Is live rock and live sand beneficial

[Polyp Addict]

Would adding live rock and live sand be beneficial to my grow out tank full of zoas and palys? Right now I just have it bare bottom with a frag rack in my tank with all my zoas and palys sitting on the rack. The only thing I'm running in the tank is chemi pure elite, my aquatic life skimmer that I run every 3 days and a handful of chaeto. I like the clean simple look but wouldnt mind adding live rock and live sand if it'll help with my zoas and palys. It's and AIO tank so I have no type of biological filtration at all.

[kush.]

personally, i feel that biological filtration should be the number one (main) filtration in your system. In order to have your corals growing at an optimal pace, you need your water to be optimal as well (obviously...lol) and a good way to keep your water optimal is the use of bacteria in your live rock. I would say that a sand bed is not necessary, but strongly advise adding some live rock. Make sure it is fully live to reduce the chance of die off and a mini cycle.

[Tamberav]

Most everything I read said you want live rock in your frag tank but skip the sand.

[evanski]

I would imagine the rate-limiting parameters of growth are light, nutrients, and perhaps temperature.

 

I would feed heavily, have bright light closer to 10K than 20K, and run a little on the warmer side.

 

You are obviously going to need more biofiltration if you feed heavily, which is the only reason you would want more rock/sand. You can probably get by with rock and rubble...sand can be a pain in the ass and is mostly an aesthetic kind of thing.

[Subsea]

After three months of adding ammonia and hundreds of test using different media, rock rubble wins biofiltration study. The surprise for second and third was bioballs and Sponge Bob ahead of live rock.

Patrick

[Gilligan]

Yes that is an interesting finding, I myself appreciate the effort.

[SteinsFish]

Thanks for effort and sharing the results. They certainly go against the common marine tank advice of "throwing out all the bioballs/spongë".

[Subsea]

As far as hobby forum wisdom, I am not big on following the crowd. I have been reefing more than 45 years. We did not have the Internet. Consequently, old school people have experimented and are not intimidated trying it out.

 

I am still at a loss to explain how bioballs can process nitrate, but they did it better than live rock. There was 10 lbs of live rock and 1 lb of bioballs. I can better understand Sponge Bob. There were two separate sponges. One had an air uplift tube but the other sponge was passive circulation. It is easy to understand reducing oxygen environment to provide denitrification chemistry.

[Gilligan]

I often wonder how porous liverock is. There is no doubt that is was extremely porous, but how much does the surface growth restrict or plug the pores of the rock? There are as many answers as rocks in the ocean.

 

From a one dimensional point of view, the bioballs and sponge have much more surface area then a comparable size chunk of rock, if you don't count internal area. Perhaps the sterile plastic composition makes easier for bacteria to live without the competition of various other organisms.

 

I will have to go reread that and digest it some more.

[brandon429]

for this exact thread I think evanski called it.

 

You might choose extra live surface area to process the heavy feeding, or you might choose another canister filter in which case rock and sand is optional. some nitrate is good for the species listed here, so the factors in command for coral growth are light/ water /nutrient, live rock and sand being optional components of the water aspect.

 

any one here could set up an all plastic zo growout tank and do just fine

using alt surface area, canister filters with all floss for ex cycled w bottle bac and ammonia technique

 

I think the feed mixes available today take the place of any lost nutrients coming from live rock, like how uv use zaps planktors but it doesn't matter since we feed tanks anyway. My 100% water changes remove more planktors than anything and sps growth is not compromised

 

Imo its the feeding that matters, the suspended nutrient levels high and varied while dissolved nutrient levels remain low

 

 

its optional to use lr or ls, filtration surface area is all that matters in a frag tank that is well fed, lit and cared for.

[jblank44]

I feel that the only benefit out of live rock is the fact that it is "live." it hosts many different organisms like copepods which are extremely important. As well as the nitrifying bacteria that helps support your bioload and such. As for live sand, it is the same deal. It can host many organisms and help reduce some nitrates if it is deep enough.

[frankdontsurf]

Good reading