Dry or Live Rock?

[Neo Jeo]

Where did you get it for .80c a pound??? its not boulders from someones yard is it??? LOL

Nature Ocean Amazon warehouse deal... only a few left!

 

[Neo Jeo]

If you GLUE your rocks together first, put them straight on glass, then sand... If your not gluing, you need the egg crate.

I will still use egg crate just incase a nub of the rock is pushing all the weight on the glass. this way the egg crate will distribute the weight I would think? Just long as it dont cause issues for being in the sand

 

[Neo Jeo]

Depends on the rock. Both Fiji and pukani rock from BRS are VERY porous. I agree base rock is not porous. If you take the time to pre-cure dry rock you can avoid most of the algae issues.

Did you see my pics posted? It looks porous to me. What you think?

 

[Midrats]

Definitely don't use egg crate. Totally unnecessary and quite an efficient detritus trap. Just place it right on the glass. In thirty years I have never seen nor heard of a tank breaking.

Good luck with your dry rock.

 

[Neo Jeo]

Definitely don't use egg crate. Totally unnecessary and quite an efficient detritus trap. Just place it right on the glass. In thirty years I have never seen nor heard of a tank breaking.

Good luck with your dry rock.

Thanks for the tip man.. and I hope my dry rock works out

 

[Old Glory]

Looks good. Kind of a step up from base rock. Be sure to cure it for 6-8 weeks and it will speed up the cycle in the tank and avoid the worst of the algae outbreaks.

 

[Neo Jeo]

Looks good. Kind of a step up from base rock. Be sure to cure it for 6-8 weeks and it will speed up the cycle in the tank and avoid the worst of the algae outbreaks.

Will do, what temp should I have the rock in? What should I look for while testing the water?

 

[Neo Jeo]

Will do, what temp should I have the rock in? What should I look for while testing the water?

and do I add a dead shrimp? or just some pellets?

 

[Old Glory]

I cured my rock during the summer so it was warm out and I didn't have to heat it. I would keep the water at reef temps around 76 degrees. My rock from BRS had a bunch of dead stuff in it and on it. That was enough to start the cycle. I added biospira and Dr Tims and then later ghost fed with pellets. Your rock looks pretty clean so I would add the shrimp or pellets to get it going. I only did one water change but made sure there was flow in the tub. Be sure to top off evaporation to keep salinity at 1.025. Its almost set it and forget it. The longer you can cure it in the tub the better.

I had time because I had torn down my old system and was having work done in the family room where the tank was. I had to wait until the work was done before I could set back up. It forced me to wait and cure it for those eight weeks.

 

[Old Glory]

Just so you can see what I used BRS Fiji

 

[Old Glory]

A couple of videos:
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/view/Which-rock-has-the-most-surface-area/

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/view/brs-dry-live-rock-video/

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-...srBAS9NjL8Xa5u23T-ujOBPySmQ4ObGRoC5qYQAvD_BwE

 

[fishbox]

Dry rock is not porous enough to get both aerobic and non aerobic bacteria in the same piece of rock that fresh live rock has

This seems like a pretty bold statement
Do you have any evidence of this. As mentioned above, I would say that may hold true to most dry base rock on the market but I think that the better known dry rock on the market is plenty of porous enough.

 

[MaiReef]

I would drill holes in the rock and connect them with 1/2" PVC. That way they won't fall and you can take them apart if necessary.

 

[Neo Jeo]

I cured my rock during the summer so it was warm out and I didn't have to heat it. I would keep the water at reef temps around 76 degrees. My rock from BRS had a bunch of dead stuff in it and on it. That was enough to start the cycle. I added biospira and Dr Tims and then later ghost fed with pellets. Your rock looks pretty clean so I would add the shrimp or pellets to get it going. I only did one water change but made sure there was flow in the tub. Be sure to top off evaporation to keep salinity at 1.025. Its almost set it and forget it. The longer you can cure it in the tub the better.

I had time because I had torn down my old system and was having work done in the family room where the tank was. I had to wait until the work was done before I could set back up. It forced me to wait and cure it for those eight weeks.

Im glad you got the time to cure it The rock I got from Nature Ocean looks very porous. It's extremely clean and no dead stuff. They state they clean and soak it. I think it comes out of the ground thats why there is no dead stuff. Well I did find 1 bed bristle star. I had a guy PM me saying dry rock was a bad idea, him, his friend and someone else he knew all had problems. Kinda scared me but based on what im reading it CAN BE DONE.

Im hoping other dry rock users can inspire me right now! I know in the polls above dry rock is winning!

 

[Mandelstam]

This is my thoughts so far as I'm planning my first reef

Amount of rock you need depends on if you plan on running a Berlin system for bacterial filtration or if you plan on using other systems along with the rock (DSB, plenum, etc). If you for instance run a plenum or DSB you don't need as much rock as you would otherwise and the porosity isn't as critical.

I'm leaning towards using live rock along with a plenum in my refugium and the reason is mostly that I want to bring in as many organisms and hitchhikers as possible. My build will be quite slow and I don't have a problem with running the tank with just rocks for as long as it takes before adding other livestock so any pests can more easily be dealt with. Adding live rock from the ocean is to me equally exciting as adding corals or fish. It's a way to bring in some added complexity and a piece from the actual ocean to our little glass boxes. That's how I see it anyway. [emoji4]

 

[Neo Jeo]

This is my thoughts so far as I'm planning my first reef

Amount of rock you need depends on if you plan on running a Berlin system for bacterial filtration or if you plan on using other systems along with the rock (DSB, plenum, etc). If you for instance run a plenum or DSB you don't need as much rock as you would otherwise and the porosity isn't as critical.

I'm leaning towards using live rock along with a plenum in my refugium and the reason is mostly that I want to bring in as many organisms and hitchhikers as possible. My build will be quite slow and I don't have a problem with running the tank with just rocks for as long as it takes before adding other livestock so any pests can more easily be dealt with. Adding live rock from the ocean is to me equally exciting as adding corals or fish. It's a way to bring in some added complexity and a piece from the actual ocean to our little glass boxes. That's how I see it anyway. [emoji4]

I have never done a berlin system or a plenum. I will have a refug. I have done live rock twice in 2 set ups. I had nasty bubble algae probs and aptasas. Im trying the dry rock out on the 3rd try Just will take me longer but I wish i could do all live rock would be nice but its also $ and my LFS selection is bad, not a lot of growth and my other LFS has bubble algae like crazy and aptasas.

 

[reefwiser]

This seems like a pretty bold statement
Do you have any evidence of this. As mentioned above, I would say that may hold true to most dry base rock on the market but I think that the better known dry rock on the market is plenty of porous enough.

Well I would have go back 25 years when you could get a lot of live rock. When you lifted the rock from the tank water would come out of the rock for 20 minutes. Many of the pieces are made from small pieces of dead coral glued together by coralline algae. So there are internal pockets where there was a very slow water change. The dry rock sold to day just doesn’t have the internal structure to allow this super slow water flow in the rock. It doesn’t have the proper flow exchange to support it. So the bacteria is on the outside of the rock not in the nook and crannies inside the rock itself. You also would get sponges that lived down in the rocks that you don’t get with dry rock. It’s the web of life that you will never replicate with dry rock.

 

[Midrats]

If bubble algae and aiptasia were your problem they more than likely weren't introduced with the live rock. If they were you likely got some rock that resided in another tank between its leaving the ocean and arriving in your tank. That's why when I was in the business we never put rock that customers brought in into our rock tub. Only the stuff straight from the airport went in there. We kept the tub full, heavily skimmed, and illuminated, and we went through a lot of rock. Mind you it was the Nineties and nobody would have even remotely consider not using it. The trend of using dry rock these days is not that much different than the tanks my sister kept in the Seventies filled with big coral skeletons. It's a step backwards and Peter Wilkens is turning in his grave.

I know that was a little dramatic, but I am a huge proponent of live rock can't you tell . It's just so much easier and I don't have the patience for dry. I wish you success.

 

[Neo Jeo]

It came from my LFS but that was 11 years ago I don't have patience ether lol

 

[Mandelstam]

If bubble algae and aiptasia were your problem they more than likely weren't introduced with the live rock. If they were you likely got some rock that resided in another tank between its leaving the ocean and arriving in your tank. That's why when I was in the business we never put rock that customers brought in into our rock tub. Only the stuff straight from the airport went in there. We kept the tub full, heavily skimmed, and illuminated, and we went through a lot of rock. Mind you it was the Nineties and nobody would have even remotely consider not using it. The trend of using dry rock these days is not that much different than the tanks my sister kept in the Seventies filled with big coral skeletons. It's a step backwards and Peter Wilkens is turning in his grave.

I know that was a little dramatic, but I am a huge proponent of live rock can you tell . It's just so much easier and I don't have the patience for dry. I wish you success.

You seem to be a person able to answer this. I'm planning my first reef and as such it has a lot of first time expenses with it. So it will probably go a bit slow but I'm in no real hurry. Every stage is exciting really. But anyway, I plan on setting up a plenum/dsb in my refugium as I start up the tank and cycling it so hopefully it will have an established bacterial filter after that. And I want to use good quality live rock from the ocean. But being a bit expensive I thought that I could add it over some time.

I have a few lfs from where I can get it so it doesn't have to be shipped and can be brought to it's new tank quickly. How about curing in a case like that? Should I cure each batch of live rock or can I add a little over time straight to the DT if it's not stocked with fish or coral yet? My reasoning is that if it's cured at the lfs and I can bring it home without any major die off there shouldn't be much dead stuff that could cause any spikes?

Or should I add it to a second container and just monitor the values for a few days before adding it to the DT?