Live rock? Is it worth the risk?

[Squishie89]

Well, I am going to go against the tide a bit here (pun possibly intended) and say no to LR. I did live rock, ended up infested with hydroids. I am restarting with dry rock. I will miss the cool critters that can come on liverock, but those pests can really mess you up.

 

[YellowFinsReef]

Live rocks are super fun! I enjoy seeing the critters that exist in the ocean interact with one another in my tank when established. I've done both before, so here is my experience. Live rock is way more expensive than dry rock, but live rock will cycle your tank way faster than dry rock will. If you care about cost, go with dry rock, if you care about how "soon" you can cycle the tank, go with live rocks.

Recently, I've cautioned myself against live rock, because you really don't know what kind of creatures are lurking within those crevices of the live rocks. I've found 1-4"worms that I didn't know if they were fireworms or bristle worms. I seeded my tank with aiptasia through live rocks. I started noticing my wrasses kept getting damaged while they slept in the sand - there were no aggression between wrasses and had lived together well. When I found my femininus wrasse dead, that was my last straw. I'm pretty sure some creature from the rocks were taking nips of my wrasses, so I just threw the entire rock out and changed the sand bed. After that doing that, it seems like my wrasses are doing better and I haven't had any death since.

 

[YellowFinsReef]

Beautiful biodiverse gulf live rock. But, with that being said...
There's plenty of critters I wish never came with it. Mainly 3 different critters. Probably the mild and worst you could get.
From best to worst here goes.

1. Mantis & pistol shrimps. Very cool but 3 years later I still have a covert ops mantis. Cannot find him or trap him. I did catch an original one and a second one later. Cool creatures though. You know those clicky and popping noises!
2. Gorilla crabs. Need i say more. Such headaches catching them. I hate them lol. But easy if you bottle trap em'
1. And the worst ever... cirolanid isopod. Summer months apparently these buggers can be hitchhiking. Yes I verified 500times over and had to go fallow to starve them out to be sure. Its easy to mistake some other types but if you look carefully you will be able to make positive id. If you catch em in your filter socks like i did its not hard to examine. Find em with a cheap flashlight/ permanent red marker painted lense at nights. Dont worry about these unless you know you have em. It was a big setback a few months in to realize what i had in my tank. I think i waited 1.5 months for the lifecycle. Hard to recall almost 3 or more years ago.

I know they're not the same, but when I think of those cirolanid isopods, I think of that kid in Australia who got bloody feet after dipping at the beach. Those hitch hikers sound like they could be a pain though!

 

[Jerry Ebner]

I went live rock and live sand on my first reef tank and had plenty of pests . So my second tank dry rock has been curing in saltwater for 3 months with water changes. Dry sand as well. Not taking any risk. I will have an experiment of one tank with all the risks and one with minimal risk. I know the second tank will mature over as longer time but that's okay with me

 

[Rogergolf66]

Live rock is the way to go. That being said I cure the dry rock in bins for months and make it live rock my doing the cycle in the bins before adding to the tank

 

[Belgian Anthias]

The best live rock are the healthy corals you will be adding after they have been quarantined to remove hitch-hikers and pests. All bacteria needed to cultivate corals are in and on them end they will seed the rock. To seed nitrifiers, denitrifiers, mineralisers, one thus not need live rock. As a bio-filter live rock has a very low capacity due to the fact that the water transfer true the rock is very limited. Just realise how much from the original bacteria will survive the catch, transport in a boat heated by the sun, rinsed and cleaned, stocked for weeks, transported, rinsed and stocked again before entering the aquarium. The survivors from the original habitants are most probably eggs and endo-spores, The bacteria we need the most do not form endo-spores. if one can obtain good stone, less than a week old, it will contain a lot of hitch hikers.
If one can obtain real live rock it may be worth the risk and money but real live rock is something else as so called " live rock" mostly commercialised. I would not advice this for a first set-up as this real live rock will probably soon become base rock.
http://chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net/rock.html

My opinion one does NOT need so called "live rock" to maintain a healthy aquarium full of diversity. Every fish, every live form introduced and cultured, will bring in a lot of diversity.
A much better base to start with is some live cultures of different phytoplankton species, adding the food source to let them grow and the grazers to consume them ( copepods etc) and give it time, a lot of time.

 

[hatfielj]

I did find a black and white bristle like worm. He's in a separate container right now. I think he's not a good one. I plan on making a worm trap to see if there are more hiding in the rocks.

That looks like a bobbit worm to me. Definitely a bad guy if you plan on keeping fish

 

[hatfielj]

I used live rock in my current tank. Got it shipped directly from Jakarta, real, old school, indo-pacific rock. It's a rarity now a days. Used to be the most common way of doing it when I first got into the hobby 12 years ago and for years before that. I'm a big proponent of it if you can find it, but I'm also hesitant to recommend it for everyone, especially people first starting out. The reason being is that most people don't stay in the hobby long term and that results in a lot of wasted live rock. It's destructive to the reef to remove live rock like this from the ocean. If you are lucky enough to have it, it should be preserved and protected like our corals. I plan on keeping my current live rock, even after I change tanks. I'll keep it in a rubbermaid tub if I don't have tank.
Anyway, I think the best compromise between using real live rock and dry rock in terms of sustainability is to use dry rock that's been cultured in the ocean. There are companies that do this now fortunately and there are very few who actually collect old, mature, natural live rock. You get all the benefits of it being in the ocean for months or years and at the same time it's not destructive to the reef.

 

[Belgian Anthias]

If one needs a base for diversity ask for to send you by 24h express delivery some fresh harvested seagrass and seaweed with some bottom sand , some scraping from real live rock, putted in a bag without leaving the water. . +- 100 grams is more than enough.
On vacation on the seashore? One can bring this home, no cites.
From the Red sea, 5 hrs flight for me, I can harvest what I want in the morning and put it in a tank at home less than 12 hrs later. Self made rock and gravel seeded with this is as good as any live rock or live sand.

100kg so called live rock = 1200€ = 2weeks vacation All In for 2 persons at Marsa Allam;

 

[accline]

I’ve always used live rock. I love the diversity of creatures and we would even get the flashlight at night to look at the interesting creatures. Had many hair algae outbreaks, but this last one (which was really bad due to family crisis and no tank maintenance) my LFS recommended a sea hare. That was the best creature I’ve ever owned. He cleaned everything in about a month and was fun to watch. We named Waldo, because we could never find him. Once he had eaten through all the hair algae, we took him back. I still miss him. He has to have the algae to live and my tank was bare of the stuff.

 

[robert teseo]

live rock only, packed in water at the source, not in wet paper.

 

[Javamahn]

Anyone here remember Marshall island LR? I remember hearing that it became available when they blew up a reef to make room for the Princes new yacht which could not fit in the old slip. I hope we have come a long way from blowing up reefs.

 

[DanConnor]

In several decades of reefing, my current tank my is the only one with all dry rock. It's almost 2 years old and I would say it is just now reaching a really stable state. And i still managed to get aiptasia and every kind of algae anyway.

If I could go back in time, I would do a base with dry- the pukani brs sells is particularly nice, and cover it with good live rock.

Dealing with pests is part of reefing, and you can power through them. Dip and coral additions though, as they can bring in the more serious problems.

 

[alton]

Great accounts from members either way you decide just take your time. The only thing I want to add is what is live rock? To me it is something like KP or Tampa Bay or others that fly in over night, so it is fresh and alive. Most of my LFS sell their version of live rock that they paid a $1 a pound for when someone tore down their tank. And then you can tell they add dry rock to top off the mix. No one seems to order in fresh live rock any more

 

[dmunyon8]

If you’re really worried about the potential pest of live rock you could quarantine it, just like anything else.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Great accounts from members either way you decide just take your time. The only thing I want to add is what is live rock? To me it is something like KP or Tampa Bay or others that fliy it in over night, so it is fresh and alive. Most of my LFS sell their version of live rock that they paid a $1 a pound for when someone tore down their tank. And then you can tell they add dry rock to top off the mix. No one seems to order in fresh live rock any more

After what has occurred in Fiji and Hawaii this is especially true. The live rock ive seen recently at the lfs has been vat cured on location.

Then Theres a petco near me that sells LR, i dont want to know what that is [emoji23].

 

[Wicky48]

My advice to you is don't be afraid of live rock but cautious. As said before in this thread it adds a lot of biodiversity to your tank. That being said I never cycle a tank with live rock as that can kill a lot of that life on the rock you want to have. I would first cycle with dry rock about 2 weeks then start adding pieces, one at a time, one a week for about another 2 1/2 months. This will make it easier on your live rock and it is much easier to examine one piece at a time for unwanted critters such as Aiptasia and possibly Mantis Shrimp, I have heard of these being found after eating your fish and the person didn't know they were there, probably brought in with live rock. As well examine any pieces for feather algae or unwanted algae as these can spread quickly and believe me can be hard to get rid of. (Hint- to get rid of feather algae you can use the dust from aragonite bag, put in tank, tank will become cloudy but fish and corals will be fine, feather algae will die off almost overnight.) I tried this and worked like a charm. The thing is just examine the rock you are putting in, if you see something on there ask the salesperson what it is and if they don't know choose another piece until you can find out for sure what it is. For a truly great reef you will need live rock no doubt just do it slowly and be picky. Cheers!

 

[BantyRooster97]

Live rock all the way, Look into Tampa Bay Live Rock, it is awesome

 

[steveaus10]

live rock is the only way to go for me

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

It's destructive to the reef to remove live rock like this from the ocean.

I want to point out that dry rock sold by BRS and others is harvested the exact same way as live rock and is no better for the ocean. BRS gets their Pukani they sell from Walt Smith in Fiji. It is the same stuff he used to ship live, but instead it's dried in the sun and shipped dry. The only dry rock that has no effect on the environment or ocean is the terrestrial rock like Marco rock that is excavated. Also, the rock from companies like Tampa Bay and KSP is cultured (man made) rock that is seeded in the ocean for a couple years on their own plot in the sea and harvested. Has no negative impact on the ocean or reefs.