Live rock info

[White Hair]

First, is it a good idea to buy live rock online,went to LFS today, rock was 6.99 a pound,if you buy online, where, and how much per pound, the local guy keeps theirs in a water tank, he said just put the rock in the tank without curing,? Anything else on rock that i need to know,thanks

 

[Malifry97]

Unless the rock is aqua-cultured base dry rock I would still cure it just to be safe.

 

[White Hair]

Unless the rock is aqua-cultured base dry rock I would still cure it just to be safe.

if i were to put the tank and it wasn’t ready, what could happen

 

[lapin]

The reasons for using live rock is the rock is put into salt water to develop the bacteria needed to process ammonia and nitrite in your reef tank. So if the rock was only in for a few days it might not have enough bacteria to do its job. So you would have to feed it and wait for it to become full of bacteria.
If the rock was live out of the ocean and it was out of water for quite some time. There will be die off of things that will cause an ammonia spike in your tank which can kill fish and inverts as well as corals. SO this live rock needs to be cured in salt water to make it safe.
As far as pests you can get those from any rock put in your tank, Ocean, LFS or rock that a coral comes on. Exception is dry mined reef rock from centuries old dry reefs.

 

[Malifry97]

if i were to put the tank and it wasn’t ready, what could happen

You could have many different types of pests that you do not want.

 

[Malifry97]

The reasons for using live rock is the rock is put into salt water to develop the bacteria needed to process ammonia and nitrite in your reef tank.

Hence why the base rock would be aqua cultured which is artificially produced live rock

 

[Malifry97]

You could have many different types of pests that you do not want.

Aquaculture means it is base dry rock that is made into live rock through supplements this makes it so that there are no pests. Regular live rock is taken from the ocean so it can have many kind of pests

 

[mwrobers]

I've never really seen good liverock at any lfs; could just be bad luck. I've bought from gulfliverock.com several times with great results. The pictures on the site are very representative of the rock I received. Site is a bit dated, but shipping is included in the price. For instance, get 20 lbs for $120 or 50 lbs for $275. ...and no tax!

Now, this rock is not shipped fully submerged in water and takes 2-3 days depending on location. I've always dipped in bucket of tank water before placing in tank. I have a FOWLR, so I like the different types of maco algae on the rock.

Tbsaltwater.com is also good. More expensive, but the rock is sent via air freight fully submerged in water. It's obviously more expensive

Both are aquacultured from the Gulf.

 

[White Hair]

I've never really seen good liverock at any lfs; could just be bad luck. I've bought from gulfliverock.com several times with great results. The pictures on the site are very representative of the rock I received. Site is a bit dated, but shipping is included in the price. For instance, get 20 lbs for $120 or 50 lbs for $275. ...and no tax!

Now, this rock is not shipped fully submerged in water and takes 2-3 days depending on location. I've always dipped in bucket of tank water before placing in tank. I have a FOWLR, so I like the different types of maco algae on the rock.

Tbsaltwater.com is also good. More expensive, but the rock is sent via air freight fully submerged in water. It's obviously more expensive

Both are aquacultured from the Gulf.

so from gulf live rock you don’t actually have to cure

 

[mwrobers]

so from gulf live rock you don’t actually have to cure

There will be die-off during shipping, so there's some risk of amonia spiking. If it's a new tank that's just starting out I would rinse and throw it in. In addition to macro algae, my rock came with bristle worms, snails, sponges, copepods, one sea urchin, unknown coral.

You will have to watch out for aiptasia and other possible pests which is why some cure/observe. I've always had good luck with peppermint shrimp taking care of it. Never had any pistol shrimp, but it's possible.

There are pros and cons. A lot of life, but maybe not all what you want (especially if you're setting up a reef).

 

[MTBake]

I ordered from gulfliverock.com. Got lots of life on the rock. Sponges, macro algae, feather dusters, limpets, worms, pods, 2 different types of corals and a mantis shrimp. It took about a week for ammonia to read 0 due to die off from shipping. I highly recommend this route versus dry rock.

 

[BeejReef]

The issue with the LFS rock is mostly pests and or hitch hikers. Perhaps I was just lucky. The rock I bought from my lfs did indeed have a little aptasia, bubble algae, an asterina starfish, and many species of snails and feather dusters that were not apparent to my novice eyes when I bought it.

That said, none have been anything more than a minor annoyance and the LR has accelerated my tank's maturation easily by 4-6 months in the first year. I'll also never have to buy another snail with as fast as they're reproducing. Only a really shoddy, disreputable LFS would sell rock as "live" if it hadn't been wet for at least 3-4 weeks. Being cycled really shouldn't be a concern.

It's more of a risk/reward calculation each aquarist has to make. IMHO, unless you're seriously going to stringently QT and re-plug every coral, stringently qt and clean all your inverts and cuc, strictly qt all fish, accept nothing but guaranteed sterile chaetomorpha..... etc, etc.. you're going to get some unintended life like spaghetti worms and bristle worms anyhow, so you may as well start out with some live rock

 

[don_chuwish]

The adventure of LR fresh from the ocean sounds fun but I'm too cheap.
My preference is dry rock that I make into live rock myself. Put it all in a tub with circulation, heat and no light. I used styrofoam insulation as a lid to retain heat and reduce evaporation. Did weekly 100% water changes until the numbers looked good and then just let it run. Adding a little pellet food once in a while. This was all happening while I worked on getting everything else set up, so it went through that for about 2 months. Loved the pest free but ready to go LR at the end.

 

[ErinD]

The adventure of LR fresh from the ocean sounds fun but I'm too cheap.
My preference is dry rock that I make into live rock myself. Put it all in a tub with circulation, heat and no light. I used styrofoam insulation as a lid to retain heat and reduce evaporation. Did weekly 100% water changes until the numbers looked good and then just let it run. Adding a little pellet food once in a while. This was all happening while I worked on getting everything else set up, so it went through that for about 2 months. Loved the pest free but ready to go LR at the end.

Ok - dumb question - if it was dry, what grew on it?

 

[Malifry97]

Ok - dumb question - if it was dry, what grew on it?

Wondering the same thing.

 

[don_chuwish]

Ok - dumb question - if it was dry, what grew on it?

Wondering the same thing.

Beneficial nitrifying bacteria. That's all 'live' rock is at it's most basic level. Also it is thought that by letting that bacterial film develop on the rock in the dark makes it harder for unwanted algae to get a foothold later.