Live Rock 2

[Todd White]

I'm not going to be doing much business with my current supplier. So my question is this. I'm planning on buying live rock, coral, fish from online sources. I've seen some things on "dipping", since everything I have came from the same guy straight from his tanks I've trusted him. But online I'm a little leary what is dipping and how do I do it? Do I need another tank just for dipping?

 

[Oscar47f]

Hi! Great Question! Now i don't recommend any live rock because you will t some point get pests from live rock (aptasia, flat worms, bristle worms ect.) I would buy dry rock if anything.. And its good practice to always dip your corals no matter where they come from.. First thing you need is a coral dip like Coral RX, or Revive or simply just some iodine... Then you need a container for dipping just a plastic supper wear or anything like that will work.. just put your coral and water in the container then add the dip as recommended, i recommend getting a turkey baster and gently blowing water all around the coral that your dipping to get any hitch hikers off... Then after about 10 min put them in quarantine or your main display the whole process takes about 10-15 minutes

 

[Todd White]

Hi! Great Question! Now i don't recommend any live rock because you will t some point get pests from live rock (aptasia, flat worms, bristle worms ect.) I would buy dry rock if anything.. And its good practice to always dip your corals no matter where they come from.. First thing you need is a coral dip like Coral RX, or Revive or simply just some iodine... Then you need a container for dipping just a plastic supper wear or anything like that will work.. just put your coral and water in the container then add the dip as recommended, i recommend getting a turkey baster and gently blowing water all around the coral that your dipping to get any hitch hikers off... Then after about 10 min put them in quarantine or your main display the whole process takes about 10-15 minutes

Wow great response thank you. So let me add. My supplier is adamant that I need another 100 lbs before I start again with coral. If I went dry rock, would this slow the process? How long does it take to become live rock?

 

[MasterBacon]

What size tank do you have? How much rock is currently in there? Corals don't need rock unless your bioload is large or your raising the level of mounting for better par. FTS? age of tank? current fish?

 

[MasterBacon]

Dry rock will become live with bacteria quickly on the surface. It will take a while for the anaerobic bacteria that converts nitrates to nitrogen deep inside the rock.

 

[Shaun Sweeney]

Based on everything I've read, there is no longer any need to follow a formula of "so many gallons = so many pounds" of live rock. Seems that in the end, the rock eventually becomes a phosphate collector so we need something (like marine pure) to facilitate all the good micro organisms, but it should be something that can be removed and cleaned. Meanwhile, I'm leaning towards some real serious dipping of my existing live rock collection. Only to happy to hear other views on this.

 

[Todd White]

What size tank do you have? How much rock is currently in there? Corals don't need rock unless your bioload is large or your raising the level of mounting for better par. FTS? age of tank? current fish?

It's a 180 tall, currently at around 120 lbs live rock. My fish count is at 13 fish

 

[MasterBacon]

It's a 180 tall, currently at around 120 lbs live rock. My fish count is at 13 fish

Lightning ?

 

[MasterBacon]

Definitely don't need another 100#

 

[Todd White]

Lightning ?

Led

 

[Oscar47f]

In my opinion you can stay with the amount of live rock that you have as long as your other filtration media can keep up with the bioload... And adding dry rock typically takes a couple weeks to turn into live rock if and only if the population of bacteria is kept at a growing rate with bioload.