Live rock vs clean

harthag12 · Mar 19, 2019

Morning, I need peoples opinions. I'm hoping to get water in my new tank after an eight year hiatus this weekend. The tank is an Innovative marine 100g & I have another 65 JBJ AIO I'll be setting up. I was prepared to go with dry rock just because of cost & ease of setup however I feel like I'll be missing interesting things on the rock. Last night I went to a local fish store and they had live rock for 1.99/lb, initial glance it looked okish however one coral tank was full of aiptasia & their main large red sea display tank which looked nice also had a considerable amount of aiptasia.

Would you purchase purchase live rock based on observing the other tanks & risk it for that price or would you buy I believe it's Caribsea shelf rock on Amazon for roughly $2.00 a lb and play it safe. If I go for the live rock would you do anything special to inspect it or with it? I like the idea of live rock I'm just a bit concerned. Thanks in advance.

ihavecrabs · Mar 19, 2019

I would buy a majority of dry rock and cycle it slowly. Separately I would purchase a bit of live rock from a LFS/Hobbyist and stick it in a 10g tank to quarantine and observe it. Ensure there is nothing you would not like in your main display and observe over the course of a month or so. It is much easier to treat and remove bubble algae, aptasia, etc from a small rock in QT than in the main display where it can spread more easily.

When I buy rock, I normally always get it from local hobbyists getting out of the hobby. Some great deals!

Good luck with your new tank.

homer1475 · Mar 19, 2019

Personally if their tanks are infested with aiptasia, you can almost bet their live rock vats are too.

Sound advice from above poster ^^

harthag12 · Mar 19, 2019

Thanks for the replies, my gut is telling me to go dry & I do like the idea of a small amount put into a seperate tank to observe; homer I'm sure you're right, it's really not a great looking shop cleanliness wise as well, I want to support them because they're local but I think it's a nightmare waiting to happen.

mta_morrow · Mar 19, 2019

Started with dry rock 13 months ago. Still adding pieces here and there as the tank matures and takes form.

I personally do not risk what MAY be introduced via live rock.

Lostreefin · Mar 19, 2019

I was super paranoid about introducing nuisance species, so I started with dry rock. I think it is part of the reason it has taken so long to get coralline algae to grow and my reef to take off. I think on my next build I might just go for Florida live rock and take my chances or seed at least like suggested above.

mta_morrow · Mar 19, 2019

Lostreefin said:
I was super paranoid about introducing nuisance species, so I started with dry rock. I think it is part of the reason it has taken so long to get coralline algae to grow and my reef to take off. I think on my next build I might just go for Florida live rock and take my chances or seed at least like suggested above.

I never understand what the big deal is with coralline. I always add urchins to eat it to keep Rick surface area porous. I still have it all over but the ur him keeps it in check.

I started w dry rock in 2 tanks and had coralline within 3 months from frag plugs I guess.

scott11106 · Mar 19, 2019

i used and i am a true believer that
real reef rock (http://realreefrock.com) is a really good live rock with no negative hitchhikers as they are man-made and cultured and it was the best thing i ever did when starting my tank. other than that i think dry everything and wait is the next best option.

Hot2na · Mar 19, 2019

Fwiw: real reef=fake...carib sea=fake...get "formerly alive" rock soak it in ro/di water with a polyfilter to absorb phosphates which it will most DEFINETLY have...then seed with one of the live bacteria products....

Lowell Lemon · Mar 19, 2019

I believe it will take you much longer to achieve the biological diversity to mature your system and make it ready for both fish and corals by using dead dry rock. At some point you will have to seed the dead rock with some live rock or specimen rock to get the biodiversity you need. Why not just use good quality live rock to begin with? Tampa Bay Saltwater or something of that order works much better in my experience.

I am amazed by all the people who nuke the rock every time an algae bloom or whatever shows up. This is part of the natural process. The only way to shorten that process is to use stable live rock that has already matured, preferably from the ocean.

mta_morrow · Mar 19, 2019

I started with base rock from reefcleaners, and Tonga shelf from Marine Depot

Seamore2001 · Mar 19, 2019

I prefer coralline algae because where it grows, nuisance algae doesn't. It's also a pretty good indicator of overall health of the system, is attractive, and can bind a surprisingly large amount of nutrients when it's covering the rockwork. Getting live rock with coralline algae is a nice benefit and looks, IMO, much better than sterile bone-white dead rock that soon turns green with hair algae.

Overall I'm a fan of live rock and the bacteria and other life it brings to a system - things that are by definition not available with dead rock, which must be seeded with life over the course of months or years in order to provide the same level of filtration as LR. Live rock can really speed up the cycle on your tank and keep it stable long term. I've rarely encountered problems with nuisance hitchhikers after having used hundreds of pounds of LR over the years.

That said, it'd have to be very special rock for me to accept aiptasia on it - just a few are easily dealt with, but all over the rock? No thanks.

homer1475 · Mar 19, 2019

Lowell Lemon said:
I believe it will take you much longer to achieve the biological diversity to mature your system and make it ready for both fish and corals by using dead dry rock. At some point you will have to seed the dead rock with some live rock or specimen rock to get the biodiversity you need. Why not just use good quality live rock to begin with? Tampa Bay Saltwater or something of that order works much better in my experience.

I am amazed by all the people who nuke the rock every time an algae bloom or whatever shows up. This is part of the natural process. The only way to shorten that process is to use stable live rock that has already matured, preferably from the ocean.

If I start another tank, TBS will be my goto for rock! I am a true believer in biodiversity, since starting this tank with all dry, I believe it's where a lot of my early problems(never had an issue with LR) came from, and why I don't have all the microfauna I usually have.

It does come at a cost, but it's well worth it in my eyes. Of course if your on a budget, this may break it. lol

harthag12 · Mar 19, 2019

That's the problem, the TBS rock would be my dream rock to start with. I love reading the threads & tanks that start with it and the various critters that come with it. I purchased alot of expensive items for the tank & have basically come to the point where budget matters unfortunately. I'll revisit TBS to look at prices but if I have to stick to budget I'll go dry rock, I don't think there was anything special with this stores live rock other than price & very likely free aiptasia.

Jekyl · Mar 19, 2019

Some of the most successful reefers on here recommend as many hitchhikers as possible. The negative doesn't outweigh the positive according to the veterans

EmptyWallet · Mar 19, 2019

It's a tough debate.

I started with dry rock and it's been a relentless battle with nuisance algae - brought me to breaking point on a few occasions (I have an 8ft tank full of rock). A year later, it's about 1/3rd covered in coralline and if I let it 2/3rds covered in GHA (near zero phosphate/nitrate). I spend 5 hours a week toothbrushing the GHA back, week after week, month after month - tried everything, nothing works (over the long term) - chaeto fuges running Kessil H380's, GFO, blackouts, moderate use of hydrogen peroxide, even baking rock in hot sun - nukes the coralline too and guess which algae grows back first when returned to the tank?

About 6 months ago I decide to quarantine some live rock to introduce more Coralline. Magnificent pieces 'full of life', different algaes, sponges, macro algae, simply magnificent to look at. They did 45 days fallow, constantly checking for pests, went into the tank. To this day not a spec of nuisance algae grows on them. I declared never to use dry rock again.

THEN, Zoa's started disappearing, mushrooms started disappearing, I eventually caught a crab (how he got through my pedantic quarantine period is beyond me) in the night, chopping and slurping down my torch coral like a bowl of spaghetti. Was a pain to catch and remove. All good for a while. Then again, prized 'designer Zoa' frags at $25 a polyp disappearing - again found another crab. Very painful to catch and remove. Now many months later no loss of corals, but still many hours of GHA removal on the dry rock as I patiently wait for thick coralline \ more corals to cover all rocks. I've decided now to completely rebuild my tank to minimise rock to light surface area or hire staff to fight the GFA back.

The decision becomes Nuisance creatures vs Nuisance algae? I still think I'd pick live rock if I had to start again (just for the light exposed top layer), do my best to Quaranteen out the pests, then offer up sacrifice corals to 'trap' pest crabs in the early months.

Baldguy · Mar 19, 2019

I understand wanting to start with dry/dead rock to avoid pests. But I don't know anyone that's been in the hobby more than a year or two that hasn't had to deal with aptasia and other pests whether they started with live or dry rock. That doesn't mean I'd take rock covered in aptasia but I'll take live rock and deal with the pests that might come with it because you'll have those pests sooner or later anyway.

Jekyl · Mar 19, 2019

I'd rather have a good immune system than to never be exposed and die from a flu. Feels like fish should be the same way. Let natural immune systems be healthy.

TheBackAndForth · Mar 19, 2019

I seeded my dry rock with some formerly dry cycled rock from a very trusted LFS. Ended up with great live rock. no bad algae's. wonderful bristle stars, copepods, and coralline, and nothing to pull my hair out.

Four years ago I started with live rock. Got bubble algae and aiptasia. Never again worst ever.

It's for this reason I only buy corals from fantastic vendors (wwc, boom corals, etc, quarantine them, and dont put anything else solid in my tank