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flchamp89
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I love real live rock. But my latest tank I went LIFE rock. Overall I'm happy. Many here have it. I believe the material of the latest production of the rock was changed per a video I came across. Mid price compared to base Vs live. Looks decent. Easy to scape. No pests no prep no time constraints for set up. Claims to aid in the cycle process.
Skynyrd Fish
Valuable Member
some of my rock is 25 years wet. There are pros and cons to both, but I would set up a new tank with dead dry rock acid bathed, and cured or seasoned and some rock out of an established nice tank.
smartwater101
Valuable Member
I used to always start with live, but at this point I'd rather build my structures outside the tank so i can take my time and insure its properly reinforced. I still have enough liverock in the sump and other parts of the tank anyway.
Dry rock just needs a quick rinse and its ready to go. Maybe put in a piece of liverock in the sump just to seed the tank. Easy peasy.
Dry rock just needs a quick rinse and its ready to go. Maybe put in a piece of liverock in the sump just to seed the tank. Easy peasy.
Dry Marco Rock tank here.
Soaked 2 months in salt water with bacteria to get started
Light weight, Lots of holes. Easy to chisel, drill ect when wet. No pests. Dusty, needs rinsing before and after soaking.
Tank shots are at 3 months.
I still got cyano, algae, bristle worms, asterina stars, aiptasia. All from fellow reefers and LFS corals. I only dipped in Coral RX, not Bayer.
Soaked 2 months in salt water with bacteria to get started
Light weight, Lots of holes. Easy to chisel, drill ect when wet. No pests. Dusty, needs rinsing before and after soaking.
Tank shots are at 3 months.
I still got cyano, algae, bristle worms, asterina stars, aiptasia. All from fellow reefers and LFS corals. I only dipped in Coral RX, not Bayer.
siggy
My Aquariums Going Again
What he said ^^^ but sooner or later you will end up at the same spot, Live rock will make it smother. Bottle or breast fed 
I have always used live, my new system I will be using live and dead that I have been collecting and Nuked with both acid and bleach. Its now sitting in a brute soaking until I need it. I also have a couple pieces sitting in the sump to seed the tank and bugs will surly come with it.
I am dreading the ugliness that will follow dead rock, but I want to build a nice scape or try to.
I have always used live, my new system I will be using live and dead that I have been collecting and Nuked with both acid and bleach. Its now sitting in a brute soaking until I need it. I also have a couple pieces sitting in the sump to seed the tank and bugs will surly come with it.I am dreading the ugliness that will follow dead rock, but I want to build a nice scape or try to.
ca1ore
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When I started in the hobby a very long time ago, it was all fresh live rock. Since then, I have bought some dry rock, some live rock from other hobbyists, and my original rock has languished for a few years in the woods (so it essentially became dead rock). I’m really not sure of the quality of live rock these days. The advantages mostly are in the micro flora and fauna (most good, some bad) that come along with it - but is that what you actually get, or is it bacterially seeded and that’s it. I think how you start probably doesn’t matter all that much. When I upsized to my current 450, I bought a bunch of dry rock to set the base. It would be under the sand after all. I’ve also bought some of the life rock - it’s good as decoration, perhaps not as good as biofilter. My suggestion would be mostly dead rock with a few quality live pieces to get things going.
That's why I chose to go with dead rock (assorted bleached tonga branches and real reef rock). I do wish that I had more biodiversity, but have avoided most of the pests (aside from 1 hitchhiking aptasia), which makes me worry less. Algae was a problem for the first 3-5 months, but I added CUC and have since begun to see coraline growth over the rock. Definitely would go with dry rock for my next build.
Westside Guy
Valuable Member
I also started with dry Marco rock and after a few months have nice coraline growth without any hitchhikers.
Evan28395950
Valuable Member
When I first bought my tank, I went for live rock from the LFS, really good quality, although they barely have anymore most likely due to restrictions in harvesting rock from certain areas. Since then I have added some dead rock, has worked fine.
MTBake
2500 Club Member
I started my current tank with 80% marco rocks and 20% live rock. All my past tanks were with 100% live rock. I prefer live rock but it's getting harder to find and is more expensive.
Dr. Dendrostein
Marine fish monthly
First time using this. Dead rock quarried from Florida, live rock too expensive, this will seed and cycle right away, compared to man made dry rock.
35 pounds at $54 free shipping
Reef man 89
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How did you get a truck load of Marco rocks? The pieces you have are absolutely massive.Dry Marco Rock tank here.
Soaked 2 months in salt water with bacteria to get started
Light weight, Lots of holes. Easy to chisel, drill ect when wet. No pests. Dusty, needs rinsing before and after soaking.
Tank shots are at 3 months.
I still got cyano, algae, bristle worms, asterina stars, aiptasia. All from fellow reefers and LFS corals. I only dipped in Coral RX, not Bayer.
I called and talked to them about what I needed. Sent a few emails back on forth. They were great to work with. It ended up being a pallet of the rock in large 25lb to 45lb pieces. Because of where I live I had to pick it up at a trucking terminal. It filled up the bed of my Tundra and then some.
RichtheReefer21
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Gotta go with dead rock. The peace of mind is worth the wait.
Too many possible pests.
Too many possible pests.
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I compromised and went Man Made and got the Caribsea Life Rock. Yes it doesn't have the biodiversity of live rock but I have yet to deal with a pest from it either after almost 3 years between my 2 tanks. I actually did a review of it here and weighed the Pros and Cons of the different options:
RichtheReefer21
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Best of luck and fortune from the reef gods!
This is a purely philosophical. One side, which seems to be most of the respondents in this thread, wants to be sure only stuff they can control goes into the tanks.
I've also tried "real reef" rock; my problem with it is that it's heavy, expensive, I don't like the faux coralline, and I imagine it's not very pourous so it doesn't really house a huge amount of nitrifying bacteria, and won't hold denitrifying bacteria. I blow hot and cold about the shapes - some look cool, others look totally fake. I might say ordering it dry with the "come alive" bacteria coating is a good deal, but from online vendors it's $6/lbs, and even more expensive from the LFS. Thus, it gets a pass in my book as base rock, and I would only take pieces that I can actually see home to be sure it looks good.
Nevertheless, it works well, especially if you don't want the uglies. From @PacificEastAquaculture
That being said, I look at this way: First, any rock will have a diatom->cyano->GHA->coralline cycle. Rock from the ocean, delivered from your door from Florida, has already been through this process years ago, and will have a good coralline growth on it. IME, even dead rock seeded with live rock takes forever to grow coralline, and still has a strong GHA cycle.
Second, the whole point of keeping a tank is to imitate the ocean as well as you can. I want the various bivalves, sponges, tunicates, feather dusters, brittle starts, etc. that come with real rock. I've got quite a few tiny filter feeding clams, feather dusters, a very happy brittle star, a lettered olive snail, a good number of cryptic sponges and clams, and apparently now a huge honking sponge growing on the sand under an overhang. This is half the fun of reefkeping for me.
I did get a mantis in my rock shipment, but flushing it out was easy. If someone else didn't want it I would have kept it.
I got my rock from KP aquatics in the Keys. Tampa Bay Saltwater, on this forum as @liverock , is also good rock from said bay, using walt smith reef rock 2.1 which supposedly is very easily stackable. Bonus from TBS is that they air freight only; it's expensive but you have the potential for a minimal loss of life in the rock; since I live on the East Coast near a major airport it literally could have been in the ocean in the morning and in my tank after work.
I've also tried "real reef" rock; my problem with it is that it's heavy, expensive, I don't like the faux coralline, and I imagine it's not very pourous so it doesn't really house a huge amount of nitrifying bacteria, and won't hold denitrifying bacteria. I blow hot and cold about the shapes - some look cool, others look totally fake. I might say ordering it dry with the "come alive" bacteria coating is a good deal, but from online vendors it's $6/lbs, and even more expensive from the LFS. Thus, it gets a pass in my book as base rock, and I would only take pieces that I can actually see home to be sure it looks good.
Nevertheless, it works well, especially if you don't want the uglies. From @PacificEastAquaculture
That being said, I look at this way: First, any rock will have a diatom->cyano->GHA->coralline cycle. Rock from the ocean, delivered from your door from Florida, has already been through this process years ago, and will have a good coralline growth on it. IME, even dead rock seeded with live rock takes forever to grow coralline, and still has a strong GHA cycle.
Second, the whole point of keeping a tank is to imitate the ocean as well as you can. I want the various bivalves, sponges, tunicates, feather dusters, brittle starts, etc. that come with real rock. I've got quite a few tiny filter feeding clams, feather dusters, a very happy brittle star, a lettered olive snail, a good number of cryptic sponges and clams, and apparently now a huge honking sponge growing on the sand under an overhang. This is half the fun of reefkeping for me.
I did get a mantis in my rock shipment, but flushing it out was easy. If someone else didn't want it I would have kept it.
I got my rock from KP aquatics in the Keys. Tampa Bay Saltwater, on this forum as @liverock , is also good rock from said bay, using walt smith reef rock 2.1 which supposedly is very easily stackable. Bonus from TBS is that they air freight only; it's expensive but you have the potential for a minimal loss of life in the rock; since I live on the East Coast near a major airport it literally could have been in the ocean in the morning and in my tank after work.
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Adding a picture:
Hitchhiking clam next to a feather duster worm on KP aquatics life rock added one year ago on the left. The Maxima (plus the M Cap I glued onto it) is on dead rock I added 2 years ago
Again, the kpaquatics rock had an (intentionally introduced) urchin go to town on the coralline, and is only beginning to recover to its former coverage.
On top is KP aquatics rock added a year ago (after a lot of coralline was chewed off by an urchin!); on the bottom is caribsea dry rock after two years. The amount of coralline, sponge cover is nowhere near as strong as on the KP aquatics rock. (oddly enough a faux rock plastic coral frag shelf has become loaded with coralline)
Ditto. Top with the coralline and the UI hitchhiking encrusting SPS coral is KP aquatics from a year ago, the piece with the war coral is two year old dry rock.
Hitchhiking clam next to a feather duster worm on KP aquatics life rock added one year ago on the left. The Maxima (plus the M Cap I glued onto it) is on dead rock I added 2 years ago
Again, the kpaquatics rock had an (intentionally introduced) urchin go to town on the coralline, and is only beginning to recover to its former coverage.
On top is KP aquatics rock added a year ago (after a lot of coralline was chewed off by an urchin!); on the bottom is caribsea dry rock after two years. The amount of coralline, sponge cover is nowhere near as strong as on the KP aquatics rock. (oddly enough a faux rock plastic coral frag shelf has become loaded with coralline)
Ditto. Top with the coralline and the UI hitchhiking encrusting SPS coral is KP aquatics from a year ago, the piece with the war coral is two year old dry rock.
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