Experience with dry/dead rock?

[mr. penguin]

I'm breaking down my 29gal to set up a 75gal, so I'm going to need more rock. My LFS recommended dry/dead rock since it is cheaper and easier to arrange. Also, they said I can use my current live rock to mix with this dead rock to bring it "alive" during the cycling process.

Does anyone have experience with dry/dead rock or using live rock to bring it alive? Pros and cons? Is it better to just spend more on live rock, or is it okay to mix the two since I'm starting over and have time to let it cycle?

 

[AquaFX Verified Sponsor]

Having several tanks at home, I have used several methods. I have bought live rock from a LFS and through craigslist locally; I have also used dry rock and mixed with some of my live rock. The dry rock, did enable us to take our time setting up and getting the rock to look how we wanted. Other pluses include no unwanted pests or hitchhikers on the dry rock (like aptasia). That tank we set up over a year ago- all of which now is covered in coralline algae and is now live rock.

~Misty

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

i just ordered some Pukani Dry Rock. I have seen some nice tanks with it. I am going to acid bath my rocks. Then I am going to cycle them for four weeks in a container with flow and a heater. The acid bath will remove all organics, and etch the rock to "supposedly" burn off the phosphates that leached in. I am going to more than likely cycle mine for 4 weeks so they are ready to go right into the display as I a Removing all or most of my old rock. If you are just adding rock to your tank you could rinse the rock really well a few times then add to the tank to cycle it. Bulk Reef supply has nice looking rock FYI.

 

[erk]

When I setup my tank, I went with a large piece of dry pukani and some reef saver rock. Once the tank had cycled, I added some live rock to seed the tank. I will definitely do this when I upgrade. Makes aquascaping a lot easier. You can cut, chisel, and cement the pieces together with no worries. Yes, it takes longer to seed the dry rock with life, but if you have enough live rock in your current tank it shouldn't take very long.

 

[ydarr]

If it's ok, I'd like to ask a question about dry rock vs live rock when setting up a tank. I hope you guys don't mind We have yet to set up our tank - it's in the works though. I purchased dry rock a while back. Can we just use the dry rock only to set-up/cycle, or would you guys recommend putting in some live in there too? The reason we moved away from live, is because we made a HUGE mistake and purchased some live for our 55g tank from a guy off Craigslist. We had a HORRIBLE bloom of green hair algae that we were not able to get rid of it. Sadly we dismantled the tank several years ago and in the last year got the fever again. We have purchased live from a local reef store, but we had to deal with aptasia - needless to say, we are live rock weary. What would you guys recommend?

 

[Thunderfan]

I got my rock from Marcos rocks. I bought the dry rock and love it. It has no organic matter on it so no need to cure it. The only down side i can see is it takes longer to get the coralline covered. I put a small rock with nice coralline on it in i set it up. Now a little over 2 months later i am seeing some purple spots popping up. Another couple months i would think I'll be covered. I also used fritz zyme turbostart 900 when i set up and i cycled in a little over a week. Anything i set up from now on my rock will come from Marcos rock. Had bought some pukani and it was filthy. Sold it and did only Marcos. I wanted to go a little cheaper and also i wanted to take no chances with hitchhikers. I did a 29 bio cube a few years so with live rock and thought aptesia and shrooms taking everything over for a long time. No thank you.

 

[Kennyb1]

Realistically anything you put in there will become "live" after a while. That just means it has the presence of nitrifying bacteria. Whether it be a hot wheels, a toupee, or a hunk of rock if there's something to provide waste in the tank the tank will cycle and the nitrifying bacteria will cling to whatever's there. Personally I believe it to be best to use dry rock when cycling a tank to keep any unwanted pests out of your tank. That ounce of prevention is worth WAY more than the pound of cure.

 

[PatW]

Dry rock will get the appropriate bacteria when cycled. I guess the spores for the bacteria are pretty ubiquitous.

Now you can seed coralline algae from scrapings of it.

If you want more complex fauna in your tank like marine worms, you need to seed your tank with lsome live rock after yor dry rock has cycled. The problem with this is you might introduce something like mantis shrimp or other undesirables.