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Coral Vue Hydros

Fiji LR or Man Made LR


Cscultho

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I'm not sure which way to go!?

 

I've used real LR in the past and had no issues with pests but the more i read about peoples experiences with pest I'm concerned? What's the worst type of pest one can bring home on a LR?

 

Anybody who has used the false LR what are your experiences? Are there any risks i should be aware of if i go this route?

 

 

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I've used liverock with very little issues. I still prefer it. Faster and easier cycle with diversity of life on it.

 

There are too many worse case scenarios like mantis shrimp or bobbit worms- you can get the same pests buying coral on a rock.

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I would just go with LR rather than man made

Because I like the all biodiversity and all the more holes/ surface area their is on Live rock

On the other Hand man made has nice even costs of fake coralline paint..(Imo)... You would also have to place a couple of marine pure blocks in you sump

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I would just go with LR rather than man made

Because I like the all biodiversity and all the more holes/ surface area their is on Live rock

On the other Hand man made has nice even costs of fake coralline paint..(Imo)... You would also have to place a couple of marine pure blocks in you sump

so you recommend along with LR the use of marine pure rock....ok! i didnt even consider the blocks.

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Live rock is awesome. I spend hours and hours observing the life on it. But it's usually ugly, compared to what can be created with dry rock, anyway. It's awful as far as aquascaping goes.

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burtbollinger

if i could do it over I'd go with CaribSea rock...not Walt Smith 2.1.

 

I use Marinepure in sump but its not at all necessary.

 

I don't think will never use regular life rock again. I've had 3 tanks with it...and I find the unpredictability a bit overrated...but there is a sense of fun to it as well.


You would also have to place a couple of marine pure blocks in you sump

I really hate to do this, but I follow your threads and posts...from what I gather, you have no experience at all, yet you feel qualified to give definitive advice like this. no one HAS to put Marinepure in their sumps.

 

great example of misinformation labeled as a factual statement...and why people here need to be very careful with the advice they are given.

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I have had uncured rock, LiveRock (boat delivered from Fiji), man made rock, and dry rock (BRS).

I really like the uncured rock for the diversity you get in, but you WILL get pests like rock crabs, mantis, flatworms, bad snails or what not. That is not an if- it is a will be there. You can deal with that best if it is the only thing in the tank and goes through a cycle and manual removal.

Dry Rock is my next favorite as you get a blank slate to work with. Then you can add a single rock from a fellow reefer or even a cup full of sand to get some stuff started. You will however limit the diversity.

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I have had uncured rock, LiveRock (boat delivered from Fiji), man made rock, and dry rock (BRS).

I really like the uncured rock for the diversity you get in, but you WILL get pests like rock crabs, mantis, flatworms, bad snails or what not. That is not an if- it is a will be there. You can deal with that best if it is the only thing in the tank and goes through a cycle and manual removal.

Dry Rock is my next favorite as you get a blank slate to work with. Then you can add a single rock from a fellow reefer or even a cup full of sand to get some stuff started. You will however limit the diversity.

Isn't the live sand you buy already seeded or is that not correct?

 

Now the BIG question for me is what is the best dry rock to purchase? I don't like the idea of the painted rock if the paint flakes. What is a great looking rock and highly recommend by the fellow reefers?

 

Damn it...i continue to waffle back and forth with rock but you guys are pushing me towards the fake rock....

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burtbollinger

Isn't the live sand you buy already seeded or is that not correct?

 

Now the BIG question for me is what is the best dry rock to purchase? I don't like the idea of the painted rock if the paint flakes. What is a great looking rock and highly recommend by the fellow reefers?

the Walt Smith 2.1 flaked for me. It has not flaked for others.

 

To me, I think if I could snap my fingers, I'd have gotten CaribSea Life Rock. No reports of flaking on that rock.

 

Purple paint....this is only because I am going FOWLR for longer than I'd like, and i wanted rock that had some color on it. If that is not the case for you, your options are a lot more wide open...I'll let others chime in on that.

 

I think live sand is maybe a bit suspect. I wonder how alive it actually is...It probably doesn't matter at all though. I have had tanks with Caribsea sand and it turned out just fine...but this latest time I went with not-live sand and I really like the looks of it...I chose Tropic Eden Reef Flakes. Extremely happy with it so far.

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Best dry rock is Reef Cleaners. Reef-cleaners.org They are the best. the rock is wonderfully pourus and full of holes. Its fantastic. I have used it in every single tank I have had and will continue to do so. IMO, LR is too expensive per pound, has too many "unknowns" (pests, algae, and the like). If you want to grown coraline, get dry rock and then a small piece of LR covered with coraline and that will be enough to seed the aquarium. With good parameters, your white Rock will be totally purple in a couple months.

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the Walt Smith 2.1 flaked for me. It has not flaked for others.

 

To me, I think if I could snap my fingers, I'd have gotten CaribSea Life Rock. No reports of flaking on that rock.

 

Purple paint....this is only because I am going FOWLR for longer than I'd like, and i wanted rock that had some color on it. If that is not the case for you, your options are a lot more wide open...I'll let others chime in on that.

 

I think live sand is maybe a bit suspect. I wonder how alive it actually is...It probably doesn't matter at all though. I have had tanks with Caribsea sand and it turned out just fine...but this latest time I went with not-live sand and I really like the looks of it...I chose Tropic Eden Reef Flakes. Extremely happy with it so far.

how did you seed your tank to get the cycle started? Also you sold me on the Tropic Eden reef flakes for my tank...

 

Hopefully you wont be FOWLR for long. Pics of your previous reef tank were stunning. Your tank is my long term vision.

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I personally prefer live rock from the ocean, but the LFS that do marine stuff no longer carry it, and just carry dry rock, and tank aquacultured man made rock which may have bacteria but is devoid of other life forms live rock from the ocean has.

 

But everyone has their own preferences.

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burtbollinger

how did you seed your tank to get the cycle started? Also you sold me on the Tropic Eden reef flakes for my tank...

 

Hopefully you wont be FOWLR for long. Pics of your previous reef tank were stunning. Your tank is my long term vision.

Thanks buddy :) I'm tough on it because I laid out with any thought about shapes, color, depth or overall look... aiming to be slower and more deliberate this time.

 

this tank, I started cycle with an ammonia solution my LFS gave me, combined with a bottle of something called Fritz Turbo Start 900. Others will tell you they dosed ammonia and other nitrifying bacteria...not sure if one is better than the next. Plenty of threads you can find will suggest different things.

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I have had uncured rock, LiveRock (boat delivered from Fiji), man made rock, and dry rock (BRS).

I really like the uncured rock for the diversity you get in, but you WILL get pests like rock crabs, mantis, flatworms, bad snails or what not. That is not an if- it is a will be there. You can deal with that best if it is the only thing in the tank and goes through a cycle and manual removal.

Dry Rock is my next favorite as you get a blank slate to work with. Then you can add a single rock from a fellow reefer or even a cup full of sand to get some stuff started. You will however limit the diversity.

I have to disagree. Not everyone gets horrible pests. Its not a fact.

 

You can bring in all those things via corals as well.

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I used Reef Cleaners dry rock. Then I seeded with live rock. Honestly I regret doing this, as I seeded the tank with live rock that had brown flatworms and hydroids. Was lucky that it wasn't a species of flatworm that gets out of control. If I ever restart another tank again, I plan on going dry rock and sand, than go one of the ammonia + bottled bacteria routes. Comfort of a clean start. Then it is all up to you and how you treat your corals/fish before adding them to your tank.

 

Just my experience and thought. So many options to choose from, it's all part of the fun in this hobby.

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so you recommend along with LR the use of marine pure rock....ok! i didnt even consider the blocks.

 

No I said

On the other hand meaning-(physacticly looking at the bright side of man made rock) (IMO)

... Most people use marine pure blocks even with normal harvested rock.

If you use man made you would HAVE to use them blocks to house your benifical bacteria.

 

Btw normal dry rock is actually my perferance

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Thanks buddy :) I'm tough on it because I laid out with any thought about shapes, color, depth or overall look... aiming to be slower and more deliberate this time.

 

this tank, I started cycle with an ammonia solution my LFS gave me, combined with a bottle of something called Fritz Turbo Start 900. Others will tell you they dosed ammonia and other nitrifying bacteria...not sure if one is better than the next. Plenty of threads you can find will suggest different things.

How does one get mircrofauna and pods to grow in your tank if you dont start out with LR or live sand? Is there something you can buy that will seed fauna and pods?

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burtbollinger

No I said

 

If you use man made you would HAVE to use them blocks to house your benifical bacteria.

 

Again, I'd I consider this bad advice. You don't HAVE to use it.

 

How does one get mircrofauna and pods to grow in your tank if you dont start out with LR or live sand? Is there something you can buy that will seed fauna and pods?

 

you can seed via a few different methods. very easy.

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I disagree Burt

 

He's saying to use marinepure because live rock makes nitrate, not consumes it, as the old material said. SD has a good call. we are doing that as we speak in my town, lr+mp to handle the nitrate. removing sandbeds etc

 

the old info about lr consuming nitrate was wrong for 90% of the tank feeding population. its not that water changes wont export the no3, but what we're seeing with marinepure additions is it makes the system run like live rock was supposed to do in 1998. taken in from the water and de gassed

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burtbollinger

I am not anti Marinepure...I use it in my sump...my argument is that I don't think you HAVE to have it. I have a problem with someone with zero experience tossing around rules about what people HAVE to use.

 

(if you say it helps, I trust your earned experience, and I will I believe it more from you than I'll believe it from someone with ZERO reef tank experience.)

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flatlandreefer

I like dry rock because you can smash it up easily and create the aquascape that you want. It is quite a bit cheaper so you can order extra to get the rock shapes you want and if you want to add a little bit later to tweak your scape you can just throw it in for the most part. I also like the additional control of pests entering the tank, aptasia and nuisance algae mainly as well as the occasional predator.

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Is the man made rock as dense as real LR?

 

I guess the real question is if i buy 20lbs of the man made rock will i get more physical rock than i would if i bought 20lbs of Fiji LR? I trying to decide how much of the fake rock i should buy for my RSR 170? 20lbs? 30lbs? 40lbs?

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burtbollinger

When you say "man-made"....I'm thinking of two purple colored varieties I researched: Walt Smith 2.1 or CaribSea Life Rock?. I would not recommend the Walt Smith 2.1 as discussed above....I can't give an accurate answer on the density question... Anticdotally, I think that the Walt Smith 2.1 I have is not as porous, and its why I stuck some Marinepure in my sump.

If I chose the CaribSea Life rock I'd go with 20-30 lbs in your 34g display. I do not know its actual makeup, but I'd consider also using a 8 x 8 x 1 plate of Marinepure in the overflow wall of the sump. One major hangup here is that the CaribSea only comes in 20lb increments...pricewise, this is not ideal...this would leave me seriously looking at Reefcleaners.

_______

As far as the Reefcleaners dry rock that was mentioned above...I think that might be different ballgame. I don't think I'd call it "man-made." I think if I went with that, I'd go with 30 lbs and not use all of it if not needed, depending on the scape you want. As for density....I don't know. I bet its just fine though. I've heard its very porous. I hear lots of good things about it.

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Caribsea life rock is aragonite, its not fake rock.

 

Each type of dry rock including liverock is different in porosity so its pretty hard to determine.

 

I used tufta rock in my old 55g with liverock. I had no issue with biological filtertion, coralline grew on it, it ws great.

 

Ppl have used holey texas rock in reefs.

 

For 34g liverock, dry rock, caribsea liferock, i go with 20-30lbs regardless

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_______

 

As far as the Reefcleaners dry rock that was mentioned above...I think that might be different ballgame. I don't think I'd call it "man-made." I think if I went with that, I'd go with 30 lbs and not use all of it if not needed, depending on the scape you want. As for density....I don't know. I bet its just fine though. I've heard its very porous. I hear lots of good things about it.

 

I've been very pleased with the dry rock from reefcleaners, it does seem to be very porous, I have bristle warms living inside mine that I would never have believed possible. I think in my display section (22 gallons) I run less than 15lb's. Than in my Sump (30 gallons of water), I might have another 10lb's. So I only run 25lb's of rock in my 52 gallons of water.

 

 

 

Is the man made rock as dense as real LR?

 

I guess the real question is if i buy 20lbs of the man made rock will i get more physical rock than i would if i bought 20lbs of Fiji LR? I trying to decide how much of the fake rock i should buy for my RSR 170? 20lbs? 30lbs? 40lbs?

 

I suggest purchasing extra rock that is of quality, and instead of worrying about the amount you have, get the aquascape you want. Once you are done, you may be surprised by the amount you actually end up using. I would also look into alternative reef frag racks as viable options to help scape, they are ceramic and well designed.

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