opinions on starting with dry dead rock

[kylemagoo]

Anybody know that pros and cons of starting with dry dead rock from a source such as macro rock?

[davelin315]

Time. If you start with dead rock it'll take you time to get it full of bacteria. Other than that, as long as you rinse it well you should be fine in a couple of months. If you seed it with live rock as well you will be good to go even sooner as you won't have to wait as long for the bacteria to develop. The other drawback (from what I understand) is that you need to cure it so that it doesn't mess your pH up, but I didn't do that with the small amount I used in my system due to total water volume.

[FishyTim]

Are you adding additional rock? or starting a new tank?

 

 

I started my current tank with about 80% dry rock, the rest was cured live rock.

 

The tank had a normal cycle. I havent had any ammonia spikes from "lack" (meaning I dont think there is) of bacteria....

 

I will do it again when I upgrade the tank, it certainly will save you a couple bucks..

Edited March 17, 2009 by FishyTim

[Brian Ward]

you'll save a ton of money. need to add fish slower so you give the bacteria population time to multiply and keep up with your increasing bioload. overall, i'd say there isn't much of a downside. check out www.bulkreefsupply.com - they have eco-rocks you can use, and you can also make your own with some concrete and crushed coral. We had a demo of it at frag fest last summer. i'm sure the thread is around here somewhere, just do a search.

[varora]

i think seeding some established sand in addition to a seed rock may also speed up the process

 

here is a guide to DIY

 

http://www.garf.org/LEONELS/LeRoyS/rock.html

Edited March 17, 2009 by varora

[flowerseller]

Take your dry rock and place it in a tub with a power head.

Tank water from a w/c and add it to the tub along with some live seed sand as far in advance as you can.

Exchange water from main tank to tub until ready to set up.

[sen5241b]

Starting with dead rock will greatly reduce the number of potentially harmful hitchhikers (and some algaes like bryopsis) that you will have in your tank. Eventually you will get some hitchhikers that come in on snail shells or in the water from an LFS. But starting with dead rock will definitely mean fewer hitchhikers then you would get from LR cured on the ocean --like Tampa Bay Saltwater's LR.

[jamal]

my troubles with aiptasia combined with me moving is making this sound like a good idea.

[Stephen]

I've used dry rock with live rock from my own tanks in the last few tanks that I've set up. Usually a 95% dry and 5% live rock ratio. I'll replace the live rock I took out of one tank with dry rock. It gives me the peace of mind about introducing hitchhikers or things I don't want. If you have the patience dry rock with a small amount of really nice live rock (hard to find ime) is the way to go.

[lancer99]

I started my 75G with about 80% Marco rock, the rest cured live rock.

 

It's the first time I've started a tank without 100% live rock.

 

I got a cyano bloom a couple of months in, which lasted about three months...but I knew it was just the tank getting into balance, so didn't decrease feeding or lighting...and the cyano disappeared over night.

 

The only long-term effect that I'm not happy with is that some of the rock is still very white....there's coralline growing on most of it, but a few of the rocks stay stubbornly white.

 

-R

[zygote2k]

Dry, white rock will usually stay white for a long period of time after everything is established. It will take many times longer for your tank to develop the flora and fauna of tanks that are started with live rock. IMO, all tanks should be started with live rock. We're trying to make some semblance of the reef, right? A better way to go about this and save yourself some money, is to buy a large amount of fresh coralline covered base rock and buy a few pieces of premium live rock to properly develop the flora and fauna of your new ecosystem. You'll miss out on tons of things if you go the way of the dead rock. Nuisance algae will have an easier time establishing a foothold on dead rock as opposed to live rock. You'll have to buy all those critters normally associated with premium live rock at a much higher price than if you'd gotten them naturally.