Ocean Rock help please

[steviep]

hi I've started a aqua one 90 and I went with Ocean Rock is a natural alkaline rock more suitable for marine, hardwater cichlids, Brackish and coldwater due to its buffering capacity. 

This product will raise your ph This is Not Live rock.

ive also added Dr Tim's one and only plus some live rock from my tank to my sump I'm upgrading from. Have I made a mistake with with rock ?

 

seems to be a lot of conflicting views on this rock, if it's goto to come out and be replaced so be it I just need to know now.

 

livestock to go in from old tank is 2 clowns and a bta and soft corals, obviously not for a while.

 

the reason I went with this is because I've had some bad experiences with live rock introducing pests in my 2 nano's in the past.

 

TIA

 

Steve

[ReefGoat]

I guess my question is why didn't you just go with regular dry rock? Like reef savers or the dry rock from billy's reef connection or something similar if you were worried about pests. I also think you're confused on what "live rock" actually is. Even dead dry rock becomes "live rock" once it's placed in a tank and cycled and matured. The "live rock" is basically just a porous rock that has been cycled and has an established bio-film on it that has strong and established beneficial bacteria to keep your tank stable and from having ammonia spikes. That's what makes it live. Albeit a more simple "live" than some of the VERY expensive and high quality TRUE MATURE LIVE ROCK you can find on the rare occasion. Which is becoming more rare because of restrictions and just the eco-friendly direction the hobby is swaying, along with inevitable slow death of the LFS in most areas. I mean there are even fake man made rocks like Life rock and a few others that aren't even "rock" as we think of at all. Those are some kind of concrete mix I believe. With all that said, yes the rocks that you have will  absolutely become LIVE ROCK in due time...............The brand ocean rock that you are referring to just isn't as porous as other types of rock used in reef tanks. It just doesn't provide the maximum surface area that porous rocks like people use in reef tanks do. I've read of some people using it as base rock though. 

[steviep]

Thank you for your reply, where I live people are selling rock either dead or alive but when I've been to looked at it I wasn't convinced it was even coral or sea rock they were selling, the live rock I've seen even in my local lfs was covered in aiptasia and this has caused me all sorts of problems in the past in my others tanks and on top of that they are trying to charge way to much for it, my uncle who has been keeping reef tanks for the past 30 plus years said when he started he used any rock that looked good because reef rock just wasn't available here. It's just the lfs has now told me I've used the wrong rock and I'm starting to get nagging doubts or it could just be they've missed out on a sale and aren't happy about it. Either way advice is always welcome 

[ReefGoat]

[ReefGoat]

That's my rock. I got it at billy's reef connection for like 70 bucks for 40lbs and free shipping. Was sitting on my front porch like 4 days later. 

[ReefGoat]

I guess I wouldn't say that it's the wrong rock. But just not the ideal rock because it's not porous. Thus leading to less area for the bacteria to colonize. Meaning your tank will have a weaker (smaller?) bio filter than a tank with more porous rock. I guess if you didn't want to change out your rock you could in theory add some tiny marine pure spheres in your back chambers. They offer MASSIVE surface area in a relatively tiny package. However.........if this were my tank. I'd be changing this stuff out purely on an aesthetic basis. It would bother me to no end. But that's just me. Perhaps you could post a picture of your aquascape. 

[steviep]

That's a great deal but here at my lfs would cost 250 bucks and I'd have to collect it, I'm thinking maybe use the other rock and cover it with live coral rock, plus I do have live rock in my sump already

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, steviep said:

That's a great deal but here at my lfs would cost 250 bucks and I'd have to collect it, I'm thinking maybe use the other rock and cover it with live coral rock, plus I do have live rock in my sump already

Where are you located? UK?

 

 

Liferock by caribsea is not cement, its aragonite rock injected with bacteria and fantastic to work with. Love it.

 

https://caribsea.com/aquarium/#

 

 

If you are in the UK

 

https://www.completeaquatics.co.uk/brands/caribsea

 

 

[steviep]

That's a great deal but here at my lfs would cost 250 bucks and I'd have to collect it, I'm thinking maybe use the other rock and cover it with live coral rock, plus I do have live rock in my sump already

 

This is the rock 

 

[ReefGoat]

I stand corrected then on the life rock. But I had some and when I was using a chisel and a metal mallet to break it into smaller pieces for my scape. It most certainly seemed like some sort of plaster or concrete. Because when It would break up some pieces would turn into a powder and just break up into tiny fragments. It was rather messy..... I like the rock but when you have to break the giant pieces they send you up. You're left with a white mess. No pretty purple paint. That's the only complaint I had with it. 

[Tamberav]

That is texas holy rock and people have used it in FOWLR and as base rock in reef tanks. I would go ahead and use it if you want, just be aware it has smaller surface area for bacteria. 

On 11/28/2018 at 11:39 AM, steviep said:

That's a great deal but here at my lfs would cost 250 bucks and I'd have to collect it, I'm thinking maybe use the other rock and cover it with live coral rock, plus I do have live rock in my sump already

 

This is the rock 

 

 

[dling]

Here's an example of what you can get on line cheap compared to  whats sold as live rock . https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bulk-dry-live-rock-live-sand/dry-live-rock.html

If you already have rock in your sump that will seed this rock very quickly and then it's all live rock.