mcarroll Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 TBS says they culture their rock for "years" and that's under ideal conditions in the ocean. It's hard to imagine it could take any less time in a brand new aquarium. But if you're patient.....well, it seems like there are better uses of a person's patience level. Start with live rock and use your patience elsewhere. Good coral choice -- very beautiful! Not sure if they're as "evil" toward stony corals as mushrooms are, but that would be my only "red flag" I'd throw up. Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 15 hours ago, mcarroll said: Good post! And I get all that, logically speaking.... But if I were in the beginner's shoes I'm not sure any of that would add up. It's not a cheap hobby no matter how you slice it. Skimping on live rock is NOT the right place to save money. (Instead, buy used equipment, or even used rock. Much more sensible.) If more fish or corals die in dead rock tanks, that would more than offset any imaginary "eco-friendlyness" from using dead rock.* Folks with dead rock DO end up with pests at least as often as live rock....maybe more. Just different ones, and later instead of sooner. Is that "better"? As for shapes, I can't comment specifically except to note that the rock becomes essentially invisible once corals grow over it....and the rocks are there for the corals and fish, not me. Also, you can MAKE cooler shapes exactly like you want them with DIY "live rock" compared to what you can buy already-dead. This would have a chance of being more eco-friendly, if only a little. * Eco-friendliness a big assumption in the first place....live rock supply was primarily a by-product of other human activities, so could be considered a "sunk cost" or not even associated with the hobby. What we call live rock is commonly used as a raw building material for things like roads and airport runways where it's from. Not sure if this practice has changed, but seems doubtful....gotta have building materials and there's not much else around there. (hope that wasn't a big repeat...lol) Oh it can be a pretty cheap ass hobby... lol... I got some expensive stuff now but look a few years back... some of my tanks.. I got free - ya.. they were leaking so $5 silicone fix and set them up. I used ancient koralias I got for $10 for the pair, a used chinese fixture to make it even cheaper, coralife salt (cheap!), a cheap RODI ebay special, and reefcleaners dry rock which I still use. I had NO budget for live rock, none. Most people are probably in the middle but plenty of noobs come in here in college or in a position with very limited funds. I never had problems keeping coral alive with dry rock unless it was SPS/acros. LPS and Softies do just fine in about anything. I love live rock... I do think it is the way to go but.... saying coral will die with dry rock is an overstatement, there shouldn't be any significant losses unless your dropping acros in after cycle. There are many examples on this forum of tanks with dry rock that are thriving. I think scape matters hugely even with corals covering it. It can be such a dramatic beautiful effect. I think this is something our hobby lacks and needs to get better at. Hello freshwater people! I envy your talent. Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 1 hour ago, Tamberav said: Oh it can be a pretty cheap ass hobby... lol... I got some expensive stuff now but look a few years back... some of my tanks.. I got free - ya.. they were leaking so $5 silicone fix and set them up. I used ancient koralias I got for $10 for the pair, a used chinese fixture to make it even cheaper, coralife salt (cheap!), a cheap RODI ebay special, and reefcleaners dry rock which I still use. I had NO budget for live rock, none. Most people are probably in the middle but plenty of noobs come in here in college or in a position with very limited funds. I never had problems keeping coral alive with dry rock unless it was SPS/acros. LPS and Softies do just fine in about anything. I love live rock... I do think it is the way to go but.... saying coral will die with dry rock is an overstatement, there shouldn't be any significant losses unless your dropping acros in after cycle. There are many examples on this forum of tanks with dry rock that are thriving. I think scape matters hugely even with corals covering it. It can be such a dramatic beautiful effect. I think this is something our hobby lacks and needs to get better at. Hello freshwater people! I envy your talent. That's the kind of saving I was talking about! Still not cheap compared to lots of hobbies. 😄 I'm glad you and anyone else with positive experience using dead rock has had it....I just wish your experience was more universal. Me saying coral or fish may die is speaking from experience in helping MANY MANY others (maybe literally hundreds of folks...never counted) with tanks that slid downhill on dead rock. It happens. Live rock doesn't generate the same problems as dead rock. Most likely to impact inverts. Dead rock doesn't generate the same benefits as live rock. Most likely to impact system stability and fish health. (check out the quantity of folks on my old dino thread on R2R if you're still wondering about this at all...thousands of posts...almost 100% dead rock cases) I have no doubt there's a right way to do dead rock.....but newbs don't seem blessed with this knowledge. 😉 Which really isn't fair to say about newbs....without naming actual names, some of the biggest names in the hobby have had the same/similar bad experience with dead rock. There's a good reason folks used to bleach their dead rock weekly back in the days before live rock. Folks would even have two sets of rock so one could be bleaching while the other was in the tank growing nasty stuff. Wow. 😄 Quote Link to comment
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