Live rock vs dry rock.

endlessrealm · Mar 1, 2023

Im just getting into this hobby, and i want to know whats the best way to start off caribsea dry. Or live rock? My friend scaped his whole tank with live rock. My old saltwater tank crashed, and i dont want to repeat any mistaked. I had nutrients issues both 0 N+P so i started dosing them and algae took over all kinds. And lost control. I had 1 piece of live rock added in my scape from my lfs, but i forgot my lfs couldve been using chemicals in his systems. So lesson learned. But in general if i order from a reptubale website is it a good way to start?

Spare time · Mar 1, 2023

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I'd look a this. I plan on ordering here next time I set up a tank for myself

bradreef · Mar 1, 2023

Ptos and cons,

Dry rock- no unwanted pest, takes a while for it to not be ugly

Live rock- brings in diverse bio life and filtration. Also some unwanted stuff.

Personally my preference is to build structures with broken up dry and seed with a little live rock

bushdoc · Mar 1, 2023

Go with dry rock, it will be cheaper ( at least initially), you will avoid unwanted hitchhiker pests, like Aiptasia, Majano, mantis shrimp, gorilla crab and many others. You may get some of them when you buy corals though.
Surely, you will most probably have prolonged “Ugly faze”, and so to speak “ algae will eat you alive”, but that’s how it usually goes with dry rock. Basically your tank will be ready for real coral in about 6 months and SPS about 10-10months.
Pick your poison.

legionofdoon · Mar 1, 2023

I've set up two different tanks. One was a 75 that I started around 2002, it was all live rock from a store in Boca (The Barrier reef) they had the most lively looking live rock I've seen. That tank was bullet proof. I could grow anything in it. I basically did an occasional water change,used a skimmer and a fuge. Unfortunately I lost everything in it when I moved and the company that was supposed to bring me water to my new residence no showed. I turned that tank into freshwater. I started a 40B about 3 years ago with all dry rock and went through the worst, cyano, diatoms, dinos and all the other nasties except gha. I've also have had aptasia show up(I presume on a frag). It's only now that I feel comfortable placing more than just testers in. I also added a Donovan's nitrate destroyer (best thing I ever did) which definitely helped stabilize nitrate. If someone ever mass produced a version of it no one would have any issues with nitrates. That being said I would never start a tank again without at least 25% live rock.

RobbieMaynard · Mar 1, 2023

I don’t have scientific evidence but I look to dry rock as a potential source of my Dino’s. Never had it when I cycled tanks with live rock. But had it both times I cycled recent tanks and my nitrate and phosphate parameters never dropped to zero. Not even close.

bushdoc · Mar 1, 2023

RobbieMaynard said:
I don’t have scientific evidence but I look to dry rock as a potential source of my Dino’s. Never had it when I cycled tanks with live rock. But had it both times I cycled recent tanks and my nitrate and phosphate parameters never dropped to zero. Not even close.

I agree with most of what you said, but I think tha it is more in live rock that nutrient stability. Live rock from reputable sources is already matured and colonized by some coralline algae and full of other meiofauna, so there’s no place for dinos to grow on it.

endlessrealm · Mar 2, 2023

bushdoc said:
I agree with most of what you said, but I think tha it is more in live rock that nutrient stability. Live rock from reputable sources is already matured and colonized by some coralline algae and full of other meiofauna, so there’s no place for dinos to grow on it.

So is it better to scape with live rock, and dry rock?

bradreef · Mar 2, 2023

endlessrealm said:
So is it better to scape with live rock, and dry rock?

Its easier to scape with dry that you break up and glue.

Here is a random example of a company that does this. You can do it yourself easily. Lots of coral placement. Lots of open swimming and flow

https://instagram.com/coral_rocks_aquascapes?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

endlessrealm · Mar 2, 2023

bradreef said:
Its easier to scape with dry that you break up and glue.

Here is a random example of a company that does this. You can do it yourself easily. Lots of coral placement. Lots of open swimming and flow

https://instagram.com/coral_rocks_aquascapes?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Are you saying its better to use dry rock as a whole? Or like do half and half?

bradreef · Mar 2, 2023

endlessrealm said:
Are you saying its better to use dry rock as a whole? Or like do half and half?

I used 80% dry and had life from the live growing on it within a month or two. The is no right or wrong, just pros and cons.

endlessrealm · Mar 2, 2023

bradreef said:
I used 80% dry and had life from the live growing on it within a month or two. The is no right or wrong, just pros and cons.

So basically you used 80% dry and 20% live?

Subliminal · Mar 2, 2023

My personal opinion: Live is better.

The hitchhikers are some of the best part in a reef tank. I like Tamp Bay Saltwater's rock. They take dry rock, drop it in the ocean for a few months and then pull it up and sell it. You get all sorts of weird crap.

Who cares about a little pest? Aptasia? Get a peppermint shrimp...etc...

UtahReefer · Mar 2, 2023

Dry rock.... Set up a new tank 5 months ago with dry rock and using the Aquaforest System. I feed heavily and have never had an ugly phase. Dry rock equals none of the unwanted pests and ugly garbage that you sometimes spend months trying to conquer with live rock. Just my 2 cents, but would never start another system again with live rock. You can get the bio diversity through the AF products plus seeding the tank with live pods and phyto.

EricR · Mar 2, 2023

Regurgitation from a previous post:

One opinion only, based on tank transfer 1.5 years ago where I moved forward half live rock and added half dry rock...

Personally wouldn't use dry rock again just based on the fact that issues I ran into with nuisance algae, dinos, etc, only got a strong hold on my dry rock structure with never a speck on my live rock structure.

*I get the appeal of dry rock for aquascaping in advance and also price

ReefGeezer · Mar 2, 2023

I've said this in a lot of these sorts of threads. I will never start another tank with dry rock. Neither will I try to "Seed" dry rock with live rock or live sand. I think that spending the money up front for 100% live rock and sand saves a ton of money in the long run. Buy live rock & sand, and a skimmer. That will allow you to skip buying refugium lights, algae scrubbers, Cheato reactors, and all the other gadgets we use to control nutrients.

Reefing102 · Mar 2, 2023

Not trying to stir the pot but I can tell it seems some posters have never experienced live rock like we did back in the day. The hitchhikers were half the fun. Seeing the random organism pop up. Yes there are bad guys but nothing that hasn’t been able to be resolved.

With that said, I have never started a personal tank with dry rock, and likely never will, but the LFS that I used to work at had nothing but ugly phase issues with dry.

I will also copy what @EricR said above…*I get the appeal of dry rock for aquascaping in advance and also price

Concluding that I recommend live rock all day long as nothing beats the bacterial diversity let alone the thrill of hitchhikers

endlessrealm · Mar 2, 2023

Reefing102 said:
Not trying to stir the pot but I can tell it seems some posters have never experienced live rock like we did back in the day. The hitchhikers were half the fun. Seeing the random organism pop up. Yes there are bad guys but nothing that hasn’t been able to be resolved.

With that said, I have never started a personal tank with dry rock, and likely never will, but the LFS that I used to work at had nothing but ugly phase issues with dry.

I will also copy what @EricR said above…*I get the appeal of dry rock for aquascaping in advance and also price

Concluding that I recommend live rock all day long as nothing beats the bacterial diversity let alone the thrill of hitchhikers

I love live rock!. But my question is how do you scape with live rock? I dont mind tbe cost. Just how do you do it

dstockwell · Mar 2, 2023

I don't remember which post it was. If your going to have sand, use live sand and dry rock, you get a lot of biodiversity in the sand that can seed the rest of the tank.

Cthulukelele · Mar 2, 2023

I have had 3 tanks that I've started. The current one is mostly live rock and random collected stuff. No aiptasia, majanos, etc but a lot more of a headache for years. The first was dry rock that still ended up with pests and was ROUGH. The live rock started tank also had pests but they didn't take over in the way they did when they were introduced to my dry rock start. I think diversity acts as a good buffer against a lot of pests. It's really a different strokes for different folks scenario. Do you want to roll the dice and add a little stability/instant tank maturation at the risk of pests, or do you want the growing pains but complete control as things grow out