Live Rock - Why?

[stevieduk]

one thing about live rock is that you get different types of good natural bacteria on it from the ocean, that you would never get in your tank if you just cycle it with dry rock. While not many people will be able to tell you what all these bacterias do , they obviously do something or they would not be there in the system, and we are trying to replicate that system

 

[Mikedawg]

The biodiversity that live rock adds to the tank is not only important and beneficial, it is fun to explore all the life, which to me outweighs any possible pests that come with it.

Exactly

 

[Anubis012880]

Dry rock. I went live and regret it. Vermited snails, asterina starfish and so on. My next tank wont have live.

 

[tony'stank]

I have used live rock in the past. For my last two tanks I have used dry rock. The live rock that is available in LFS now is not comparable to the live rock that I got from the ocean to set up my first tank 30 + years ago. Even ten years ago you could sometimes get good live rock at at a LFS. Now it is very expensive and only available in larger quantities than I can use. Starting eith dry rock takes much longer to achieve stability and diversity but is a much more practical choice now

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I started reefing way back when everything came out of the ocean, and brought the ocean with it.

The amount of work required to keep the ocean out of your tank wasn’t worth it when the tactical counter-moves against the bad stuff were the things you needed to do anyway: good H2O quality, good nutrition, and minimizing stress.

The fact that many of the rest were controlled by interesting animals that were cool to have was icing on the cake of my laissez faire approach.

Long-winded way of saying I just dump live rock in w/o giving it much thought.

 

[FishDoc]

Maybe I’ll add to the conversation by asking another question entirely. In most of our environments natural reef systems is the harvest of live rock even a sustainable choice? I understand there are many areas that are more or less controlled areas ( Florida mariculture etc.) where they simply place a bunch of rock and allow it to season and then harvest but they’re are still many that are very destructive.

 

[Bob Lauson]

I started in the hobby 10 years ago with a 30 gallon tank and used live rock from the LFS. Over the course of 4 years I upgraded to a 75 gallon then a 125 gallon and each change I moved the contents of one aquarium to the next and added some additional live rock. I had some struggle with aptasia but stayed on top of it. Quite frankly my wife and I loved the diversity that came with the live rock - strange crabs, a throw-net slug, feather dusters, Rock anemones, even a mantis shrimp. We had to deal with it but it was way cool. After that we moved two more times and just sold off what we had for livestock and started over with a 180 gallon cube. I used dry rock as the basis mostly because I couldn't find a good source of live rock. My ugly stage with this aquarium was not fun. Months of no coralline algae, a Dino outbreak, tons of patience. I am happy where it is at after 1 1/2 years but question if my problems were due to the fact I used dry rock. I personally only have two data points- starting with and starting without. Based on this I have vowed to my self that if I have to start over it will only be with live rock.

 

[squampton]

I do at times think the lack of biodiversity is what has led to some of the issues today that seem more common vs the past.

While some aptasia would appear my live rock when I bought it, peppermint shrimp always did the trick for me.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Other than cost of rock, Live rock offers many benefits. Especially at start up, Live rock leaches calcium into the tank environment. It also offers especially when well seeded a natural looking tank environment while providing hiding places for inhabitants as well as pods and other life forms. Seeded rock also produces biological filtration through ability to host large amounts of both nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria. The better the quality of the rock is, the more beneficial bacteria you will have available to maintain better water quality.
Also, we have to remember live rock forms the base for frags and other corals which is a builder for aqua-scaping. The list goes on.

 

[mta_morrow]

I have only ever used reefcleaners in my tank and a few pieces of Tonga plate that I bleached them cured.

It’s pretty easy to control and avoid bad things from happening with clean rock.

It the only way I will start a tank, but I totally get starting off with live rock.

It’s just my personal preference

 

[Marie7]

I have try dry rock and live rock, I can tell the I do not have any issues with live rock besides that speed the cycle and stability of the tank
In the other hand I bought a tank that came with some prior rock but the previous owner did not want to use it, by the time I bought the tank some of the rocks was dry and some others still feel humid sowhat, I did not sure it but wash it and add it to my tank with the live rock, only problem of not curing all rocks was a spike in phosphates, but besides that nothing I can not control with a bag of phosphates, right now the dry rock is changing colors already some of them has Coraline on it and it looks awesome, I don't have fish loses or an unstable tank.

 

[Reef_Obsessed]

What about the Caribsea dry rock? I’ve read a lot of good about it. So much so, that I will be purchasing it for my new build soon. Comes colored up already and coated with beneficial bacteria.

 

[Karl M]

Live Rock for me thank you. I gave the dry rock route a try on my most recent tank after a very long hiatus from the hobby, overall I would say it becoming a successful SPS tank...but I feel it’s missing that secret sauce .....

This is some of the rock I just received from KP Aqutics for my newest build.
Can’t put this in a bottle.

 

[KenO]

I picked up 20lbs of LR from KP Aquatics back in April. I cycled it in a nano tank with a sump. I didn’t add any fish or corals for several months. Just recently I found a 5-6” fireworm in the tank. It was eating my zoas. There were some gorilla crabs but they disappeared, maybe the fireworm ate them. There is a ton of life on the rocks. My plan is to use this rock to seed my 2 new tanks (130 and a 250 gallon tank). My new builds will use rock that I’ve had for about 3 years that started out as dry rock. I did also add one of the KP rocks to my current temporary tanks. That one rock has really helped the rock that was in there. My coralline algae has just exploded.

 

[Mycota]

My current tank is the first time i used dry rock. Cycle was slower than live. I do miss the biodiversity but i had major issues with zoa eating nudibranchs in the past. No unwelcome pests in this tank aside from the inevitable algae bloom about 6-8weeks in and of course the pesky aptasia that must have come on a frag.

 

[Reef_Obsessed]

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

That’s great to hear! Caribsea rock is exactly what I was considering to stock my tank with.

 

[Lousybreed]

I think it is interesting. This debate. The complexity of life on live rock and also the maricultured FL rock probably has not been fully documented yet. Dry rock on the other hand is just that. So I ask this? Can you live in a sterile environment like a surgery room? Sure. But is it the best? No way. We humans often think we can do it better. My next build I will be going with 10% real live rock from FL that will be QT for 3 months. The rest will be Marco rock. I will probably cycle it for another 4 months before we add fish and corals. I always started with some real live rock. My tank has done very well. I sell frags to the guys that start with pure dry rock. They make great repeat customers for the first year!!! Seems like around a year dry rock tanks can support SPS.

 

[Bmasculine]

I think it is interesting. This debate. The complexity of life on live rock and also the maricultured FL rock probably has not been fully documented yet. Dry rock on the other hand is just that. So I ask this? Can you live in a sterile environment like a surgery room? Sure. But is it the best? No way. We humans often think we can do it better. My next build I will be going with 10% real live rock from FL that will be QT for 3 months. The rest will be Marco rock. I will probably cycle it for another 4 months before we add fish and corals. I always started with some real live rock. My tank has done very well. I sell frags to the guys that start with pure dry rock. They make great repeat customers for the first year!!! Seems like around a year dry rock tanks can support SPS.

The OP was saying in the future of a tank what is the benefit. But at any rate if your using “live rock” but QT for 3 mo then cycle for 4 mo that’s 7 mo. What was the benefit vs the guy that used dry or artificial but took their tank almost a year to mature.

 

[Lousybreed]

The OP was saying in the future of a tank what is the benefit. But at any rate if your using “live rock” but QT for 3 mo then cycle for 4 mo that’s 7 mo. What was the benefit vs the guy that used dry or artificial but took their tank almost a year to mature.

I have been talking to some prominent people in the industry. I am building a 1,500 gallon DT and frag system. Based on their advice I have the fastest and most economical method for acro prop. My current 250 went from dry rock, dry sand, and seed live rock to hosting all my SPS in 1.5 months. That is fast. I am 4 months in and my growth rates are off the charts.

 

[Lousybreed]

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.