Whats every ones thoughts on using fresh live rock to start a tank.....I have a new tank...with mix of dry rock (previously used but out of water over a year) and rock transferred from an existing tank. We're a week in havn't even hit the start of ugly stage. Im worried that if I spend $200 on "premium" live rock, over 1/2 will die while tank is maturing.
20 lbs of premium live rock create an instant tank...or should I wait 3 months till out of ugly stage? Sorry to highjack thread.
Just seeing this, and although I have not been exactly in your situation, I may be able to shed some light for you. Honestly though, you may get a lot more attention, and a few more responses if you make your own new post, asking this question.
No one can tell you what the best situation for you will be because there are just way to many variables. What are your goals for this tank ? What inhabitants are you wanting to keep ? What are your husbandry skills like ? How is your patience and are you able to fight off the urge to go out and buy new stuff ? What is your experience level ? Do you do testing ? Do you even have test kits yet ? Among many others.
With those being asked, I can tell you that I have started up a few tanks in the past 10 years or so, and I have tried several ways of starting them. In MY experience, the easiest and fastest way is to get live rock from the ocean, through TBS, GLR, or a few others out there. There are many pros and cons to each way of doing it, but the jumpstart on all of the organisms, and overall life is worth it, if you ask me. My tank, that has nothing but ocean rock in it, only needs the glass cleaned once a month or so and was supporting coral within a week or so. I have another tank that was started at around the same time, but only had a couple pieces ocean rock placed in with all of the dry rock, and it is STILL going though the 'ugly' stages. The glass needs cleaned every other day and even though the coral in this tank are alive, they are not what I would consider to be thriving.
I did start out a tank, once upon a time, with nothing but dry rock. On one hand, the scaping was probably the best that I have ever done, on the other hand when I was finally getting close to the end of the ugly stage(s) I got a couple aiptasia and bubble algae from a scraped and dipped frag. Needless to say, that tank didn't make it a year, out of frustration.
Long story short, IMHO going all live ocean rock is the only way to go. You WILL get aiptasia and other unwanted organisms eventually, no matter how hard you try to keep them out. To me, the benefits of the live rock vastly outweighs the negatives.
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