Live rock vs dry rock AQUASCAPING

C-Reefer · May 2, 2018

Soooo there's been a billion and twelve different threads about the age long debate of live rock vs dry. Well, lots of people think that dry rock will not give you the biodiversity, and will take a very long time to be as stable as live rock. However, IME you have to throw together a scape when working with live rock, plus its harder to work with as its covered in algae, slick, and heavy and wet. In this aspect, dry is far better to work with, as it seems to slot together easier, and you can have it out of the tank. I guess you could have 80% of your scape dry rock, and just design it so the other 20% of live rock fits in, but thats still hard. What do you guys think, live vs dry for scaping?

Mr. Bill · May 2, 2018

I like using dry for a few reasons. As you mentioned, it's clean, lighter, and easier to work with. It's also cheaper per pound than live, and you're not paying for the water weight.

Even in the old days, it didn't take that long for dry rock to cure. In today's world, you can buy bottled supplements to speed the process dramatically. As far as biodiversity, you can get a few frags mounted on rock rubble and you'll have coralline and all the little critters spreading in no time. That's always been my experience.

reefwiser · May 2, 2018

Dry rock is like a blank rock with nothing to out compete algae. One can always scape with live rock. The problem one runs into with scaling with dry rock you make these big scapes that don’t com apart easily if one needs to remove the rock.

C-Reefer · May 2, 2018

Mr. Bill said:
I like using dry for a few reasons. As you mentioned, it's clean, lighter, and easier to work with. It's also cheaper per pound than live, and you're not paying for the water weight. Even in the old days, it didn't take that long for dry rock to cure. In today's world, you can buy bottled supplements to speed the process dramatically. As far as biodiversity, you can get a few frags mounted on rock rubble and you'll have coralline and all the little critters spreading in no time. That's always been my experience.

True, true. When I r escaped my 20, I liked one side of my live rock scape. I didn't like the other side. So I ordered some BRS reef ready rock, and fit it together without epoxy. Then I pulled the live rock out and replaced it with dry. I like the scape way better, and being able to take out rockd. However, I did have bad uglies again even after I'd gone through them before. The tank was almost 5 months old then. So I could definitely see about having problemd. But like you day if you do the additives like corraline, bacteria, pods, you may be able to get enough life to reproduce and fill it up. You could also get some gnarly rubble from your LFS and put it in the sump.

reefwiser said:
Dry rock is like a blank rock with nothing to out compete algae. One can always scape with live rock. The problem one runs into with scaling with dry rock you make these big scapes that don’t com apart easily if one needs to remove the rock.

I can definitely see thay. Like I said above, the ugliest far out competed my biodiversity I already had, and that's with half my LR still in the tank. You can scape with live rock, but IME yiu won't get as good of a scape as if you scape with dry, and we're able to really take your time with it as opposed to wet where you have to keep it damp.

Mr. Bill · May 2, 2018

C-Reefer said:
True, true. When I r escaped my 20, I liked one side of my live rock scape. I didn't like the other side. So I ordered some BRS reef ready rock, and fit it together without epoxy. Then I pulled the live rock out and replaced it with dry. I like the scape way better, and being able to take out rockd. However, I did have bad uglies again even after I'd gone through them before. The tank was almost 5 months old then. So I could definitely see about having problemd. But like you day if you do the additives like corraline, bacteria, pods, you may be able to get enough life to reproduce and fill it up. You could also get some gnarly rubble from your LFS and put it in the sump.

I can definitely see thay. Like I said above, the ugliest far out competed my biodiversity I already had, and that's with half my LR still in the tank. You can scape with live rock, but IME yiu won't get as good of a scape as if you scape with dry, and we're able to really take your time with it as opposed to wet where you have to keep it damp.

FTR, the only time I had an issue with nuisance algae was when I used live rock. In just 6 months, my tank became a GHA forest. Between that and the proliferation of aiptasia anemones, I had to tear it down, nuke everything, and start over. I will always take all assumed or implied risks with dry rock over going through that again.

SuperHaze57 · May 17, 2018

I used 15lbs of dry and later added another 8lbs of live rock in my 20g

revhtree · May 17, 2018

Man there are so many pros and cons for each but there are also a ton of the most awesome tanks that have done it both ways! I think what it boils down to is preference, cost, availability, etc.

Ashish Patel · May 21, 2018

LR is great for bacteria and microfauna and required for our reef tanks. However, for aquascaping its worthless unless you want pile of rock look. All you get is few medium heavy pieces and not much surface area for coral placement. Also I don't recommend breaking it bc of sulfur and when your spending a premium of LR your definately not going to want to break it apart. I would purchase dry rock (shapes, pukani, and real reef) that is nice and easy to work with dry and create something without a time limit. However, you still need to convert your dry rock into LR so you have to add some good LR to the tank. We have vendors creating rock that is amazing now why not use it. So id vote 50/50 mix of dry rock and LR for different reasons.

Older picture but I have 2 pieces of LR in the tank and sump so 50/50 mix. If I had to do it over i wouldnt have went with Reef saver rock, instead Fiji rock, Shapes by caribsea, and tonga would be my choice for their flat surfaces seem to detract growth of aiptasia and bubble algae.

Mr. Bill · May 21, 2018

reefwiser said:
Dry rock is like a blank rock with nothing to out compete algae. One can always scape with live rock. The problem one runs into with scaling with dry rock you make these big scapes that don’t com apart easily if one needs to remove the rock.

LOL

I've seen a lot of scapes that required dowels and cement that looked awesome, but I could foresee the problems there, too. Not a fan of having to move the entire scape in one piece.

One could always scape with dry rock, but leave room for a couple live additions. I would highly recommend buying the LR locally so you can inspect it first, though (which I didn't do).