MikeyD Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Hi nano guru's. Please excuse the stupidity of this question! Is it possible to use just live sand and ordinary (not live) rock in a nano? Would the beneficial goodies in the live sand also attach onto the rock? Basically i'm looking for a cheaper way to start a nano and wanted to experiment with this idea. Thanks for your help. Link to comment
KrackerG Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 some LFS sell "dead" or rubble rock which will grow back over time. my LFS sells it for $1.50/lb. personally, i like to see things grow and change so i bought some of this rock...now i'm waiting...been a few months...maybe in a year i should start to see growth. : Link to comment
KrackerG Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 oh, and not that stupid of a question, you should write your TOPIC with a better desc of what your asking.... Link to comment
Aiptasia Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Yes, you can start with dead rock, or aragocrete rock (www.garf.org) and grow your own Live Rock. It takes longer, but you can do it. As a top layer to your live sand, i'd recommend Garf's Grunge+. It's a mix of crushed reef rock chunks, shells and miracle mud and comes with a lot of reef life in it. It also has lots of calcarious algae in it, which will help seed the bare rock. BTW, try to use the calcarious "base" rock LFS's carry. Don't try to use granite or lava or anything else, because they'll often contain impurities or metals that you don't want exposed to reef life. Use a poroous, calcarious reef rock. Garf also sells aragocrete, with really cool arches, holes and tunnels, with which you can grow your own reef. If you don't use the garf grunge, i'd recommend using one or two pieces of true reef rock as seed rock. Live sand won't have the pink/purple/red calcarious algaes in it to the same degree as a piece of reef rock will. Link to comment
SeaSide Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 I heard that dead rock could become LR when it surrounded by LRs in ther water. Some people say I can put some dead rock with LR side by side in my tank because that deadrock will be live over time. In fact, that is the way how cultured rock has been made. But issue is time. I heard that the cultured LR has been sitting there about a few years in the sea bottom with full of life. Then how long we have to wait till that deadrock become live in our tank which relatively less life present to compare with the ocean bottom? Link to comment
phenom5 Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Mikey you can sed dead rock with live rock, it'll take about 3-6 mos. however, you cannot use live sand to seed dead rock...completely different organisms. Aiptasia, what about "lace" rock, is that what you refered to as calcarious rock. one of my lfs has lace rock on sale for $0.99/ lb Link to comment
Aiptasia Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 SeaSide: Depends on how much life you want in the rock itself. Remember, when you make aragacrete rock, it needs 3-6 months of curing time to bring the pH down to where it will support life. Odd, yes, but concrete has a pH over 9+ and will leach back into the water. Aged aragacrete can be cured more rapidly in acidic fresh water than sea water, but it takes a little time for this to happen. Other than that, yep. You take aragacrete rock (or dead base rock) and let it sit next to an existing reef and it will slowly, gradually transform into living reef rock. Most of the cultured reef rock sellers let their rock age between 3-5 years and harvest every quarter or so. As far as how long it takes in your tank, have a look at Garf's bullet proof reef section, at www.garf.org. They use Garf grunge as a substrate, which is crushed reef rock, miracle mud and live sand altogether, and their aragacrete rock looks downright amazing after a month. They also light their tanks 24/7 with nothing but actinic 03 light to encourage rapid growth of corraline algaes during this break in period. After about a month, when the rock is pink/purple/red, they start adding coral frags. Phenom5: Lace rock is usually gorgonian or sea fan skeleton. When these lacey, finely branched corals die, they leave behind beautifully shaped skeletons. Sometimes you see lace rock sold as liverock (after it's been colonized and cured) but most often you see it sold dead, bleached white. When i'm referring to calcarious rock, i'm referring to rock where the primary component is calcium in its make up. It can be dead base rock, lace rock, branching tonga monster reef rock or any type of rock made from coral skeletons, living or dead. Aragacrete is made from crushed coral (usually carib-sea type aragonitic sand) and a low alkaline plaster of paris and random shells mixed in with it. You can make your own readily enough using a styrofoam beer cooler, reef aragonite sand and plaster from the hardware store, but the hard part is curing it so that it's reef safe. That's where the freshwater soak comes in, and can take up to six months. Once again, www.garf.org has all of the info you'd ever need on making your own cultured reef rock. They even sell fully cured pieces of cool aragacrete rock that they made. Link to comment
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