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M. Tournesol

My first and actual reef tank (5 months old) was started with 100% wet live rock.

 

My opinion on this choice is paradoxal:

  • I hate it. I got a crab (dead), a mantis(alive) and a lot of undesirable algae (my reef is green).
  • But, I also love it. The biodiversity is so much entertaining and the stability gives me the possibility, as a noob, to have a struggling but growing seriatopora hidrix in a 7 gallons 2 months after setting up the tank.

 

it's a good thing that algae doesn't bother me too much 😉.

 

 

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IMO, dry rock comes without pests, but is a blank slate for new pests.  It will have to mature; and in the process, go through several "ugly stages".  It's usually not ideal to keep corals through these pest blooms.  Mature, live rock (taken from the ocean or a healthy, mature reef tank), has the biodiversity (bacteria, coralline algae, pods, micro inverts, etc) which tend to help compete with these blooms.

 

Personally, I would prefer good live rock over dry rock.  However, if using dry rock, at a minimum, I'd seed it with some good live rock.  Ideally, allowing time for the life to spread before introducing predators (like fish, crabs, etc).

 

I feel that the main advantage of dry rock is that you can build some epic aquascapes using aquascaping mortar.  Starting with dry rock isn't a recipe for failure or success.  But (like most reef things) requires some patience and might require some different keep keeping methods.

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I want to add a bit more rock to my tank. I have plenty of dry rock. Just can add it now. Its been sitting outside in a basket for a while.

Was looking a live for the speed of adding. Also considered putting some of the dry in a bucket with water from my tank and a PH and letting

it run for a while. I just don't know how long it will take before I can use it.

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I feel that when adding any rock to a tank with livestock, it's a good idea to cure it first.  With live rock, you should cycle it in a separate container until ammonia becomes undetectable.  Dry rock sometimes contains dead organics which can produce ammonia, so curing it like you would live rock isn't a bad idea.  Ideally, I like to use the fishless cycling method for dry rock (to establish a working biofilter on it) prior to adding it to a tank with livestock.

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[Ideally, I like to use the fishlesscycling method for dry rock (to establish a working biofilter on it) prior to adding it to a tank with livestock.]

 

@sea bass

 

That’s the way to do it.  Except I used aragonite sandbed with a reverse flow Undergravel filter to establish nitrification bacteria.  This 55G tank is 2 months old with Gulf live Rock 30 days out of the water.   I bought uncured live rock for several tanks.  In the case of my 25 yr mature 75G tank with 30G EcoSystem mud/macro refugium, I removed macro and converted 30G macro algae refugium to a cryptic refugium.  The best of the 150 lbs of live rock went into 25 year tank which also has reverse flow UG filter.
 

https://gulfliverock.com/premium-deco-live-rock

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gulfsurfer101

Different stokes for different folks! When adding liverock that's been taken from the ocean your are adding anything and everything that is riding in that rock including and larvae and spores. Dry rock is a clean slate and you get to choose what you add it your system. Of course it only works if your methodical about how you qt and introduce coral and livestock into your system as well. I mean what's the point in taking months to start up a system nice clean and pest free then you buy a bunch of coral from a guy selling everything in his tank because of aptasia, algae, & pests and you go and dump it right in. Much like how you handle your affairs in your pants, prevention is key!

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@gulfsurfer101
In theory, you may be right about controlling everything by starting out from scratch with sterile.  I haven’t found that provides long term success.   It is my experiences, diversity of micro fauna & fana provide a more stable system that is not so fragile.  The tank pictures I showed was a 25 yr mature tank.  
 

A few yrs back, an individual on this forum grew phytoplankton in an outside birdbath without introducing a phyto culture.  The culture was transported in by the air.  During the thread I researched where dust from the Sahara desert settled into Gulf Cost states with a phytoplankton that hadn’t existed for 100 million yrs.  Apparently, the Shara was an ancient sea until tectonic forces pushed Africa up.  The point is “good luck on controlling the air that your reef tank uses”.  Good luck on selectively controlling microbes in the body slime of fish & coral.  Considering that 100 million yrs dormant phytoplankton dust blew 3000 miles and incubated in an open container of water, I will quote Jurassic Park, “Nature will find a way”.
 

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  • 2 weeks later...
gulfsurfer101
On 5/24/2021 at 8:28 AM, Subsea said:

@gulfsurfer101
In theory, you may be right about controlling everything by starting out from scratch with sterile.  I haven’t found that provides long term success.   It is my experiences, diversity of micro fauna & fana provide a more stable system that is not so fragile.  The tank pictures I showed was a 25 yr mature tank.  
 

A few yrs back, an individual on this forum grew phytoplankton in an outside birdbath without introducing a phyto culture.  The culture was transported in by the air.  During the thread I researched where dust from the Sahara desert settled into Gulf Cost states with a phytoplankton that hadn’t existed for 100 million yrs.  Apparently, the Shara was an ancient sea until tectonic forces pushed Africa up.  The point is “good luck on controlling the air that your reef tank uses”.  Good luck on selectively controlling microbes in the body slime of fish & coral.  Considering that 100 million yrs dormant phytoplankton dust blew 3000 miles and incubated in an open container of water, I will quote Jurassic Park, “Nature will find a way”.
 

A lady in Chicago also claimed that the wind blew the cocaine into her purse when asked by police. The wind can be a gangster however I won't find that mfkr in my house putting bubble algae and verm- snails all up in my tank if I don't add them first!

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On 6/1/2021 at 8:52 PM, gulfsurfer101 said:

A lady in Chicago also claimed that the wind blew the cocaine into her purse when asked by police. The wind can be a gangster however I won't find that mfkr in my house putting bubble algae and verm- snails all up in my tank if I don't add them first!

I don’t consider the pest you mention, bubble algae & snails, to be much of an aggravation and are easily controlled compared to the amount of work required to eliminate all pest.    As you said, to each his own.  While I can document the validity of Shara dust in Gulf states, I question the validity or the relevance of Cocaine Dust In Chicago.

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I am a big fan of live rock. Zero algae issues and many cool hitchikers. I have a mix of hand picked gulf from my LFS and KPA I ordered online. I really love the KPA. 

 

There has been no negatives. I cycled it in a bin and removed some crabs and such. 
 

The result has been a very easy to maintain tank I can practically neglect. No algae issues. 
 

 

1B1C35CC-F8E3-4D27-BE27-2DCC7F8A2148.thumb.jpeg.d567272e3e0eaa9e1402e81c8c459ca6.jpeg

 

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17 hours ago, Tamberav said:

I am a big fan of live rock. Zero algae issues and many cool hitchikers. I have a mix of hand picked gulf from my LFS and KPA I ordered online. I really love the KPA. 

 

There has been no negatives. I cycled it in a bin and removed some crabs and such. 
 

The result has been a very easy to maintain tank I can practically neglect. No algae issues. 
 

 

1B1C35CC-F8E3-4D27-BE27-2DCC7F8A2148.thumb.jpeg.d567272e3e0eaa9e1402e81c8c459ca6.jpeg

 


 

kudos on your display.  Very nice.

 

To your point about being easy to maintain, I see the reef ecosystem from a holistic point of view.  With that in mind, bringing a functioning natural, healthy ecosystem into a tank startup is the best move I ever made in 50 yrs of Reefing.  Until I got diver collected uncured live rock, I had no idea of what “real” live rock looked like.

 

PS. Because my focus is ornamental seaweed & filter feeders, this is 3 month old 30G display.  First picture is without blue light.  Second picture: white at 10% and blue at 100%.  Third picture:  white & blue each at 10%.

 

 

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