Live rock and adding corals

Sportbikemike1 · Mar 26, 2019

I've been out of the hobby for about 10 years now. Girlfriend and I decided to start small and got ourselves an AIO Biocube. We have all the basics (salt, chems, substrate, etc). We are going to start with mushrooms and zoanthids mainly but we have a question. We want to add live rock obviously but would it be better to start with LFS cycled rock and add corals or to get a shipment of wild live rock from a company like KP Aquatics or Rock and Reef? We really like the growth on the wild rocks but are worried how adding corals will affect what is already growing on wild rocks. Any help would be greatly appreciated

NY_Caveman · Mar 26, 2019

Nothing beats live rock from the ocean for diversity. Including diversity in beneficial bacteria. LFS live rock should be cycled, but have very little life otherwise.

Great avatar and welcome to R2R!

jtl · Mar 26, 2019

Doesn't really make any difference to the new corals. I have used live rock and dry rock with equal success. Nice thing about live rock is that you don't need to "cycle" it. Downside is it may have some life that you don't want.

Sportbikemike1 · Mar 26, 2019

My, well her, main concern is that she's worried about "hurting" the corals that will be attached to the live rock we get. We plan on adding additional corals over time but if for say, we were to have a nice, attached sponge or coral, would the corals we add overtake the ones that were originally brought into the tank on the rocks? She doesn't want to kill anything by adding something else

Mastiffsrule · Mar 26, 2019

Welcome to the club. Can’t add much on rock that has not been said, other than now is the best time.

NY_Caveman · Mar 26, 2019

Sportbikemike1 said:
My, well her, main concern is that she's worried about "hurting" the corals that will be attached to the live rock we get. We plan on adding additional corals over time but if for say, we were to have a nice, attached sponge or coral, would the corals we add overtake the ones that were originally brought into the tank on the rocks? She doesn't want to kill anything by adding something else

Just like in the ocean, all life will compete for space and resources. Some corals can be very aggressive. Over time as everything grows in a confined space some will thrive and others may diminish. Things like sponges will adapt. The best course is to research what you are adding and understand it may not always work out how you expect. In the end, your reef will evolve how it wants naturally. Enjoy what works and learn from what does not.

sfin52 · Mar 26, 2019

agree. Also some of the life on the lr may be aggressive as well. You can't go wrong with lr. The biodiversity is fantastic

sfin52 · Mar 26, 2019

some of the lfs will sell lr straight from the ocean as well. Its shipped to them and we buy it.

sfin52 · Mar 26, 2019

Robert says hi

TriggerFinger · Mar 26, 2019

I have nothing to add except I’m a happy owner of kp aquatics live rock. I did get some not so great hitchhikers but the rock is awesome and can’t be found in Midwest USA.

PatrickMorris · Mar 26, 2019

I did my first tank with ocean rock, if you go that route you want to use a brush and scrape off all the sponges, algae, and clams that are on there or you're going to kill everything else on the rocks with all the ammonia that you're going to end up making. I went BRS reef saver and Pukani on my next build and it was much easier to deal with.

Matt Carden · Mar 26, 2019

I have live rock from gulfliverock.com
The only thing I would do differently if get all live rock instead of 150 lbs dry and 17 lbs live.

Good luck and welcome to R2R!