Live Rock - Why?

BRS
Jump to Last
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
Heavymman said:
Did you cure the BRS and reefcleaners yourself or dropped right in tank and cycled?

I agree, but I think a safe bet is maybe obtain a small live rock, put it in your coral QT and observe for a while. If all good, drop in your DT and over time the biodiversity will come... just my thoughts
Click to expand...

I did not cure either rock, the reefcleaners has always been great, the BRS rock grew some nasty brown algae.
 
Deltec
I have started several tanks using Gulfliverock.com rock. The third time I had it flown airport to airport. Literally pulled from the ocean in Florida that morning and into my tank in Seattle that night. Good critters>bad critters, last batch had about 8 different kinds of sponges, 3 types of tunicates, boring clams, encrusting LPS corals, a couple types of macro algae, two types of corky gorgonians, these fun little filter feeding cucs, chitons,and 2types of urchins.

That was the good, for the bad I ended up with a little green mantis that turned into a heck of a pet and never got bigger than a couple inches after a year (I count him as a good). I also got a couple gorilla crabs that I caught after a couple weeks.

I had enough positive to plan on adding at least 200lbs and have it flown airport to airport again for my 580 build. This will be in conjunction with about 300-400lbs of marco/brs dry rock that I have been collecting.

I like high bio diversity and do not think you will every achieve that amount with out stocking with at least 20% true ocean cured rock.
 
Pacific live rock is the Holy Grail for light weight, full of life rock. I’ve seen so many cool critters, worms and snails, chitons, etc, that I’d never use dry rock. It’s a personal choice I guess, but after 20 years seeing it all, only live rock for me.
 
93aba70c450b100cdd3148a2bfadc5ab.jpg
sometimes you get lucky on wild live rock got some shipped from Puerto Rico. Just the mushrooms came on it.
 
Tidal Gardens
I've heard anecdotal evidence suggesting that Acropora-dominated reefs tend to be easier when using live rock. Dry rock lends itself to increased instability. Personally, I prefer live rock, as I build my reefs to try and emulate the ocean, not to display expensive polyps.
 
I’ll throw my .02 in just because I’ve used all of it. First tank I had was set up with live rock, tons of life, cool critters that freaked my wife out at night, but my zoas were always getting eaten by something fish would randomly disappear and always seemed to have an algae problem I could never quite control. This could very well have been bc of my inexperience at the time also. Next tank went with dry rock, nice and clean but seemed like it took FOREVER to establish life and always had high phosphates , I couldn’t even get frags to grow for the first 8 mo. I’ve built two tanks since then and I’ve used caribsea rock in both tanks. By far my favorite. I use marine pure in my sump that I pre cycle for initial biological filtration and I can almost immediately add livestock. Current tank has been set up since May and has tons of sponges and other life on rock, tank is also growing sps well at 4 mo old. Completely pest free unless introduced by me and 0 phosphate problems I don’t run any GFO, just a skimmer and refugium, sometimes a little carbon
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
Heavymman said:
You need to cure Dry rock for roughly 8 weeks.... tons of different methods, I prefer no chemicals so it takes awhile and you test for phosphates and nitrates. You are going to get a 50/50 response here but my .02 is start with dry rock and a clean slate
Click to expand...
Bmasculine said:
I’ll throw my .02 in just because I’ve used all of it. First tank I had was set up with live rock, tons of life, cool critters that freaked my wife out at night, but my zoas were always getting eaten by something fish would randomly disappear and always seemed to have an algae problem I could never quite control. This could very well have been bc of my inexperience at the time also. Next tank went with dry rock, nice and clean but seemed like it took FOREVER to establish life and always had high phosphates , I couldn’t even get frags to grow for the first 8 mo. I’ve built two tanks since then and I’ve used caribsea rock in both tanks. By far my favorite. I use marine pure in my sump that I pre cycle for initial biological filtration and I can almost immediately add livestock. Current tank has been set up since May and has tons of sponges and other life on rock, tank is also growing sps well at 4 mo old. Completely pest free unless introduced by me and 0 phosphate problems I don’t run any GFO, just a skimmer and refugium, sometimes a little carbon
Click to expand...



I too started with dry rock, Caribsea base rock, once I was cycled I have had no pest or issues. Don't inherit other peoples problems.
 
I've never put live rock in a tank. I've always started with dry rocks and been patient. The risk of pests with live rock is far too great for me. In the past, I had smaller tanks. This time around it's a 180g. There's way too much invested to take the risk of using live rock.

I do plan to buy "dry rock" from Haitii from my LFS. He has it curing in big vats. I'll still QT that rock in a tub and cure it myself for many many months before it's ever added to the display.

I certainly understand the desire for the biodiversity you get on ocean cured live rock. I'd rather control it myself.
 
Deltec
Love my live rock! One of the best times with my tanks was watching strange things appear up to a year after starting the tank. I got lucky and didn't get anything bad but I went with live rock from my LFS so it wasn't as "live" as the stuff you can get which has even more life.
Years ago on another forum this discussion was debated and I will never forget one of the posts. A member had taken a piece of live rock and a piece of base rock both of which had been in his tank for I believe 3 years and cut them in half. You could visibly see in the cross section where there was life in the very center of the live rock but the base rock that had been in his tank for several years only had life in about the first 1/2 - 1 inch all around. The center of the rock was still pure white. I think that life deep inside the rock is where the de-nitrifying bacteria live and you just won't get that with dry rock.
I say take the good with the bad and go with the live stuff for at least a good percentage of the rock in your tank.
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
yungreefer2410 said:
live rock is not created equal. Give me the good stuff 10/10 times. The creepies, the crawlies, the poddies, the algaes whatever toss em in
Click to expand...

So, when I was shopping for gulf live I was struck with analysis paralysis. Can you give your opinions about the various vendors?
 
Old school here, my first tank had nothing but real Fiji reef rock. The biodiversity was amazing. For the 125 I'm in the process of setting up now, I'm planning on using 100# or so dry rock, a couple pieces of LFS live rock to seed, then adding 20-30# of Florida live rock from TBS for the critters. I'll deal with the pests should any appear.
 
Deltec
i always use base rock. i used live for my very first tank, but got some nasty critters. only cool thing were some zoas that came on ONE rock and a weird clam thing, but other than that, just pests! prefer to start with base rock :)
 
personally if you can afford to get some real live rock id go for it. or at least get some to seed your tank with. i think the positives definitely weight out the negatives of using just strictly dry rock
 
BRS

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
See comments…

New Posts

Chewy.com
Nutramar Foods
Deltec
Dinkins Aquatic Gardens
TCK Corals
Tidal Gardens
World Wide Corals
Top Shelf Aquatics
New Posts
Back
Top