Caribsea life rock cycle

vetteguy53081 · Sep 29, 2018

I use Life-rock in two different tanks and it is synthetic offering little buffering and produced to represent coralline covered rock. At minimum, place real live rock behind it to assist with cycle and buffering ability.

FrancineJ · Sep 29, 2018

So epoxy, superglue and this other stuff?
There has to be a more simplistic way no? J thought that people stuck rock together and did aquascaping all the time? Lol
It seems like a lot of steps... I think coralife suggests using Two Little Fishies CorAffix Gel? Anyone ever use that? It says it will dry rock hard both out of water and in water?

FrancineJ · Sep 29, 2018

vetteguy53081 said:
I use Life-rock in two different tanks and it is synthetic offering little buffering and produced to represent coralline covered rock. At minimum, place real live rock behind it to assist with cycle and buffering ability.

Is it the LifeRock or the LifeRock Shapes? I think the actual pieces of LifeRock are bigger... the shapes are like bridges and circles and pieces that you kind need to be able to glue easily... I was very lucky and only had 2 tiny little parts break off during shipping and it took us a long time to even find where they came off from (you can tell because it’s white in those spots right) which is not a big deal because you can even see them they are so small but some of the bridges and circle shaped ones we want to be able to glue them to the bigger pieces

And you say it offers little buffering capacity? This is the first I have heard of this... everyone says if they could do thei tank over again they would use all this stuff (the shapes one) and no real rock at all because it works so well and you don’t need to worry about pests?

It’s this stuff... so all of that piece did not come like that... trey glued the arch’s and tunnels and such together using this CorAffix stuff....it’s like 4-5 pieces in each box... they should just include the glue for the darn price of it.... says $99.99 there for 15lbs.... I had to buy 40 (and that’s US, I’m in Canada lol)

Then it has the second photo (the warning) on like all the websites that sell the “shapes” but the only glue that Coralife suggests is the CorAffix (two little fishies) stuff...
I just don’t know how well it will hold up...

vetteguy53081 · Sep 29, 2018

FrancineJ said:
Is it the LifeRock or the LifeRock Shapes? I think the actual pieces of LifeRock are bigger... the shapes are like bridges and circles and pieces that you kind need to be able to glue easily... I was very lucky and only had 2 tiny little parts break off during shipping and it took us a long time to even find where they came off from (you can tell because it’s white in those spots right) which is not a big deal because you can even see them they are so small but some of the bridges and circle shaped ones we want to be able to glue them to the bigger pieces

And you say it offers little buffering capacity? This is the first I have heard of this... everyone says if they could do thei tank over again they would use all this stuff (the shapes one) and no real rock at all because it works so well and you don’t need to worry about pests?

I love it but it is synthetic. You can use buffers to have it assist with cycling a waste breakdown but I do nor recommend buffers

FrancineJ · Sep 29, 2018

I’ve never heard of anyone having to use anything with it before... this is a first and I’ve done lots of research on it...
What exactly do you do?
I just assumed because it was Aragonite based that it would have buffering capacity because I thought that was part of what Aragonite did.... because of the high level of calcium carbonate which helps maintain a good buffer (stable PH)
That’s what I had read anyway...
And yes I know it’s synthetic... I didn’t want live rock... die to the pests etc and people claim this stuff will cycle just as fast.... hmmmm

vetteguy53081 · Sep 29, 2018

FrancineJ said:
I’ve never heard of anyone having to use anything with it before... this is a first and I’ve done lots of research on it...
What exactly do you do?
I just assumed because it was Aragonite based that it would have buffering capacity because I thought that was part of what Aragonite did.... because of the high level of calcium carbonate which helps maintain a good buffer (stable PH)
That’s what I had read anyway...
And yes I know it’s synthetic... I didn’t want live rock... die to the pests etc and people claim this stuff will cycle just as fast.... hmmmm

Im thinking aquarium creations reef like rock. Yes, the Carib-sea is aragonite based as is all their product and WILL buffer. I have the synthetic and am building a Drop-off tank and will be using the carib-sea product as they have a good price basis.

FrancineJ · Sep 30, 2018

Whew was worried there for a minute lol

Steven Postalwait · Sep 30, 2018

I did my tank with about 80 lbs of the shapes rock and cycled with Red Sea reef mature. You’re supposed to constantly skim with the reef mature, not sure if it was something with the rock that gave me problems with that. A had to build a stand for my skimmer and keep it just high enough that the intake wouldn’t suck air to keep it from overflowing for about a month before things started acting right. Some of the fake coraline will flake off as well. Other than that I didn’t have any issues.

FrancineJ · Sep 30, 2018

Yes I did actually read something about that when I was looking at the Red Sea mature.... so I decided to go with what I know (I have over 30 years in FW and Brackish experience) so I’m going to just use Dr Tim’s ammonia and Bio Spira to cycle fishless.... This (like the title says) is my first full saltwater tank and it’s the Coralife 32.... I’m starting to get a handle on things I think... we finally have the tank (got it Friday) and I’ve had everything else for a while now... but my poor son (who’s tank it is has been waiting patiently for it and of course he had to leave for the weekend and won’t be back until Sunday night) so we are going to build the stand then and get the tank up on it and play around with the shapes but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the shapes were shipped and the condition and how many spots they put in to make natural caves (plan on having a YWG and pistol shrimp combo) with a couple of clowns, a royal gramma and then we are possibly looking at a pink streaked wrasse or some type of small reef safe wrasse, or a blenny or something... we have went back and forth lol

Questions:
1-with the shapes what’s your opinion on using smaller cuts of egg crate to protect the glass on the bottom for certain pieces? I’m wondering if gluing certain pieces to the egg crate first might add some stability and keep the glass safe from some of the rougher bottoms.... but we got some beautiful pieces that’s for sure.... I’m thinking we are going to go with around 27-30 lbs of it....

2- I am also keeping a small bag of matrix (not carbon, actual bio matrix) in the bottom of the second chamber, that way I’ll have a bit more bio but also if I have to start an emergency hospital tank don’t have one right now... (I suffer already from MTS lol) I have some seeded stuff available... what are your opinions on those 2 things?

3- I’m not sure if anyone is familiar with what the system for this biocube looks like but there’s a spot where their “cartridges” are supposed to go... should I put a bit of filter floss in there and then for the top of my InTank tray I have the better quality InTank floss (blue and white) and I was thinking of putting some more very lose floss on top of it.... that way I can change out those 2 flosses everyday, every other day and the good InTank stuff might last a bit longer (a week or so?) I have a TON of floss (like enough for 3 years lol) so might as well use it if that would work... I’ve heard of others doing it and others not... just wondering if there’s a benefit?

Steven Postalwait · Oct 1, 2018

FrancineJ said:
Yes I did actually read something about that when I was looking at the Red Sea mature.... so I decided to go with what I know (I have over 30 years in FW and Brackish experience) so I’m going to just use Dr Tim’s ammonia and Bio Spira to cycle fishless.... This (like the title says) is my first full saltwater tank and it’s the Coralife 32.... I’m starting to get a handle on things I think... we finally have the tank (got it Friday) and I’ve had everything else for a while now... but my poor son (who’s tank it is has been waiting patiently for it and of course he had to leave for the weekend and won’t be back until Sunday night) so we are going to build the stand then and get the tank up on it and play around with the shapes but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the shapes were shipped and the condition and how many spots they put in to make natural caves (plan on having a YWG and pistol shrimp combo) with a couple of clowns, a royal gramma and then we are possibly looking at a pink streaked wrasse or some type of small reef safe wrasse, or a blenny or something... we have went back and forth lol

Questions:
1-with the shapes what’s your opinion on using smaller cuts of egg crate to protect the glass on the bottom for certain pieces? I’m wondering if gluing certain pieces to the egg crate first might add some stability and keep the glass safe from some of the rougher bottoms.... but we got some beautiful pieces that’s for sure.... I’m thinking we are going to go with around 27-30 lbs of it....

2- I am also keeping a small bag of matrix (not carbon, actual bio matrix) in the bottom of the second chamber, that way I’ll have a bit more bio but also if I have to start an emergency hospital tank don’t have one right now... (I suffer already from MTS lol) I have some seeded stuff available... what are your opinions on those 2 things?

3- I’m not sure if anyone is familiar with what the system for this biocube looks like but there’s a spot where their “cartridges” are supposed to go... should I put a bit of filter floss in there and then for the top of my InTank tray I have the better quality InTank floss (blue and white) and I was thinking of putting some more very lose floss on top of it.... that way I can change out those 2 flosses everyday, every other day and the good InTank stuff might last a bit longer (a week or so?) I have a TON of floss (like enough for 3 years lol) so might as well use it if that would work... I’ve heard of others doing it and others not... just wondering if there’s a benefit?

I put egg crate underneath my rock, but zip tied them together rather than glueing. Then covered it with sand. I probably wouldn’t run any type of filtration media until the cycle is finished, filter floss is fine.

FrancineJ · Oct 1, 2018

I’m not adding any media other than floss for cycling and a small bag of matrix BIO MEDIA... to seed it in case I need an emergency hospital tank (this was advised to me by a very experienced person) that way if I need to have a small hospital tank I just throw in the matrix (again not talking about carbon) and then there is a nearly instant cycle for the hospital tank and sick fishy (hoping none will get sick but I’d rather be prepared)

I think I’m gonna stick with the epoxy... these are LifeRock shapes and they are meant to be glued together... with epoxy or really anything that will hold heavier stuff...
Pretty sure i found what will work fine...
I will only be using minimal egg crate (just the parts the touch the bottom glass, as I’ve heard it can become a detritus trap... especially because I’m Canada (where I am) we can only get white... which is supposed to be worse)

And I’m not really sure how you would use zip ties for the LifeRock shapes? Can you explain more?

Steven Postalwait · Oct 1, 2018

FrancineJ said:
I’m not adding any media other than floss for cycling and a small bag of matrix BIO MEDIA... to seed it in case I need an emergency hospital tank (this was advised to me by a very experienced person) that way if I need to have a small hospital tank I just throw in the matrix (again not talking about carbon) and then there is a nearly instant cycle for the hospital tank and sick fishy (hoping none will get sick but I’d rather be prepared)

I think I’m gonna stick with the epoxy... these are LifeRock shapes and they are meant to be glued together... with epoxy or really anything that will hold heavier stuff...
Pretty sure i found what will work fine...
I will only be using minimal egg crate (just the parts the touch the bottom glass, as I’ve heard it can become a detritus trap... especially because I’m Canada (where I am) we can only get white... which is supposed to be worse)

And I’m not really sure how you would use zip ties for the LifeRock shapes? Can you explain more?

I only used zip ties to attach to the egg crate. The pieces I used for bases all had spots I could tie onto, and I used black egg crate and black sand. To build my scape I used Aqauforest stone fix.

FrancineJ · Oct 2, 2018

Ya that’s the one I was looking at aqua forest Stonefix?

And yes my egg crate is the same but white, and my sand is pretty much whiteosh as well (Caribsea Aragonite special grade reef sand) but what I’m confused about is I can see how you got the zip tie through the egg crate but how did you attach the other end to the rock? Just found some holes to put it through?
Would you feel safe that the aqua forest would hold well enough on its own if it was left to dry for a while?
And was this used on the Caribsea LifeRock? Or Live rocks?
Thanks

MyReefRobbedMe · May 5, 2019

How are you guys liking the Caribsea life rock . I have bought some after reading many good reviews . Than today I read they will crumble and break down after 1 year . Not sure if that is correct or not . Would love to hear some more thoughts from people who have had it for year or more on their tanks .