Live Rock - Why?

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I would take it real slow with dry rock, at least that is my plan but I will let the experts answer

My .02

Can cycle tank within 24hrs, much more life on LR, if you know what to buy

 

[Bmasculine]

Think of it as the most conservative approach to ensure success. If I was starting with dry rock I would wait over 1.5 years. I don’t personally know any top rated operation that doesn’t believe in using at least partial real live rock in their systems. Did anyone watch BRS ULM tank trials. The SPS tank had an epic crash. They even talked about it.

I would completely agree with you on that, in fact very similar to the way I do it. The difference is I used caribsea rock but moved rock and marine pure that had been in another tank for a few years to jumpstart it.

 

[JakeW]

Just reading the horror stories of people dealing with pests for months was scary enough.... at some point patience would wear thin

I QT live rock like I do fish

 

[JakeW]

Also, reefcleaners seems to have precured dry rock, maybe someone else can confirm because that’s a huge time saver.

Live rock is really cool, my first setup 10 years ago had live Figi but I had so many pests later on! I wasn’t QTing anything back then so maybe it wasn’t the rock

Go live for sure

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Live rock has always created the best tanks for me hands down. We used lace rock for years before dry rock was a thing to add volume to our live rock tanks. The more biodiversity the better in my experience. I really miss live rock from Fiji...some of the best I ever bought. I have purchased 2 LC's at a time of live rock (4000 Lbs) for customer builds. Worked great every time with no exceptions...even for fish only tanks. Nothing like live rock for the fish to pick on and having things just pop up and create interest for the customer.

Often set up full reef tanks from scratch for aquarium industry shows in California, Illinois, and Florida. Never lost a fish or invert using live rock and seeded filters. Back in the beginning of reef tanks in this country in the mid to late 1980's. Tanks always blew the aquarium store owners away at each show.

 

[pecan2phat]

I've been in the hobby for almost 40 years.
Back then, live rock was new and a mystery. Stunk up the house for a couple of weeks with the die off but the Q about Carib Sea, I've recently tried their Shapes Life Rock and like it very much, 20 lbs (4pcs) for $99.
I also bought some A purple Reef Rock which is man made painted also but considered live and shipped slightly damp in newspaper, 20 lbs shipped for $90. Had good reviews but I did not care for it since they were like small boulders with no nooks and crannies.
I ended up buying 2 more boxes of the Shapes but expect damage since they do not transport well. Simple breaks can be super glued back easily but you might get the 1 in 8 where one piece comes in 12 pieces.