[DJCox]

Hello
I looking for people who know of Tufa Rock for use in Salt water.
What has been your experience with Tufa. Where is it located and what was the cost for "cured" Tufa or raw rock.
Thanks DJ

[ravenmore]

Hi guys - I feel like an introduction is in order. This is Dan Cox. He's the gentleman I've been talking to about obtaining large pieces of tufa for my new tank. He was quite interested in what I was doing with the rock. I forwarded him a couple of links to threads on Reefland that had tufa involved - mainly a couple of discussions I've participated in. This application for his product is new to him and he's trying to do a little fact finding to see if there is a market for his product in the aquarium industry. (I kinda think there is, btw) Because of my interest in purchasing aquacultured rock over regular reef rock, I mentioned the aquaculturing application possibilities to him.

First thing that I should mention, to appease the powers that be (the moderators on this board), that advertisement for a product, goods, or services is forbidden on the board. I don't think Dan is advertising here, but rather just doing some fact finding.

Dan, if you'll permit a loose overview to answer your question, I don't think tufa is really used a lot right now in the marine aquarium industry. "Cured" is a term that applies to live rock(or aquacultured rock). When live rock is shipped there is die off of the live organisms on it in transit. The rock has to be put into circulating salt water to allow the decay process to stop and absorb this die off waste. This is called curing. Unfortunately I don't think anyone is using tufa for aquaculturing right now.

Allrighty then, for those who don't know about tufa..... I got into the idea of using terresterial rock a while back in my tank mainly, well, to save money. I tried limestone holy rock first but it was heavy as a brick. I discovered tufa later. I bought a piece from Petco(they sell it as decorative rock for aquariums), of all places (smallish piece for $10, which is ridiculous). I then found some rubble pieces at an lfs for a more realistic $2/lb. I added it to my tank and was suprised how quickly "stuff" grew on it. Here's some pics:

here's a pic of the raw tufa pieces just added:



and here's an after pic MAYBE 3 months after(and I think that's being generous). Can you spot the tufa? There's 2 fairly large pieces of tufa in the "rock pile" on the left.......




and finally, my "famous" hammer pic. It's sitting IN the tufa piece I purchase from petco...



Ok now, things I like about this rock:
-VERY light, VERY porous
-very cheap
-Made of fairly pure calcium carbonate. Not only is this safe for your reef but it will naturally buffer your tank. Very similar in mineral composition to argonite sand.
-it's soft enough to carve into interesting shapes easily
-live organisms LOVE this stuff. Mine's now encrusted with coraline, those small brittle stars, vermitid snails, all kinds of pods, macros, bristle worms, spaghetti worms, benificial bacteria, ect. ect......

I really really like the stuff, if you couldn't tell.

[Menamus]

Hi there to both of you. I started out fish only, then graduated to a reef tank, and my tufa rock has been there all along!! There are a few good sized pieces in both of my tanks, (fish tank and reef tank), all of these pieces looked "natural" in all stages of my own "growth"! I have nothing but positive results with the tufa rock. I plan to re-aquascape (is there such a word?) my hex soon, and the tufa will play a large part, mixed in with the original live rock. (tufa is now "live rock", too) One of the nice qualities about it is its ability to stand up, without breaking, to being molded (shaved) into different shapes...much easier to fit between other pieces, and its light weight. My pieces have large holes in them, creating caves. And placing a few stray polyps into the holes in the hope of starting a colony is very easy!!
As for price, I do not remember, but it was a bit pricey compared to what can probably be found online....I live in a remote area, but was cheaper than lace rock. Would buy online if I need more.
Shannon

[Bughead]

I got 50 pounds of tufa rock from Tropicorium about 8 months ago, at $00.50/pound. It was very nice pieces, some large and lacey, others nicely shaped for base rock. I didn't get a lot of coraline growth quickly, but my two tanks are FOWLR and the lighting isn't that great. Altho, lighting doesn't seem to be much of a factor in coraline growth. I'm upgrading one tank from 100 gal to 200, so I will be gettiing more tufa. Most people report faster coraline growth than I had, but I'm still happy using tufa rock.