808jaymakoa
Active Member
Online, lfs, craigslist, Fiji, Florida, live vs dead, cured vs uncured, etc etc. what do you reccomend and why.
Live Rock Reccomendation
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SeahorseKeeper
Where's the mysis?
I recommend dead with a few select live pieces from an extremely trusted source. I like to avoid unwanted hitchhikers, but like to use the live rock to add some diversity. When I setup the seahorse tank, I went with all dead. The reason for this was to avoid hitchhikers that could be harmful to seahorses. The cycle seemed to take forever.
KSzegi
Valuable Member
I'm the opposite - I vastly prefer live rock! Have used both live, dead and a combination and will always use live rock in the future. Actually, I feel the best rock that I have gotten is Florida rock from Richard at Tampa Bay Saltwater. When I used his rock to set up a large (180) tank a few years ago, it was amazing how quickly the tank cycled, almost immediate, with little die-off and shortened time to tank stability. I have coral and inverts that came on the rock that is still alive today 4+ years later. The amount of life on, and in, the rock was amazing. Some of that was great, some of that was "unwanted" hitchikers too. Yes, it took me several months to rid the tank of what I considered the unwanteds ..... but in my opinion the good far outweighed the bad. When I upgraded and transferred that tank I wanted to add additional rock ..... I decided to try some other live rock and got some Manado. While I got a few pretty nice shapes to add to the scape, I'm glad I didn't go with it for the entire amount of rock - the rock was not nearly as full of nooks and crannies and holes as the TBS rock. And not even close to having the amount of life on it. Also, even though it was 'cured', it still had a lot of die off and took a bit of time.
After starting that 180 with TBS rock, I started up a 90 ...... and thought I would try 'dead' rock to avoid the bad hitchikers. I will gladly trap hitchikers instead of fighting with phosphates leaching, extended cycling and longer maturing time.
After starting that 180 with TBS rock, I started up a 90 ...... and thought I would try 'dead' rock to avoid the bad hitchikers. I will gladly trap hitchikers instead of fighting with phosphates leaching, extended cycling and longer maturing time.
