Dry Rock Cycling in the Bay?

[Saltyreef]

They look like pill bugs/ wood lice/ rollie pollies

Those are isopods too

 

[Saltyreef]

Who can feed those to? Lol! Some of them are about about an inch big… (low key looking for an excuse to get a mandarin)

Some isopods arent reef safe.
I collected a bunch of macro algae and a small rock with rooted macro on it from the local beach here but when i was rinsing it i found a few amphipods and a big isopod. Ended up taking it back to the beach lol.

 

[Finn1018]

They look like pill bugs/ wood lice/ rollie pollies

They’re on the rip rap rocks too. I don’t know if they go underwater?

 

[Finn1018]

Some isopods arent reef safe.
I collected a bunch of macro algae and a small rock with rooted macro on it from the local beach here but when i was rinsing it i found a few amphipods and a big isopod. Ended up taking it back to the beach lol.

I see. This is going to be a great experiment. I’ll keep checking salinity this weekend, and find the ideal drop off point. I took it next to my rip rap and it’s 1.005. Neighbor saw me, and he said try the beach it’s probably higher.

 

[sfin52]

They’re on the rip rap rocks too. I don’t know if they go underwater?

Rollie pollies are crustaceans

 

[Charles Zinn]

Salinity is 1.005.
Will check again in another area throughout this weekend

I'd check at high and low tide and take an average

 

[Finn1018]

I'd check at high and low tide and take an average

That’s smart. I took that initial salinity during high tide ^_^

 

[dennis romano]

One thing that hasn't been discussed is temperature. If you soak the rock and get bacteria and critters on it, those are temperate organisms. Just as you have many species adjusted to life in the bay, you have totally different species in tropical water. For example, you will not find a queen angel near Baltimore or a white perch near Key West. let's say the bay water today is 65 degrees. You put it in a tank and crank up the temp to 78, you most likely will have a massive die off of those critters that cannot handle the higher temp.

 

[Finn1018]

One thing that hasn't been discussed is temperature. If you soak the rock and get bacteria and critters on it, those are temperate organisms. Just as you have many species adjusted to life in the bay, you have totally different species in tropical water. For example, you will not find a queen angel near Baltimore or a white perch near Key West. let's say the bay water today is 65 degrees. You put it in a tank and crank up the temp to 78, you most likely will have a massive die off of those critters that cannot handle the higher temp.

Good point. Temperature of my part of the water is actually 78 degrees. I believe it stays this way plus or minus 3 degrees up until early September

 

[fish farmer]

Good point. Temperature of my part of the water is actually 78 degrees. I believe it stays this way plus or minus 3 degrees up until early September

You may even see tropical species up that far in the summer. People catch butterfly fish, queen angels, etc all the way up to Rhode Island, they travel up in Gulf Stream, probably as larvae and settle out in the shallows. I once found a butterfly in Rhode Island that was in 55 degrees in October, tempered to mid 70's in about three hours. It did survive a few weeks in my aggressive FO. I did a similar seed of Narragansett bay stones in my FO years ago, I got lots of amphipods and such from the collection.

 

[Azedenkae]

Hahaha, all these additional factors brought up makes me so much more curious about how the process will go.

@Finn1018, defo keep us updated with how this goes. I'd love to see as much metrics taken at as many intervals (especially points of changes) as possible.

 

[mech0522]

Nice you should definitely try it, as long as you have a quarantine/observation set up! Have you tried checking the salinity?

no but next time i go diving will do

 

[MIchael10101]

Is it legal to take live rock from the ocean? In Florida to aquaculture rock I think you have to have a permit. If a game warden sees you, you might have a problem explaining what you're doing.

 

[landlubber]

Is it legal to take live rock from the ocean? In Florida to aquaculture rock I think you have to have a permit. If a game warden sees you, you might have a problem explaining what you're doing.

i am only assuming this but i would expect that being its basically "reef" you'd need proper cites permits to harvest ocean rock legally

 

[andiesreef]

this is such a cool idea, definitely following along. bacteria from what i've heard are pretty temperature tolerant for the most part so jumping a few degrees shouldn't be too big of an issue for a good chunk of them.

and the small aquaponic filter gardens sound so interesting. running activated carbon with the rocks should help remove leftover pollutants though.

 

[burningmime]

My impression is that teh salinity and temperature differentces are such that most hitchikers would just die and turn into nitrogen factories. Could be some bacteria transfer though.

 

[dhnguyen]

Yeah you might want to see about talking to the department of fish and game in your state first.

In many places, it is illegal to take anything from the beach or water.

 

[KrisReef]

In estuaries the water near the bottom maybe much higher salinity than the surface water. They use to talk about the "saltwater wedge" with fresh water on top and the wedge moving upstream on the incoming tides.

I would probably just put the rock in a diving bag and put a line around it and drop it off of a dock for a few weeks. Rocks in a bag hanging from a dock would probably not equal "live reef" for a reasonable game warden but not all game wardens are reasonable.

Ligia, aks sea roaches are not good reef food but they may be enjoyed by an agressive carnavore, wrasse or puffer or trigger fishes, maybe.

 

[Paul B]

My last marina was in regular salt water and I used to hang a very frayed piece of natural rope in the water under my boat. The thing totally filled with amphipods, copepods etc and I would swirl the thing in a bucket and dump it in my tank. Fantastic stuff and if everyone did that there would be no need for a disease thread.

I don't quarantine or worry about pests so I have no problems doing that and have been doing it in my 50 year old reef which never had a disease in about 40 years.

I can't do it now because I am at the delta of a river and where I am is fresh water. It doesn't turn salt for a mile or so but I miss the influx of organisms.

If you are a quarantine nut and worry about all that stuff, you shouldn't do it.

PS I am in New York on Long Island