一些最新一代的沃尔特·史密斯（Walt Smith）文化的现场摇滚已经到达英国顶级海洋商店之一，以进行评估和初步审查。不要与礁石岩2.1混淆，这是一个干燥的人造岩石，礁石2.0也是在沃尔特·史密斯（Walt Smith）的设施中制造的，只有这次它在斐济的海中已经成熟，以收集所有自然的礁石善良。
沃尔特·史密斯国际从汤加（Tonga）和斐济（Fiji）开创了现场摇滚收藏，但也创造了生产的活岩替代品。他们的现场岩石业务可以追溯到1992年，但他们开始自行替代野生收集的活岩，可以追溯到1998年。沙子/碎石/水泥/浮石混合物经常进行调整，以达到更好的形状，更轻的重量，更好的孔隙率，以及模仿野生岩石的Coralline藻类覆盖范围，而Reef Rock 2.0显示了当时它已经发展了多少。
Paul Hughes heads up Advanced Aquarium Consultancy and is a well-known figure in the UK reefing industry. Due to efforts from TMC and Walt Smith Int AAC is one of the first to get their hands on this new rock. As the first in the UK to see and handle it, and with 33 years of experience under his belt we were keen to know Paul’s first impressions:
“我在Walt Smith International和其他公司之前已经看到并处理了Aqua培养的'人造现场摇滚'，但它从未真正在AAC腾飞。那是在我们仍然被大量野生肝硬化的进口（现在是英国稀有和零星的）和世界各地的各个目的地所宠坏的时候。”
“因此，很难给这些可持续的替代方案一个战斗机会，而经典和可靠的野生斐济的美丽，Tonga或Indo Rock，以快速“出生”新的盐水水族馆。这也是一次（5-10年前），当时焦点已经开始向干燥的死岩，表面上的钙质岩石或人为构造的涂漆干 /潮湿的岩石转移。由于现场直播所需的巨额空运运输成本，价格也起了一个因素。”
“From a personal point of view, the first version of this rock also wasn’t quite there either, freshly made in its look and bulky, without the coralline that we used to see on the hand-picked wild alternative. This shortfall of coralline is something we all need to get used to with the man-made live alternatives in the future however, and apply some patience as many of those ‘old school’ wild live rocks we compare this new rock against, could have been lying on the seabed for more than 20 years with their thick crustose mats. So expect less coralline even with 2.0, but if you understand its function and primary purpose, the important stuff is there in bundles!”
“It’s safe to say that Walt Smith Int. has put a lot of effort into this new bacterially diverse substrate to ‘plant’ our corals on, no doubt missing none of the bacterial ‘chains’ that take so long to establish with the dead/dry alternative, synthetic seawater and just a bottle of nitrifying bacteria.”
At AAC, we do still sell very small quantities of wild live rock when we can find carefully collected resources, to help ‘seed’ struggling customer systems built around dead/dry rock and artificial seawater, but it will be fantastic to offer the chance of unlimited quantities of this sustainable live ‘sea blessed’ product from the ‘holy Island of liverock’ –斐济– as a serious total aquascape alternative.
“Vinaka (thank you) to Walt Smith Int Fiji and Tropical Marine Centre London for organizing this sample for me, and I look forward to stocking it in the future.”
Prices will be announced soon but it’s expected to be somewhere in the region of current live rock pricing. Walt Smith has 800,000 kilos/ 1,763,698 lbs maturing in the ocean, so there should be plenty to go around.
