I'm planning on using base rock and a little live rock to get a 29g biocube going. However, I decided to peruse a LFS and the owner (and only employee) told me that it's a bad idea and it could take up to a year for it to cycle and I'd have weak biological filtration. However, all the online research and loads of message boards and forums I've read seem to support the use of base rock, with the catch being it does take longer to cycle, but nowhere have I read that it takes a year.

I'm skeptical of the LFS because 1.) from talking to him, he seems to have a few 'holes' in his experiences and his store, while nice, has barely anything in it and 2.) he followed his opinions about base rock up with a comment about how much nice live rock he has in his store.

Part of the reason I decided to go with base rock is because of the obnoxious price of live rock in the area and the base rock I ordered (shout out to Reef Cleaners) looks really nice and has a better aesthetic quality that the live rock I've seen at fish stores.

Anyway, does anyone have feedback or experience with base rock? And will it really take a year to cycle?

thanks

Bump

Using base rock in a mix with live rock is fine, it may take a little longer as in a week or two but not a year. Plus as an added bonus you save $$ from buying a little bit of live rock and the fact that you don't have any bad algae growing on the base rock so that's good. On my tank I used a 3:1 ratio on live rock to base rock so I could save some money. I say go ahead on the base rock.

I just ordered some base rock off reefcleaners aswell, it looks awesome on their site. I've heard it takes about 2 weeks for base rock to become biologically active after being seeded with LR, and about 5-6 months to get significant coralline growth. Your LFS is either ignorant or out to get you

I've used base rock in the majority of my tanks (present one included) and have never had an issue. It may take minimally more time, if any at all, to CYCLE, but what they're talking about is the ALGAE CYCLE taking a while (not a year, in most cases). Base rock tends to go through odd periods of devolping algae, and this algae may last for a long time before looking like normal rock will. However, the rock does gain the bacteria needed to establish a tank relatively quickly.

Keep in mind that my last 2 tanks both had base rock from marco rock, and they hadn't developed any of the obnoxious algae problems I had in the past buying ####ty base rock.

I'm sure he is just trying to discourage you from using base rock so you will spend money in his store on Live rock. I'm planning on using 40lbs base rock to 20lbs live rock in a 55 gallon that I am starting. As said above, it may take a little longer to cycle, but no where near a year!

If you could post pictures of your base rock from ReefCleaners, I'd love to see it! (I plan to order my 40lbs from them)

I didn't have luck with marco:



Couple weeks later, the green #### is just on the rock itself after running phosphate remover non-stop. Hopefully soon to be gone from the rock too.

Oh and did I mention,

A Year,

Do you by chance have sucker written on your forehead?

In all seriousness, Good call asking about this first before buying into his scam. A couple of weeks at the most. Really, once its seeded, you are good to go. While its seeding, you have biological filtration going on, its just not a very large biological filter. Start your cycle and let it go. By the time your cycle is done, maybe a couple of weeks, generally, the rock will be seeded. Take it slow and build the bacteria on the rocks over time. No big deal. My tank is going good with using dry rock and seeding it with a couple of pieces from the LFS. Have done this many times and will continue to do it time and again. The benefits far outweigh anything else. Good luck and when dealing with this LFS, take what you are told with a grain of salt. YMMV, Mark

Yeah, I'm not an expert, but I've had a tank and have been doing research for almost two years. I learned after buying my Nanocube how the advise a LFS offers is usually directly linked to how much stuff they think they can get me to buy.

Unfotunately, my fiance (who also financed my new tank) talked to him and she got all freaked out about the base rock idea. So, I spent a few hours going though blogs/forums/threads/websites, etc. proving that the base rock is not such a bad idea...when done properly, of course. It's also cheaper.

Don't get me wrong, I'm one to support small business, especially a one-man LFS operation, but if they're an idiot, I think my money is best spent elsewhere.

Thanks for the advice everyone and I will definitely post pics of the base rock.

I'll get a thread going on the Biocube 29G HQI this is for when it gets going.

I use Texas holey rock as base and it does fine, usually coralines up within a few months. As far as the algae or bacterial cycle I hate to say it but "It really ain't over til its OVER". I have a 58 that has been runnning for years, recently I changed lights. I have a black cyano bloom, levels are perfect. IMO most local petshops will be out of business within 5 years, due to the fact they just don't know as much as they need to.

Here is a picture of my old tank post cycle with marco rock:


That tank was broken down, but I'm still using some of that rock and it has colored up well (not even just coralline growth, just natural rock coloration) over the past 8 months.