Live rock question

[luapinicap]

Greetings,

I have a 130 gallon tank that’s about a year old. I started with dry rock and dry sand ( probably something I wouldn’t do again if I did it over). I am dealing with a bad case of dinoflagalletes but feel good about having a plan to get it under control.

I wish I had more bio diversity. I was wondering if there is any cons about ordering ten pounds of live rock from a place like gulf live rock and put it in my display. I don’t want much more then that because I really like my aqua scape but would hope that it would add some diversity I don’t think I would get without it.

I am aware there could be some pest in the rock but I’m starting to think that it’s worth it then having a system that started with all dry.

I am new so is there something that I am missing that could be a down side from this? Would ten pounds not really do anything?

Thank you !

 

[TX_REEF]

It should help. I did the same thing. I started dry, got a test done by aquabiomics 6 months in which flagged a severe lack of bacteria biodiversity. I bought a 10 pound rock from a well established local hobbyist, and also have some rock and live sand on the way from TBA.

 

[Jekyl]

The rock you order should be kept in a separate tank for a few days. During this time you'll deal with any die off and nutrient spikes. Also, you'll be able to weed out any unwanted pests like gorilla crabs.

The benefits always outweigh to negatives IMO

 

[luapinicap]

The rock you order should be kept in a separate tank for a few days. During this time you'll deal with any die off and nutrient spikes. Also, you'll be able to weed out any unwanted pests like gorilla crabs.

The benefits always outweigh to negatives IMo

The rock you order should be kept in a separate tank for a few days. During this time you'll deal with any die off and nutrient spikes. Also, you'll be able to weed out any unwanted pests like gorilla crabs.

The benefits always outweigh to negatives IMO

What about live sand if I did some of that does that need to be kept separate as well?

 

[Bruttall]

Anytime I see people talking bio diversity, and trying to establish that, often times in the advice no one mentions crustaceans. PODS MAN!! Iso, Ampi and Cope.

To me the best sign of a very healthy tank is not seeing the coraline spots on the back wall, though that is a GOOD SIGN, it's seeing the rocks "crawl" with all of them little critters that do so much for our tanks yet rarely get the credit they deserve.

I recently pulled a fist sized rock out of my tank and rinsed it in H2O2 just to see what washed out, sadly I killed dozens of very helpful little inverts in the process but it gave me a solid read on how healthy my tank really is.

I'm also a Baby Brine Shrimp dosing believer.

good luck to you.

 

[vlangel]

I am a believer in live rock and have never started a tank with dry dead rock. I also have never had dinos in my 25 years of keeping a reef tank.

However that being said, I watched a BRS video on tank start up methods and the tanks started with live rock at the end of a year had very little more diversity that those started other ways. Now I am guessing it was measuring how many different species and not the size of the populations.