"Dry" rock a problem?

[madweazl]

I was reading an article this evening that resonated a bit based on my own trials and tribulations the past year. Over the course of the last 20 years, I've come up with my own list of dos and donts that I have loosely followed while thinking I could do no wrong with all my "wisdom" but I've certainly had hiccups along the way (more than I'd care to admit).  

 

Last year when I kicked this new tank off I thought I'd go about it a bit "smarter" than years past and use mostly dry rock in an attempt to save money and to a lesser degree, reduce pests. In years past, I'd always been a huge proponent of using live rock but saw a couple positives in using dry rock when it came to cost, reducing the pillaging of the reefs, and minimizing pests (I really only cared about aiptasia as I have no problems with anything else in live rock with the exception of the occasional crab). 

 

For roughly six months, things were going really well but things were a changing. I was doing a lot of reading on the web and had convinced myself to give something like the balling method a shot. Now, I've always been huge on recommending water changes as one of the single most beneficial things you could ever do for a tank so this was huge step in the other direction but hey, 20 years had passed since I had started doing this and things may have changed over the years. Well, the only thing that changed was how my corals were looking and they were fading fast; I lost two of the three acroporas that I had along with an undata. The surviving monti cap was rapidly dying off and I had little hope of reversing what ever it was that was going on. I tested the water and all seemed to be fine; at the time, the only thing I was doing different (that I recognized) was that I hadn't kept up on regular water changes. After a couple weeks, I started getting my butt in gear and was more diligent about the maintenance aspects of the aquarium and things started to respond and rebound. I was never able to ascertain exactly what caused the die off when parameters "looked" appropriate but then I stumbled across this article and it made me wonder, could this have been a contributor? Unlike Michael, I actually did have two pieces of Fiji live rock in the tank (5-6lbs and roughly 50lbs of dry rock) but it wasn't much. 

 

So my question is, have any of you that have gone largely dry rock, did you have a similar experience to Michael and Sanjay? If not and you used dry rock, was there something you did differently that produced the results you got (outside of the tank maturing beyond the first year)? 

[Squishie89]

That is really interesting, and kind of scary for me because I am doing an all dead rock tank.

 

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[WishNewFish]

Thanks for sharing your experience and this article.

[sen5241b]

Used tons of dry rock never had a problem but I always use at east a little live rock too. And article's author said after problems started he starting "manipulating" things but "dry rock" is the cause? I am not convinced.

Edited July 13, 2017 by sen5241b

[cpu933k]

I think the article's author didn't cycle properly. It took me over 12 weeks to cycle using dry rock, Dr. Tim's, and dosing ammonia. He cycled the tank by soaking the dry rock with tank water (of which there will not be much bacteria in the water) for 6 weeks and added some bacteria cultures (maybe he did not add enough), but it also didn't seem like he had a source of ammonia,

[Origami]

Just goes to show that even somebody like Mike Palletta can experience similar frustrations like the rest of us.

 

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[arking_mark]

Read the article, but am not convinced. Theory has to be that the rock and coraline algae is out competing the coral for nutrients. My bet is they were both under feeding their respective tanks. Mature rock is always contributing to the nutrient levels of the tank. If your tank is spotless, I bet there is not enough nutrients for the coral to thrive.

 

Corals in my tank had similar issues and I started with dry rock. Water parameters were solid tank was 9 months old, but everything seemed to slowly fade away. I upgraded the lights to a custom built LED. Still not sucsessful with SPS / LPS.

 

Then I got my OSF and Cardinal fish that required frequent feedings. Suddenly, EVERYTHING started to grow like nuts. Soft coral and hard coral alike. With this growth came some unwanted algae...but hey, that what the cleanup crews are for. I am now a strong believer of feeding your tank.

 

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[dpassar12]

Way too many changes for me to believe the problem was only the rock.  

[treesprite]

"Life Rock" seems to be a good compromise between dry rock and live rock, because it is infused with live dormant bacteria, which will revive when the rock is put in the water. I have some, but it is mixed with other rock and at this point, it isn't that easy to tell them apart.