Live Rock vs Dry rock

K

Kwikdraw

New member
As you can see I am brand new to salt water aquariums. I've been reading this forum on and off for a couple of years contemplating setting up my own tank. Well I finally decided to give it a try. I recently bought a 75g tank. I will probably start setting up my tank within the next 30-45 days.

Most of my questions have been answered just by reading this forum.
However, I do have to two questions that I can not find much info on.

1. I decided to use dry rocks instead of live rocks. How do I get the Coralline on the rocks. Do I "seed" the dead rocks with Coralline?

2. I live close to the beach. Can I use salt water from the beach to setup my aquarium?
 
I'm a newbie too, but I'll try to help.

1) Live rocks aren't about coralline, they're about bacteria. I guess if you really want coralline you could get some scrapings from someone else and drop them in your tank. But it's mainly about making sure you get the beneficial bacteria that the tank needs for ammonia/nitrite control.

If you go with dead rock, then at least get a couple of pounds of live sand from an established tank (not a bag of 'live sand' from a store) to seed the tank with... and be prepared to wait a long time for it to be ready.

2) You could... but I wouldn't. Seawater close to shore has too many chemicals in it. It's just easier to make the water you need.
 
+1 to the above. Using only base rock will make your cycle take a very long time 4-6 mths. By adding in a couple pounds of " live rock" you could shorten this probably to 2-3 mths. If you get sea water be sure to go far offshore to get it. ( mile or 2 )
 
Generally, people don't get 100% base rock. You really want to have some live rock. Put the live rock on top of the base rock. True live sand will do the trick as well, but it's really not the most effective method. As for coralline, it will come. As OgreMkV alluded to, that's really not anything you have to worry about initially. You can have a cycled and perfectly healthy tank with absolutely no coralline.
 
Thanks for the replies and advice. I will go with at least 10% live rock and some live sand from an established tank. This being my first saltwater tank I was trying as much as possible to avoid any unwanted hitchhikers. I should have no problem getting some sand and coralline scrapping from an established tank. Even though the tank might be cycled it will look "dead" without the coralline :)

Thanks again.
 
Hitchikers are inevitable. They come in with your coral, fish, chaeto, etc. Everything in these tanks is alive, and that's a lot of the fun. You'll be amazed at how much stuff is in your tank during the cycle alone. Most things are OK in your tank and just add diversity.

I try to but livestock from my local LFS or other people in my area. That way I can see what I am buying. Check to see if you have a local reef society. You can get a lot of help that way.

If you're freaked out by the prospects of hitchhikers, there's nothing that makes you say, "Hey, I didn't put that in the tank" like checking the tank at night when all the lights are off.
 
SleepyJ,

Actually I was looking forward to using LR to cycle my tank. I want as much diversity in my tank as possible and LR is the way to go. But being new at this the risks out weighs the rewards. I guess if I was more seasoned I would go with the LR. My main concern was the coralline but I guess that not a problem.

cdness,

Good question. Lets see what the experts say.
 
I really wonder about products like the one you're talking about, cdness? The Chemistry forum may be a better place to ask, but I just they're as effective as just using live rock and/or live sand.

Kwikdraw, as has been stated, hitchhikers are pretty inevitable. But along with the bad comes a lot of good. You'll hear the term "biodiversity" used quite a bit when talking about live rock and sand. Different microorganisms in your tank are better at certain specific functions. The greater variety you have, generally the better. This is purely conjecture on my part, but I'd say for every bad hitchhiker, you probably get dozens of good ones. It's just that most of them can't be seen. Cost is the absolute only reason I wouldn't get 100% live rock. You can always quarantine your live rock to make sure it's not bringing anything really nasty.
 
Posted the question in the Chemistry forum:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1442128

Unfortunately I started with all non-live rock/sand (Dry live rock). I was told by a local reef friend that it will cycle fine and it looks like it is cycling (Ammonia is down to 0 and NI is almost to 0 NA is high). I just want to make sure I have what I need in the tank before adding the fish I have in QT while it cycles... I'll keep an eye on this thread for more info! Thanks fr posting the original question kwikdraw
 
hey u could just get premium fiji base rock and seed it with about 10 lbs of LR, it will be a while before the bacteria populated the base rock. but then u will have all LR in the long term. This hobby is all about patience... And if there are a reef club or a friend nearby that happen to have a reef tank, u could just ask him for a small rock with coralline algae on it, if possible pay him. then put that rock near the powerhead and let the powerhead blow the coralline algae throughout the tank. As for hitchhikers, I'm sure there are none in Premium fiji base rock, cause they dry the rock out in the sun for like 1-2 months before they sell it to u, so nothing would survive the instense UV rays. For the LR, I recommend u getting some good quality ones, cause that will speed up the " seeding" process. Good luck with watever ur choice is ( If I'm wrong, everyone please correct me)
 
It's not a terrible idea to quarantine things like frags before you put them in your tank, to avoid *unwanted* hitchhikers. However, half the fun of LR is the stuff that comes in on it. Starfish, brittle stars, worms, snails, you name it it can come in on LR. As was stated above, biodiversity is the name of the game in a reef tank. All that will happen is your tank will be more stable :)
 
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