Coming Back After a Decade

shakacuz · Jul 10, 2022

cwt94 said:
So realistically with the bottled stuff and time is there a need for seeded stuff?

not really? but some would argue that your biodiversity will never be “optimal” or “at its best”, without some type of seeding from live rock, sand, or bio media from tanks that are well established or from the ocean itself.

personally, i started with “live rock” my LFS sells, but my tank still took months to mature.

UnderseaOddities · Jul 10, 2022

It's all in bacteria I always started with dry rock even 15 years ago it was just called boat rock back then
Then add bacteria myself and wait for coraline to grow, but wet rock can get u problems if your planning to aquaculture coral and not have any wild contamination

UnderseaOddities · Jul 10, 2022

It's all on who and where its sourced from too but too bee real live rock isnt a thing anymore most lfs get oolite mined in fl keys or make with quickcrete and live sand and make themselves inhouse

UnderseaOddities · Jul 10, 2022

Even boat rocks going extinct walt smith was one of the rock dealer back in the day but the changed the laws so much and diving for it was so dangerous vs little profit for fuel oxygen that it wasnt sustainable anymore and such efforts were better spent growing and mariculturing corals in ocean flats instead of wasting time dredging for big heavy rock in the open ocean in international water

cwt94 · Jul 10, 2022

shakacuz said:
not really? but some would argue that your biodiversity will never be “optimal” or “at its best”, without some type of seeding from live rock, sand, or bio media from tanks that are well established or from the ocean itself.

personally, i started with “live rock” my LFS sells, but my tank still took months to mature.

I gotcha. Since I’ll be starting with live sand I figure that may help that process.

cwt94 · Jul 10, 2022

UnderseaOddities said:
It's all on who and where its sourced from too but too bee real live rock isnt a thing anymore most lfs get oolite mined in fl keys or make with quickcrete and live sand and make themselves inhouse

I always enjoyed the random crap you’d find in a live rock when you got it home. I remember seeing a post in an old forum I was in and a guy found a blue ring octopus in his lfs live rock tank. Had pictures and everything

shakacuz · Jul 10, 2022

cwt94 said:
I gotcha. Since I’ll be starting with live sand I figure that may help that process.

most certainly will! microbacter 7, dr. tims, polyp lab genesis are great choices for starter cultures of bacteria! bio-spira as well!

SunnyX · Jul 10, 2022

cwt94 said:
I always enjoyed the random crap you’d find in a live rock when you got it home. I remember seeing a post in an old forum I was in and a guy found a blue ring octopus in his lfs live rock tank. Had pictures and everything

Check KpAquatics.com for the live rock. I ordered some a couple years back and it was as good if not better than the live rock I was getting fresh from Indonesia 15-20 years ago. 10lbs added to some dry rock and sand would be plenty to get you going.

Other than some of the stuff mentioned concerning changes in the collection of livestock and rock not a whole lots has changed, at least not much of consequence. The old ways still work great and you will be fine following the standard Berlin method.

-Sonny

InactiveAcct · Jul 10, 2022

cwt94 said:
That would explain why I can’t find live rock lol, what’s the best process to turn dry rock into live rock now?

I came back after time away, the dry rock is a freakin nightmare, took me about 18 months to get to where I was at week 8-10 with my 2006 live rock tank. If I were to do it again I’d be dumping microbacter7. In hindsight I pretty much used the coral frags to get the biodiversity.

The equipment is a lot better now, although LEDs have just started getting close to halides and T5s in the past couple years. Coral is a lot pricier, smaller, and all the standards from the day like “red montipora” have stupid one-off names like “Michael Jordan Space Jam Montipora.”

As far as media goes I only ever run the BRS Rox carbon maybe once a month, and GFO for phosphates.