Are Dry rock and live rock the same thing technically?

ZachDemitro · Aug 2, 2023

I have a tank full of dry rock and only 2 pieces of live rock and I'm looking to get more rock in general but live rock is very expensive. The two I bought were 140$ and they were fairly small. If I add dry rock does it become live rock eventually like does it hold beneficial bacteria and microorganisms? I found some really nice dry rock on marketplace and wanna buy them but if I need live rock I will just buy that.

JGT · Aug 2, 2023

Dry rock will become live rock. It will just take time and you will typically go through the uglies with dry rock. Also live rock will introduce more of a variety of micro fauna which is always good.

Lavey29 · Aug 2, 2023

Real live wet ocean rock will Jumpstart the biodiversity in your tank even if you just do a few rocks and the other is man-made fake live rock which will eventually have life in it as stated above.

Cell · Aug 2, 2023

Yes, dry rock will become live rock over time in an aquarium. You don't even need live rock to start with, but it speeds up the process immensely. Lots of people start their tanks with dry rock only.

twentyleagues · Aug 2, 2023

There is no real substitute for true from the ocean live rock. With that being said you also don't get the undesirable things that can come on it with dry rock. Dry rock will eventually get whatever you are putting in your tank on it, different bacterias, algaes, any pests you introduce via coral or other live rock either from the ocean or dry that been in a tank and still wet.

If you want the rock get it. It won't hurt, you may get as others have said some ugly phase with it as it matures. Dry rock can also suck up phosphates so keep an eye on your levels.

Screwgunner · Aug 24, 2023

I would start the tank with dry rock after the cycle is done . Add some live rock for diversity. You will see the live rock take on coraline algea first way before dry rock.

Spare time · Aug 24, 2023

JGT said:
Dry rock will become live rock. It will just take time and you will typically go through the uglies with dry rock. Also live rock will introduce more of a variety of micro fauna which is always good.

That last line being always true is simple wrong lol

JayM · Aug 24, 2023

Screwgunner said:
I would start the tank with dry rock after the cycle is done . Add some live rock for diversity. You will see the live rock take on coraline algea first way before dry rock.

My tank has been up and running about a month. Coralline has started to grow on a plastic rock, but nothing on any of the live or dry rock.

Screwgunner · Sep 3, 2023

I had no coralin algea for 6 months until I put in a bunch of snails and boom there it was.

livinlifeinBKK · Sep 3, 2023

JayM said:
My tank has been up and running about a month. Coralline has started to grow on a plastic rock, but nothing on any of the live or dry rock.

Its very common for coralline to grow on powerheads and other plastics parts in the aquarium before rocks...I don't think plastic is a better alternative to rock

Screwgunner · Sep 3, 2023

Some dry rock is coated with a purple pvc cleaner .

Nano_Man · Sep 3, 2023

Dry rock no
Live rock the foundation of your reef. Live rock is a filter in its self . Live rock is the best imo

jabberwock · Sep 3, 2023

I want to say that there are 3 distinct categories of rock.

Dry rock - is dead.
Live rock - is wet and has some sort of bacterial colonization from the LFS or someone else's tank.
Ocean live rock - is aqua cultured legally in the ocean and has an immense amount of diversity (including potentially undesirable hitchhikers) and good macro organisms.

My money is on number 3 all day long.

Gundy · Sep 3, 2023

Spare time said:
That last line being always true is simple wrong lol

JGT said:
Dry rock will become live rock. It will just take time and you will typically go through the uglies with dry rock. Also live rock will introduce more of a variety of micro fauna which is always good.

Yes this is probably not always true but perhaps he ment to say is that live rock will introduce a variety of micro fauna very quickly which is always good. And depending on how much live rock is introduced with dry rock, this can happen fairly quickly compared to dry rock only.

JayM · Sep 4, 2023

Wouldn’t 1 & 2 eventually become 3?

We all know there’s no such thing as “live” rocks.

jabberwock · Sep 4, 2023

JayM said:
Wouldn’t 1 & 2 eventually become 3?

We all know there’s no such thing as “live” rocks.

Not is it never sees the ocean.

And nope, I think you will find a lot of people who disagree with that statement.

blecki · Sep 4, 2023

And a lot who do agree. On a purely technical level, no, it can't become 'ocean live rock' without going in the ocean, but it can be just as good. It can't happen spontaneously though. The only way to get your dry rock as diverse and packed with life as the ocean rock will be to cultivate it in a tank with some of that ocean rock for a long time. After ten years of being continuously wet, I can confidently tell you that you won't be able to pick out which rocks started as 'real from the ocean' live rock and which started out dead in my tank. They are indistinguishable. But the rock that was dry and dead about 6 months ago is still pretty easy to identify.

Miami Reef · Sep 4, 2023

Almost all ocean rock was previously dry rock that was added to the ocean. There‘s no problem with that; all the biodiversity you need is there after the 2 years it was there to seed (I think that’s how KP Aquatics does it).

If you already had the live rock added, I’d add the dry rock to save money.

jabberwock · Sep 4, 2023

Miami Reef said:
Almost all ocean rock was previously dry rock that was added to the ocean. There‘s no problem with that; all the biodiversity you need is there after the 2 years it was there to seed (I think that’s how KP Aquatics does it).

If you already had the live rock added, I’d add the dry rock to save money.

I don't feel like it is a savings, think of all the time and products that are expended on a long algae farm journey.