Aquascaping, anyone used dry rock ?!?!?

[badazztealcobra]

Well Im in the process of starting up my tank and it seems like no matter what I do I cant get the 45 pounds of live rock I bought from various CMAS members to fit together in a decent way... It ends up being a big pile of rock that just doesnt look good, or if I try to make it look good it is completely unstable. I was thinking about stopping messing around with it and buying some dry rock so I can work on it outside the tank and cut it, drill it, epoxy it, etc.. without having to worry about how long it has been out of the water.

Has anyone done this with the dry rock, if so how long did it take till the rock actually started looking good, getting coraline, etc.... I have some really good looking pieces of live that I could seed the dry rock with, I just dont know which way to start....

Any hints/suggestions for me ?!?!?

Anyone want to buy 40 pounds of live rock and 30 pounds of LS for $80 ???

 

[archieb2]

Live rock

Live rock

I am intersted in the lr and ls. If possible could you post some pictures or email some to me? As far as how long it will take to seed your base rock, I am not real sure. For the coraline, your lighting and water movement can make a big difference. I have added some man made lr (agrocrete) to my tank and wthin a month it starts to get some coraline growing on it, and looks good in a couple of months. I hope this helps!

 

[Rod Buehler]

When I have the chance (setting up new tanks.), I like to aquascape with no water in the tank. It is much easier to get a good stable structure, and also to be able to see what you are doing The live rock will be fine for an hour or so . You may have a little die off but nothing too severe that it would cause a huge spike.

 

[Paul B]

My reef was started with dry rock that I collected in the Caribbean and Hawaii. It will look just like the rest of the rock in time. In a year you will not be able to tell the dry from the live rock. My rock is covered in life and almost none of it was live when I put it in there. As a matter of fact a lot of it is homemade from cement and I have no Idea which pieces I collected and what I builtTo give you one example, how old does this coral encrusted bottle look?
It is a wine bottle only a couple of years old and that coral on it is cement.
Paul

 

[badazztealcobra]

Its not like the rock I have in there is bad, just not coming out at all like I had pictured it in my head, but I think in order to pull off the look that I really want that im going to have to use dry rock so I can drill it and grind it and epoxy and rod the pieces together... I would keep a few of the pieces of LR that are really covered in coraline to try to seed the new stuff, but who knows...

 

[paininthewrasse]

I'll take the 40 lbs of LR. PM me w/ your location

 

[badazztealcobra]

Im going to have the LS and LR for awhile until i get the dry rock in and done right..... I will be selling it as soon as Im done with the dry rock.... I will repost as soon as I get it ready.

 

[badazztealcobra]

well I ordered a 50 pound box of fiji dry rock from marcorocks.com and also ordered a bunch of epoxy and acrylic rods to piece the stuff together. Once I get this together, I will be selling the LR and LS.... some of it is more of a base rock, and some of it is some really good coraline encrusted fiji with button polyps and the like on them already... Ill post it once I get the new aquascaping done...