pacific reefs, and we’ve had a love affair with it for over twenty-five years.
Back then it came from Fiji, but now there’s an opportunity to get some wild branching rock from the Solomon Islands courtesy of Golden Reef Solomon Island LTD, a sister company to RVS. In the same way that RVS trains local people in the Philippines, Golden Reef is training local people in the Solomons to net-catch fish, and mariculture corals, and carefully and sustainably collect live rock.
The pictured pieces are classed as Show Grade Living Rock and are hand cleaned (but not over cleaned,) after collection before being held in lit holding vats to keep the desirable coralline algae alive. It’s then air freighted (as all live rock should be,) to wholesalers and retailers before ending up in home aquaria.
Despite the huge swing toward dry rock over the past ten years, advances in bacteria testing is proving what some have thought all along – there’s nothing quite like a real piece of the ocean.
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