Live Rock or Dry Rock

Chris Gouldy · Oct 7, 2015

I am currently in the process of planning and setting up my 1st reef aquarium. I'm wanting to do it right the first time so I'm taking time to research everything I can. I'm trying to decide which is better live rock or dry rock? Which one would you suggest?

I've read that the benefit of dry rock is that you limit the unwanted creatures that come with live rock. On one website I read that dry rock didn't have the nutritional and biological filter capabilities that live rock has. I also read on another that dry rock after being in tank several weeks will become same as live rock. Just trying to decide which would be better for me to use.

mochaclownlover · Oct 7, 2015

Dry rock would be your best bet in the long run because it's cheaper than live rock, 100% pest free, and you can drill and/or epoxy with ease. If you use live sand you will be getting some of the beneficial bacteria you want.

abecker · Oct 7, 2015

I went with dry rock on my tank when I set it up mainly because of cost and fear of those unwanted critters. I cycled it with ammonia and added a bottle of bacteria and in a few weeks it was ready to go. It looked a little sterile for a few weeks until some algae and such started to grow on it.

rajkovich207 · Oct 7, 2015

I've set up several tanks in my short span in this hobby. My first tank was LR that was filled with pests, my last tank was dry rock. I originally had trouble cycling the tank with dry rock, after it did I didn't like that I didn't have any critters in the tank, and on top of that the rock never colored up. In fact I bought a few golf ball to baseball sized rocks to get it to cycle and try to get some critters in the tank. In my humble opinion live rock is worth the gamble. Do some research or bring someone with you who know when a rock is no good. I set up my most recent tank with live rock and so far couldn't be happier. I've learned in my nearly 5 years in the hobby most pests are more of a nuisance or an eyesore than detrimental. Not to mention 90% of the pests we come across have no problem finding their way into your tank on a frag, fragplug/rock like the mariculture pieces come on, or even your fish!
Just be careful be observant and most importantly be patient. If you come across something that you think is no good, post about it. There's enough people on this forum that your question will be answered. I for one, being the noob I was and am have made countless mistakes and fought just as many pests. The biggest advice I can offer is if you find a majano on a rock or plug, pull it asap or kill it with fire. I've seen those things take over! Fire may be overkill but I have found them on a rock or plug, pulled it out, scraped what I can of it and took my handheld torch (think wind proof lighter) and shoot the area where it was for a couple seconds as long as I wouldn't hurt any corals doing so.

rajkovich207 · Oct 7, 2015

Holy cow that last post was a book lol. I won't be offended if you skip it lol.

Jeff Kurtz · Oct 7, 2015

Also, there's always the option of using a little of both. You can build the foundation of your reef structure with dry rocks and overlay them with some nice, gnarly live pieces.

Lenny_S · Oct 7, 2015

I do 100% dry rock for all the reasons mentioned in the previous posts, no pests, cheaper, easier to shape and aquascape. Ultimately you have much greater control and can start with a blank canvas. Once the tank is cycled, it's pretty easy to get some coralline algae going. Just scrape some from an established tank and transplant it to the new tank, if you maintain your calcium or use one of the coralline accelerators it will cover the rock (and the glass unfortunately) in no time.

Vivid Aquariums · Oct 8, 2015

Dry rock is a safer bet because you won't risk introducing any unwanted pests into your reef aquarium. It does take longer to cycle a tank started with dry rock but I believe its worth the extra wait. You can always buy live rock and dry it out or just use manufactured reef rock.

Dave