Dry Liferock or dry real reef rock

[Fredrxn]

Sup y'all I been going back and forth between these to man made rocks...I am starting a red sea max nano g2 xl.....what do u guys think is the better rock... Dose Coraline algae grow on these rocks? Are there any cons with these rocks? Thanks guys

 

[shakacuz]

live rock > dry rock. your cons will outweigh the pros. the only pro is that its....bare.

dry rock = longer cycle time, and longer to establish a good micro-biome.
live rock = usually instant cycle/shorter cycle, and already has an established micro-biome.

based on your options above, go with whatever is cheaper and gives you the most rock. you can break rocks and make your own scape.

 

[Doctorgori]

live stuff does bore into rock but not so much with the manufactured stuff…
also consider pore size and surface area…IMO no comparison to the natural stuff

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Sup y'all I been going back and forth between these to man made rocks...I am starting a red sea max nano g2 xl.....what do u guys think is the better rock... Dose Coraline algae grow on these rocks? Are there any cons with these rocks? Thanks guys

Help me understand, are the 2 choices in your title both man made?

Forgive me for not knowing what brands are available these days.

 

[Fredrxn]

Help me understand, are the 2 choices in your title both man made?

Forgive me for not knowing what brands are available these days.

Yes they are

 

[JNalley]

Edit: My bad, I misread something

 

[JNalley]

Personally, I wouldn't go with either... They lack the surface area because they are more dense and not as porous as the Mined rock options. If you're after the purple look afforded by these rocks, Marco and ARK both have purple options in the Mined stuff, which I think is generally cheaper than the Man-Made stuff...

 

[Serpentman2024]

This is definitely a polarizing topic. There are two schools of thought. Dry rock gives you more control and reduces the risk of introducing bad hitchhikers. Live rock on the other hand can offer you more biodiversity. Personally, I'm a fan of the latter. Ultimately, either way, they both end up as "live" rock so its really a matter of personal taste, patience and risk tolerance.

EDIT: Sorry, I though we were talking about wet ocean rock.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

@JNalley

Your original post was how I interpreted it as well. And if that was the case, I had opinions. But if they are both man made, I don't see how picking one would be better than the other.

I personally think that the dense, less porous made made stuff would offer less surface area, and pound for pound would provide less rock for the money.

I do agree with @Doctorgori that pests like spionids have a harder time boring into fake rock. But honestly I don't know if that would weigh heavily in my decision.

I would lean towards more porous substrate, if given the choice.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

This is definitely a polarizing topic. There are two schools of thought. Dry rock gives you more control and reduces the risk of introducing bad hitchhikers. Live rock on the other hand can offer you more biodiversity. Personally, I'm a fan of the latter. Ultimately, either way, they both end up as "live" rock so its really a matter of personal taste, patience and risk tolerance.

Did you just read the title?

 

[JNalley]

Man Made Rocks:
40lbs of Real Reef = $250
40lbs of LifeRock = $212

Dry Mined Rocks with Color:
40lbs of Purple Marco = ~$170 - $215 depending on combination
45lbs of ARK Colored Rock = ~$135

 

[nano7g]

Coraline should grow on both. There might be a difference between silicates (diatom food) that come from an argonite-made composite rock vs a dry real rock that someone may be able to answer.

 

[lbacha]

If you can find old live rock that has been died out that is really good option. You get extremely porous rock with lots of interesting character (shells, tube worm deposits etc) but you don’t have pests as the rock is basically dry and you need to reestablish all life on its you will need to soak it in bleach to ensure you get all the Organics off it and you may still get some nutrients as the rock was live at one point. This is actually not a terrible things as many new tanks don’t have enough nutrients to kick start all the bacteria, algae and other benificial things. As for rock that wasn’t from a real reef I would recommend Marco rock as it is a lot more porous than some of the others and lighter in overall weight

 

[Greybeard]

I bought real reef rock, used it for 4 or 5 years. Eventually, it was totally covered with bubble tip anemones, and I traded it all off for 2 new boxes of Caribsea purple dry rock, basically re-started the tank, so I've been through the initial stages of a tank filled with purple dry rock twice. I didn't notice any difference between reel reef and caribsea. The caribsea probably has more 'interesting' shapes.

Either are better than white mined dry rock for avoiding the 'ugly stage'... The purple paint or whatever it is just looks better when you're going through that first 6 months or so. After that? It's base rock. By the end of the 1st year, anyway, you've probably got enough stuff of various kinds that you don't really see the base rock much.

If you're thinking this stuff is in any way 'live', or is going to accelerate your break in period... forget it. It's just dry rock. Wanna jump start a tank? Get some bottled bacteria, bottled pods and such, farmed wet rock or sand from TBS or similar. Sand or rock samples from successful local reefers can get things moving pretty well, and it's generally much cheaper

Is the purple stuff worth the price difference from Marco's rock or whatever? Eh. Up to you. BRS has Caribsea purple dry rock, $212 for 40 lbs. White Marco's base rock is about half of that. There's worse ways to burn a hundred bucks in the reefing hobby

 

[IntrinsicReef]

I have used Real Reef cultured rock to setup tanks for the last 10 years or so. I have always had great results. They ship it wet from their greenhouses as they would with live rock. I didn't know they had a dry option.

 

[javajaws]

I don't think it really matters much which dry rock you use. Assuming you don't go with a super minimal NSA porosity really doesn't matter a whole lot - people have used all kinds and gotten all of them to work. Color doesn't matter too much either as eventually (hopefully?) you'll get coralline to cover it all anyway. Buy what appeals to you and your pocketbook.

And of course wet live rock is better for biodiversity but comes with the added cost and unknown hitchhikers.

My current tank will be starting with LifeRock. FYI - most of the larger pieces like arches will be broken. I've had better luck with the nano arches which are surprisingly fairly large and what I recommend the most as far as sizes they offer go.

 

[Fredrxn]

Thanks guys decided to go with life rock nano kits

 

[Reef.]

Which ever dry rock you use, check if it needs curing first as some can leach a lot of phosphate for a long time.