Aquacultured Live Rock vs. Dry Rock

[olive]

Since I've decided to go with a 10 gallon, I have realized that I now have the budget to do live rock. I was looking into the aquacultured live rock from Florida, but there are so many pros and cons. I've heard that live rock can prevent long ugly stages with nuisance algae, as well as that dry rock can leach phosphates and silicates over time. so here is my question:

 

For those of you that have use dry rock - What were your "ugly stages" like? Do you believe your dry rock is leaching anything?

For those of you that use aquacultured live rock - What brand did you use? What was your cycle like, or was there one? Is the extra cost worth the biodiversity?

 

Thank you!

[squamptonbc]

My last tank was set up with dry rock, first 4-5 months was pretty ugly and worse than I ever had when setting up tanks with live rock from the ocean, I don't think it was the dry rock leeching anything though, just the lack of biodiversity in dry rock, can't exactly easily replace the biodiversity live rock from the ocean brings. I never had any horrible hitchhikers most were pretty cool. 

 

If I could get aquaculture in the ocean live rock I would, but not in the US so can't easily obtain it.

[Penguin Reef]

I recently started my first dry rock tank and I personally wouldn't do live rock again. Last Live rock I acquired had coral eating crabs, bryopsis, and vermetid snails. Yeah you do also get the goods like sponges, feather dusters, and mature bacteria to kick off your cycle, but I just used bacteria in a bottle plus multiple pods from algae barn. In my opinion... not having to dealing with pest is better then trying to find ways to add biodiversity.

 

With Dry Rock you go from White Rock to Diatoms(Brown) to Green(Ugly's) then Dark Green. I would also add Coraline Algae in a bottle to get the purple stuff growing. While with Live Rock you usually already have it covered with Coraline.

[olive]

8 hours ago, squamptonbc said:

My last tank was set up with dry rock, first 4-5 months was pretty ugly and worse than I ever had when setting up tanks with live rock from the ocean, I don't think it was the dry rock leeching anything though, just the lack of biodiversity in dry rock, can't exactly easily replace the biodiversity live rock from the ocean brings. I never had any horrible hitchhikers most were pretty cool. 

 

If I could get aquaculture in the ocean live rock I would, but not in the US so can't easily obtain it.

I really want to avoid as much of the ugly phase a nuisance algae as possible, so that makes me lean more towards live rock. Thank you!

 

[Elizabeth94]

I recently added live rock from KPaquatics because I started with dry rock and the tank was way too sterile. I would absolutely buy live rock again and I am actually thinking of ordering more to completely replace my dry rock. You can see all the photos on my build thread of the live rock. I got no crabs, just a pencil urchin and various worms. You can always do a high salinity dip of the rock to help get the crabs out. 

[growsomething]

3 minutes ago, Elizabeth94 said:

I recently added live rock from KPaquatics because I started with dry rock and the tank was way too sterile. I would absolutely buy live rock again and I am actually thinking of ordering more to completely replace my dry rock. You can see all the photos on my build thread of the live rock. I got no crabs, just a pencil urchin and various worms. You can always do a high salinity dip of the rock to help get the crabs out. 

Hey Elisabeth, I also wish I'd have waited and got all live rock.   The dry Pukani is glued to the back wall, though 👎.  There is plenty of time for the KP rock to be cut and broken out of the water without killing anything.  I did get dozens of small red crabs, dead, in my 10lb shipment.  Mithrix, I think.  No crabs made it alive, I think.  There is supposedly no chance of aptasia, and a lower chance of pest crabs in Keys rock vs gulf rock, but from what I've seen there is a lot more coral, sponges, and macro on the gulf rock.  Maybe keys rock is suits both your concerns and desire for instant life, Olive.

[olive]

1 hour ago, Elizabeth94 said:

I recently added live rock from KPaquatics because I started with dry rock and the tank was way too sterile. I would absolutely buy live rock again and I am actually thinking of ordering more to completely replace my dry rock. You can see all the photos on my build thread of the live rock. I got no crabs, just a pencil urchin and various worms. You can always do a high salinity dip of the rock to help get the crabs out. 

 

57 minutes ago, growsomething said:

Hey Elisabeth, I also wish I'd have waited and got all live rock.   The dry Pukani is glued to the back wall, though 👎.  There is plenty of time for the KP rock to be cut and broken out of the water without killing anything.  I did get dozens of small red crabs, dead, in my 10lb shipment.  Mithrix, I think.  No crabs made it alive, I think.  There is supposedly no chance of aptasia, and a lower chance of pest crabs in Keys rock vs gulf rock, but from what I've seen there is a lot more coral, sponges, and macro on the gulf rock.  Maybe keys rock is suits both your concerns and desire for instant life, Olive.

Thank you so much!

[Penguin Reef]

4 hours ago, olive said:

I really want to avoid as much of the ugly phase a nuisance algae as possible, so that makes me lean more towards live rock. Thank you!

 

I think your confusing nuisance algae. It’s just the color of the rock that changes color. You get no GHA, Cyano, Bryopsis (nuisance algae) etc since you don’t introduce it.
 

If you don’t want to deal with pest and nuisance algae... minimize the risk by knowing exactly what is going in your DT.

 

Sometimes certain methods work for different situations. People who use dry rock have had success and failures and the same can be said with live rock.

 

[mcarroll]

On 2/23/2020 at 1:48 PM, Penguin Reef said:

You get no GHA, Cyano, Bryopsis (nuisance algae) etc since you don’t introduce it.

A high percentage of those tanks with dead rock seem to have algae problems of all sorts. 

 

Very often it's dino's...which are a threat to livestock and potentially even to the reefkeeper...I don't think it can get worse than that. 

 

By comparison, dino's are almost unheard of in live rock tanks.  "Exceptions that prove the rule" so to speak.

 

On 2/23/2020 at 1:48 PM, Penguin Reef said:

People who use dry rock have had success and failures and the same can be said with live rock.

That's like comparing a mountain (success with live rock) to a mole hill (success with dead rock).   

 

While covering up the fact that the mole has fleas.  😉)

 

Dead rock can function, but so can this bag of nicely-finished gravel:

That's because anything -- any surface -- can be a bio-filter.

 

The main "problem" is that dead rock brings NO SPECIAL BENEFITS to a reef tank.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nothing.   

 

It is just bio-media. 

 

And live bio-media is not live rock -- not even when it started as dead rock.

[squamptonbc]

I have to say I can't recall many dino issue threads back before dry rock was so common. If not for the imaginary line between Canada and the US, I'd order live rock so quickly if I could, but all I find now is dead rock stores put in water, or real reef rock, or a variety of dry rock, real quality live rock is basically impossible to find these days here.

 

Sure I had a few pests, and even got a small eel in one shipment once, but didn't take me more than a couple weeks to deal with the pests at the very start, and the amount of life in my tank, I never been been able to recreate that with dry rock. Talking small life, and neat things that came along with live rock.

 

Miss those days.

[Tamberav]

I have used both but prefer live rock. I often mix both.

 

Fear of pests is over-rated. Also typical coral dips do not kill algae spores or even aiptasia. No amount of dips/scrubbing gets every spore. Sure you can avoid crabs/mantis and such, but those are not overly difficult to remove in a small nano. A person may feel different in a large tank where catching a rogue crab may be a nightmare. 

 

Tampa has the most life since it is shipped in water. You will also get the most amount of pests since everything is submerged. Some have even gotten live fish. Many have no cycle at all from it. You have to pick it up at an airport. 

 

Gulf live rock is 2nd and will often come with live corals. It is very dense/heavy and the shapes are blah but it is wonderful for diversity and cheaper to buy than Tampa for smaller amounts. It is shipped priority so 1-4 days shipping depending where you live. It is shipped wrapped in wet paper towels. You can pay more to upgrade the shipping. 

 

KPA does not have many pests but the shape of the rock is beautiful, as wonderful as dry rock shapes. It will still have coralline and bacteria diversity and some algae. Some people find crabs/mantis. It is shipped overnight in wet paper towels. Cost is higher than Gulf, probably due to shipping. You can pay more to have it sent by airport (and I am assuming submerged with water instead like Tampa).