Aquacultured Live Reef Rubble
Here’s something we’ve had cooking in the background for over a year, and its finally ready to release: a brand new, fully aquacultured version of Live Reef Rubble.
Old-school natural live rock was great – but its increasingly hard to find, and it always carried the risk of hitchhikers. Here’s the new solution for modern reef-keeping: a defined microbial community. All the diversity, all the nitrifying microbes, none of the pathogens, parasites, or hitchhikers.
We started with clean, dry, coral rubble – 100% coral derived material, shipped dry from the exporters to us. We cleaned and sterilized it again just to be sure.
Then we inoculated it with natural microbial communities from clean sources we had tested ourselves. We cultured it in low light and plenty of nutrients – for over a year.
And this is the result. A really excellent microbial community similar to what you’d find in a mature reef tank. But absolutely ZERO pathogens, and ZERO parasites. And no surprise – this material has never been in a tank with fish.
979
different kinds of microbes
4
Families of nitrifying microbes
0
pathogens or parasites
0
pests
Its not just diversity – this material has the right kinds of microbes. A community similar to what we find in mature, healthy reef tanks.
| Family | Number of types |
|---|---|
| Alteromonadaceae | 13 |
| Flavobacteriaceae | 6 |
| Oceanospirillaceae | 2 |
| Pelagibacteraceae | 2 |
| Rhodobacteraceae | 10 |
It took a long time to grow but we’re really happy with the final result. This is simply one of the best communities we’ve seen in any material we’ve tested.
Start your reef tank with a known source of microbial diversity, avoiding the risks of natural live rock from untested sources. Check out our Aquacultured Live Reef Rubble today!