Supplement with Caribesea rock?

jennyfins · May 4, 2024

Hello! I have been a lurker around here for awhile- but I couldn’t find an answer to this so this is my first post!

I have a 110 tall. I bought some coral during a sale and now I need to add it to my aquarium! These are my first corals so I am trying to make sure I get the placement correct. With my research, some are saying they need their own “island” so that they don’t overtake the aquarium. I have 4 larger rock structures (started as dry rock), so I was thinking of adding a few smaller pieces to act as islands. Can I use caribesea rock for this or will that throw off my entire chemistry?

These are the corals I have coming and a picture of my current tank for reference. Thanks in advance!!

These are the corals I have coming:
Shag carpet mushroom
Yellow parazanthoas polyps
Green clove polyps
Waving hand Anthelia
Bird of Paradose
Pulsing Xenia
3 different Zoas

tzabor10 · May 4, 2024

A great start. Adding uncured rock would cause that rock to cycle. Can you get any live rocks from the LFS? Keeping spare rocks in the dump always helps.

crazyfishmom · May 4, 2024

jennyfins said:
Hello! I have been a lurker around here for awhile- but I couldn’t find an answer to this so this is my first post!

I have a 110 tall. I bought some coral during a sale and now I need to add it to my aquarium! These are my first corals so I am trying to make sure I get the placement correct. With my research, some are saying they need their own “island” so that they don’t overtake the aquarium. I have 4 larger rock structures (started as dry rock), so I was thinking of adding a few smaller pieces to act as islands. Can I use caribesea rock for this or will that throw off my entire chemistry?

These are the corals I have coming and a picture of my current tank for reference. Thanks in advance!!

These are the corals I have coming:
Shag carpet mushroom
Yellow parazanthoas polyps
Green clove polyps
Waving hand Anthelia
Bird of Paradose
Pulsing Xenia
3 different Zoas

With that water volume and already existing rock I don’t think a couple of new rocks would lead to a big issue. Yes, the rock will cycle but all this means is that it will get slowly populated since you wouldn’t be adding ammonia and your existing rock can handle the livestock you already have. Coral have very little bioload from a waste perspective so you would be totally fine in my opinion.

DDenny · May 4, 2024

I just posted the same question but I don’t need as much additional rock.

jennyfins · May 5, 2024

tzabor10 said:
A great start. Adding uncured rock would cause that rock to cycle. Can you get any live rocks from the LFS? Keeping spare rocks in the dump always helps.

I did stop at my LFS and grabbed a couple pieces of live rock. My store has very short hours on the weekend so I was trying to be lazy and just get the caribsea at petsmart. I should get some to add to the sump for future use too. Great idea!

jennyfins · May 5, 2024

crazyfishmom said:
With that water volume and already existing rock I don’t think a couple of new rocks would lead to a big issue. Yes, the rock will cycle but all this means is that it will get slowly populated since you wouldn’t be adding ammonia and your existing rock can handle the livestock you already have. Coral have very little bioload from a waste perspective so you would be totally fine in my opinion.

Thank you for the response! I was able to make it over to my LFS and grabbed a couple small pieces of live rock. I got lucky and he had a couple dispar anthias that I was able to snag also so worth the trip!