impur Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 I've been researching this site for about a year now and it has almost all my questions. Well i am planning to begin my 10g here in a month or so and my question pertains to using some old rock I had in a 55 gal FOWLR tank. The rock has been out of water for a few years now, but I have about 8 lbs of it. I am planning on getting another 7-8 lbs of live rock and would like to use the rock I have also. It is very porous and has great shape for the nano. I'm not concerned about how long it might take for life to begin to grow on the rock, I have time and patience, but as life begins to regrow in the tank, it will start to grow on these dead rocks won't it? TIA Link to comment
matt the fiddler Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 The rock has been out of water for a few years now, but I have about 8 lbs of it.. you are pushing it.. sure there might be some microb that would spring to life- but i would consider that dead rock.. pods won't make that desert.. neither will most anyhting you want on there. Link to comment
impur Posted February 20, 2004 Author Share Posted February 20, 2004 I don't think you understood my question. I am adding an additional 8 lbs of LR along with LS to the tank with the dead rock also. So i will have 8 lbs of dead rock, 8 lbs of LR and 3" or so of LS. Will the live stuff from the LR and LS begin to grow on the dead rock? Link to comment
madness Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 Sure, I think you won't have any problem seeding this rock with some live rock. That's basically the idea when you are using aragocrete (man-made live rock). When you scrape the coraline off of your glass, sprinkle the scapings over the dead rock to help get it looking better quicker. Link to comment
phenom5 Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 nother good tip, when you scrap coraline off the glass, cruch it up and sprinkle it into the flow of your powerhead so it blows all over the tank... Link to comment
Aiptasia Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 I use araga-crete and base (dead) rock in my two mini-reefs. There's nothing wrong with it, but it does take time for it to be populated. There's a website I want you to take a look at called GARF. They culture their own corals and live rock from aragacrete and you can check out their methods for seeding dead LR. They also sell a product called GARF Grunge+ which i've used in my two tanks. It's a combination of live sand, miracle mud and live rock rubble that will seed your tank if you use it as the top layer of your substrate. It's chock full of worms and pods and other life forms from an established reef. GARF recommends adding the sand layers first with the GARF grunge, then your LR, and adding your janitor crew right away. Then, they run straight actinic 03 lights 24/7 for two weeks to encourage corraline algaes to populate the aragacrete. At week 3, you can introduce some full spectrum light (10,000k) but the light stays on 24/7 for four weeks. GARF introduces coral frags to the tank almost immediately, but remember their corals are probably used to the longer light exposure periods. I wouldn't introduce corals from another source (LFS, etc.) until the end of the four week period to avoid stressing them to death. New tank syndrome alone is enough of a problem for corals to cope with, much less with lights going that long. Anyway, adding some GARF grunge is a great idea for a tank like yours. Check out www.garf.org for more info. Link to comment
nalbar Posted February 21, 2004 Share Posted February 21, 2004 adding bare rock to a tank (and i include concrete rock in this) is almost always a mistake. the first things that colonize it are always the fastest growers, and that usually is the pest algaes. they can become pest algae factorys. if you put it all completely on the bottom or back, totally covered by LR then MAYBE. personally i would never add it to a tank, but that is just my opinion. nalbar Link to comment
impur Posted February 24, 2004 Author Share Posted February 24, 2004 Thanks for the info guys. I just figured since i have it it would be best to use it instead of taking more from the natural elements. Maybe i can help save natural reefs if only by a little Link to comment
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