how come people don't use live rock in their fry raising tanks

[MarineTeng]

in Joyce wilkerson's book live rock was not suggested, though not condemned either, to used in a fry raising tank, are there any disadvantages to using it? it seems like it can only help with water quality

 

[JHardman]

Who says LR is not a big part of a rearing system and who says it has to go into the tank with the fry and not in the sump for the system?

 

[MarineTeng]

it just wasn't mentioned, not mentioned as bad in joyce wilkerson's book as i said above, also i kinda figured sumps for larvae/fry systems might suck up a bunch of them, i was just wondering if there's any down sides to using live rock in your larvae/fry raising system, my thought intially was why wouldn't it work, so that's why i asked

 

[Rod Buehler]

I keep a little LR with some of my older fry.

 

[phender]

Fry tanks tend to be heavily fed. They also tend to have low current. Live rock tends to collect a lot of detritus in that situation. There are also lot of critters in the live rock that we don't/can't always see. Some of these like to eat little fry and/or compete for their food. Live rock also makes it more difficult to remove uneaten food.

That being said, it is not unusual for people to put liverock in their grow out tanks once the the babies get a little bigger, but even then, liverock in the tank, just tends to make things more messy and more difficult to clean.

 

[MarineTeng]

ah i see, that makes sense well fry are still a long ways away for me though, thanks for the answers