Ocean Harvested Rock

Ocean Farmed Rock is full of Beneficial Micro and Macro Lifeforms.

Our Live Rock always travels submerged.

Providing Life Support from harvest to shipping ensures the highest quality product.

The Best way to Cycle a New Tank is with the TBS Package.

Add TBS Live Rock directly to a functioning aquarium: no curing, no dipping.

TBS Diver Collected Live Sand is unmatched in its plethora of beneficial organisims.

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Tampa Bay Saltwater has been providing sustainably harvested live rock and sand for 38 years and counting.

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What is Real Live Rock?

Living Rock host diverse micro and macro lifeforms both on the surface and inside the rock.

Bacteria, worms, sponges, bivalves, algae, shrimp, crabs, coralline, tunicates, and corals are examples of life found on ocean live rock. These beneficial organisms provide biological filtration and a natural environment for marine aquariums. The best live rock is full of inhabitants inside and outside.

There is no substitute for sustainably ocean aquacultured live rock.

What is Not Real Live Rock?

Buyer Beware. Just because the label says, ‘live rock’, it may not be live.

Wet rock is not always live rock.
Dry rock added to saltwater combined with bottle bacteria is not real live rock.
Rock that is painted is not live rock.

Real Live Rock has a plethora of diverse seen and unseen organisms living on and inside it.

Why is Ocean Farmed Live Rock the Best?

Clears and cleans water via biofiltration.
Creates a natural environment for marine inhabitants which reduces stress.
Contributes nutrients for food webs.
Cycles tanks without plastic bottles, stinky shrimp, sacrificial chromis or guesswork.
Provides a natural microbial community for marine ecosystems.

TBS Living Rock is created naturally by the sea and its inhabitants.

But Ocean Farmed Live Rock has Hitchhikers !

Yes, it sure does, and it’s the hitchhikers that make TBS Living Rock special.

98% of TBS hitchhikers are beneficial: bacteria, fan worms, tube worms, porcelain crabs, pistol shrimp, all macro algae, corals, bulb anemones, tunicates, corallines, sponges, hermit crabs, bryozoans, pincushion urchins, purple spined urchins and more.

The small number of negative TBS hitchhikers are easily managed with a net, turkey baster or trap. Customers occasionally find a friendly mantis shrimp (not really), a wondering whelk snail (easy to get out), a tasty stone crab (makes great conversation as a sump dweller) or an ugly isopod (evening hunting adventures).

The benefits Ocean Farmed Live Rock delivers an aquarium, far outweighs a random trappable pest.

Please don’t kill Ocean Farmed Live Rock.

Do not cure. Curing is for rock shipped in paper or rock that has been mishandled. Only sickly and dying rock need to be cured.

Do not dip. Dipping will kill a majority of beneficial organisms found on ocean harvested rock. Do not dip in fresh water, high salinity water, coral dips, insecticides, or peroxide.