Live Rock as random source of livestock

[wooden_reefer]

I want to buy some live rock as a random (opportunistic) source of livestock.

I will not cure it. It will be placed into my show tank directly after it has been cycled independently. My deliberately purchased corals will be place around and on top of such live rock (long before placing any fish). Any comment? Am I taking the chance that such random source of other live stock would hurt my corals? Toxic chemical warfare, unexpected predation, undesirable prolifiration of some species, etc.

I think I need to get the freshest live rock. Collected yesterday would be best.

How to get the freshest live rock?

Has anyone done the same? Is there insight as to the source (parts of the world and special name and classification of LR etc)?

For now, I plan not to use cured LR as biological filter. I plan to set up nitrification and denitrification biological filters separately. I have had partial success with deep gravel filter and denitrification coils to keep nitrate low, even in heavily populated tanks. I think I just need to do better (deeper, bigger, longer); considering the lighter biological load, I think I'll be OK in terms of nitrate.

Thanks

 

[racrumrine]

Except for the chance that you would introduce something bad to an established tank, your idea has been proposed before.

The idea is that certain creatures die off in our tanks. If you introduce a fresh rock from time to time, you expand the number of species again.

Perhaps a decent compromise would be to dump a fresh rock in a QT. Watch it for a few days and see if there any any obvious pests. Then, place it in your main tank and see what happens.

Let us know how it turns out.

Best of luck,

Roy

 

[acrohead500ppm]

adding uncured rock into a fully lit tank spells aglae problems
if you have started a new tank then only run your atinics for 3 mo. with aggressive skimming then slowly increase lighting.