I want to hear from those who have used dry rock in their system. What did you do/not do that led to your success or failure? Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done differently? This isn’t meant to be a live vs dry discussion. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Also, I would love to see some pictures of some successful dry rock reefs!
The tl; dr is this - I would never use dry rock again nor would I recommend it. Unless you age it in parallel of your build or ahead of time.
The wall of text. Dry rock takes a long time to mature and that is the crux of the problem. It isn't that it is bad but depending on the rock type, how porous it is, the amount, nooks and crannies and everything in between know that it is going to take about two or more years to fully mature. And just to clear this piece up by fully mature I mean being able to pick up a piece of rock in the tank, turn it 180 degrees, and have it look exactly as the face of it that you just turned. That is correct. Lift it, turn it, and it should look the same. The next challenge is to take that rock out and split it in two. While it won't look like the surface or face of it the nooks and crannies should have established biological growth that is visible. If it isn't, well, back to the aging.
I used 170 lbs dry rock (Pukani) in my upgrade. I had an established 6 year old 40 breeder that I needed to move. Lots of rose bubble tip anemones, hammer corals (large colonies), and random soft corals mixed in. I set up the 210 gallon, setup the initial aquascape using the Pukani, and started the cycle in February. Fishless cycle and it took probably about 20 or days to be able to process 4 ppm of Ammonia in under 24 hours. In March I said ok lets figure up the skimmer and turn on the lights for a couple hours a day to get it going and ran this way through April. Checked parameters again and the tank is doing great. At this point I put in one of my Pajama cardinals to see how the tank was because his buddy was picking on him for some reason. Fish did amazing and the rock was starting to form visible corilian algae so figured it was time to move.
Long story short is that yes, the tank was fully cycled and starting its biological growth on the rocks as I expected. I performed the upgrade and was pretty happy with the results. As days passed by I started to see some downturn in the corals especially the hammer colonies and xenia of all things. I tried placements, removed corals showing visible signs of death and decay, but couldn't really trace it to anything bad. The only thing was larger tank, upgrade, more rocks, etc. Continued to pay attention, move things around, change water flow, and test. Still nothing obvious and then about 2 months after the merge of tanks it started to settle down. At this point the hardest hit was the hammer colonies and xenia which left me to 1 hammer and a small patch of xenia.
Where am I going with this. Well it is my experience that the dry rock takes time to fully mature. As I noted above today I can still reach in and move a rock with the back area looking as if it was brand new and only added today. That is what I mean by mature. Live rock, or rock aged in our aquariums over the years have that biological filter in bedded deep much like an old tree and its root system. BRS has been talking about this in a few of their videos as well with dry rock and bare bottom although they say about a year. It really does take a while to get inside everything and that is why I'd never use it again nor recommend it.
It saves money. It is fun to watch it evolve. New systems I would say sure, it is fine. Upgrading or merging I'd never use it. I feel in my case I should have used TBS rock like I originally wanted...
Few examples with crummy photos. You can sort of see the evolution of maturity on the rock is what I mean. It just takes a while - if the hobbyist is ok with that then great. It all works out
That whole planning thing and vision
Have a great day.
Dry rock, new (January 18th 2018):
Closer upfront (May 15 2018):
2019 May
August 2020:
