The latest feature in the Coral Magazine Online Forum,  by Matt Pedersen

Live Rock From Australia Lands In U.S.

03 Nov, 2021

California-based Unique Corals is showing off a rare offering in the reef aquarium hobby: Live Rock from Australia!

“Real” life rock was once a cornerstone of the reef aquarium hobby, and has pretty much been replaced by man-made or quarried rock options to form the foundation of a modern reef aquarium. If you wanted actual “live rock” that had been in the ocean, your options were pretty limited in recent years, mainly relying on aquaculture rock from Florida or a few other locations abroad. “Real” live rock, it seems, is now quite rare in the hobby, and with that, it’s noteworthy to share a recent announcement from Los Angeles area Unique Corals.

via Unique Corals

We have beautiful Australian Live Rock here and in stock at Unique!

These rocks have been sustainably harvested and are covered in stunning coralline calcification. This rock spent less than 4 days going from ocean to tank in the U.S.

Pieces are non-WYSIWYG’; shapes and sizes will vary. $19.99 per pound.

Order yours before they are all gone!

Unique Corals’ Joseph Caparatta shared a bit more of the back-story behind this rare and “unique” offering!

“We brought in some rock from a small coral collector in the Cairns region to establish help establish some biological needs for a science lab. The lab is planned around an Acropora spawning project in the U.S. with help from Dr. Jamie Craggs.

“Because the systems were set up only a month or so prior to the naturally occurring spawning dates, we needed something to jump-start the tanks. Along with some seasoned MarcoRocks from our Unique Corals systems, we all decided that some freshly collected Australian rock would be beneficial.

“We are now offering the surplus to everyone. Depending on how this goes we might decide to offer it on a regular basis if we are promised that collection sites are deemed non-impactful and spread out to different reefs.”