My experiences with success so far, or avoiding failure

[ps2cho]

I haven't been successfull for YEARS and I have shut down tanks because of it. All my parameters were fine, yet corals still died

After reading Mike Palletas recent article about dry rock I can say this is exactly what I emulated -- dry rock basically means you will have close to no coral success for 12-24 months.

I currently have rock my frag tank that is 18months old and I haven't lost a coral in over 6-months now and my acro's look good, although a little washed out from low NO3 I am fixing.

I wonder if the BEST approach for success is to buy 30-50% live rock and let it cure in a SEPARATE tank for 30-60 days? This will allow ample time for die-off to occur and to check for pests. Once this has finished, drop it in the new tank (that has also been cycling with sand/dry rock during this time and you almost immediately have a tank that should give a much higher success rate.

What do you guys think?

 

[prsnlty]

I haven't been successfull for YEARS and I have shut down tanks because of it. All my parameters were fine, yet corals still died

After reading Mike Palletas recent article about dry rock I can say this is exactly what I emulated -- dry rock basically means you will have close to no coral success for 12-24 months.

I currently have rock my frag tank that is 18months old and I haven't lost a coral in over 6-months now and my acro's look good, although a little washed out from low NO3 I am fixing.

I wonder if the BEST approach for success is to buy 30-50% live rock and let it cure in a SEPARATE tank for 30-60 days? This will allow ample time for die-off to occur and to check for pests. Once this has finished, drop it in the new tank (that has also been cycling with sand/dry rock during this time and you almost immediately have a tank that should give a much higher success rate.

What do you guys think?

Yes I agree with this. You can also use trash cans or buckets with heater and powerhead(s). This is what I do. I switch it to a fresh can twice a week for 2 weeks then once a week for 2-3 weeks then leave it for 2 weeks then add to the tank. This is not to cycle it is to cure (clean). However if you would like to cycle it you can do that pretty much at the same time while curing. Once you have it in the last can you can add some ammonia (1ml per g) and wait for it to zero out. You do this every day until it's zeros out overnight then test for nitrite and nitrate. When you only have nitrate you can add it to your tank. I only do this however if it's quite a bit of rock. If it's only a few pieces then after curing I added to my tank because it won't off-balance my tank with so few pieces.

 

[prsnlty]

And as far as Coral growing on them you can also keep Rubble Rock in your sump and add your frags to them and attach the rubble Rock to your live rock. By the time you're coral encrusts the total piece of rubble rock and spreds to the main rock it'll be ready for it

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Do you have a link to the article? I used live rock in my first tank but am considering dry rock for my next one. Thanks!