Aquascaping with Real Reef Rock

[yevgenb]

Hi guys,

It's one of my first post here since I'm at the planning stage curretly. My tank and lights is on the way and before it's wet I'm trying to decide how to scape it. I'm coming from high-tech planted tank so a little spoiled by aesthetics and small details
Trying to decide between using dry rocks from reafcleaners of real reef rocks and have some questions about pros and cons:
1) Will I get "instant cycle" with real reef rocks?
2) How hard to scape it compare to dry rocks? If I keep it wed during drilling/scaping - will it be sufficient to save it's bio-load? How long I can keep it out of the water? In the planted tanks world we sprinkle water to the plants during scaping and covered it with paper towels to keep wet - will it work for saltwater reef rocks?

Thanks!

 

[MondoBongo]

no. you will not get an instant cycle. i used these to start my tank initially and it took several weeks to cycle full, as normal.

if i were starting over again, i wouldn't have got the real reef rock, or at least not as much of it. it's not as porous as i would have liked.

i would start with mostly dry rock, scaped to my needs, and then add some regular live rock, or maybe a little of the real reef, to help the cycle along.

i don't think it was any harder or easier to work with than real rock. you will want to keep it wet though during transport and when you're working with. when you're working with it, having a bucket or tub standing my to let it sit in does well, during transport, wet newspaper wrapped around it does a decent job.

all things considered, i would save your money, start with mostly dry rock, get a couple of regular pieces of live rock, and then use some probiotic and pure ammonia to cycle.

the dry rock is easier to scape with, since you can work with it in a number of different ways, without having to worry about keeping it wet.

 

[yevgenb]

Thanks Mongo, interesting to know - I thought it's "live" and full of bacteria already to easy cycle.

 

[MondoBongo]

Well it is live rock, depending on how it's kept. It's certainly not a bad rock, one nice thing about it is that it is relatively low density. So you get a lot more volume per pound than with traditional rock.

But any live rock can be prone to cycle as its capacity to convert nh sizes to fit your bioload.

 

[yevgenb]

I'm not sure if it's has low density - I tried to weight it and compare to fuji it feels heavier.
Hard choice - I have never cycle SW tank and not sure how long it would take dry vs rr.

 

[yevgenb]

Bit the bullet and ordered reef cleaners dry rocks - lets go with proven path!