Liverock From Established Tanks

[LoneRanger]

I am installing a 309 gallon tank in our house as a room divider, and I am wondering if I could gather enough liverock from various tanks in the state of Florida to fully stock my tank?


anyone think this is a viable idea?

the house is being built north of Ocala, up towards Williston-


L.R.

 

[TheGrog]

If you get enough dead baserock, then "seed" that with peices of live rock, it would work great! The thing is that it takes some time for it all to become live. If you are willing to wait a month or two (with the right conditions), it is a good way to go.

That is how I did it. I have only bought around 10 pounds of LR in my life......and I have well over 120 pounds in my system! ALL of it covered with coralline (and coral).

You can speed things up with good water parameters, high Ca and alkalinity and moderate lighting. Then every week or so take a peice of the "seed" LR and hold it in front of a powerhead and gently scrub it with a toothbrush. That will cause some small (microscopic) peices of coralline and bacteria to flake off and flow throughout your tank.

Hope this helps!!

 

[LoneRanger]

I think I need to cover some gas money and a beverage of choice for some of you "local" reefers to give me a hand! LOL


this is begining to become a very lare project, but I know in the end it will be worth it!


L.R.

 

[MitchReef]

Yeah Ranger, I gotta say I have said I want one rock from EVERY clean tank in Central Florida....If I could find the thread, I could show you the very words....I am a STRONG proponent of biodiversity, and unfortunately I am scratching and clawing to have enough rock to successfully stock my current project, but would happily work a swap for a similar piece at some point....

They don't even need to be big pieces, just the diversity....I have Florida, Fiji, Marshall, Tonga and Tonga Fusion in my 29 gallon reef....

 

[LoneRanger]

wow, thats like "all of the above" lol


I regestered on the ORCA site (forums) but for somereason it is taking a Looooong time for me to get a confirmation e-mail.

I am patiently waiting!


L.R.

 

[chrisstie]

Honestly, if it were me, I would do the rock seeding thing. In a tank that size depending on what you are stocking you may only need like 150-200lbs of LR. From what I have researched there is that 1lb / gallon "rule" but to what point in such a large tank does it begin to change?

Also, I would be extremely careful about what rock you get from other peoples tanks. Many may have pests they don't know about- or critters they are fine with but you may consider pests. This isn't meant to insult anyone here, but is just a word of caution because you may not know exactly what you'll be putting in such a big tank. I would assume one so large would be a project you would want to make near perfect, not spend time wishing you hadn't bought that one piece of rock.

A good example is my own. Algae hitchiked in from I don't know where. Never saw it on anything at all ever that I put in my tank but one day, tadaa, an invasive form of caulerpa you need to kill by putting it in your freezer before disposing it showed up in my tank. Maybe it came from some fish poo on a new fish, or was microscopic on a frag or piece of rock and hadn't grown yet.

Either way, while it is a bear to fill, it would be cheaper and "cleaner" to seed with a little bit of good quality LR and hope for the best and let patience be your friend

 

[jay24k]

I'd buy like 50 pounds of live rock from someone breaking their tank down and then the rest get base rock. It should be enough to support 1 or 2 fish without any ammonia outbreak. Just take it slow so the rest of the rock has time to build up the bacteria throughout it.

It's what I did on my 180.

 

[LoneRanger]

LET IT BE KNOWN~ I do not want a fish tank. LOL


give me a handfull of clowns and an anenome or various corals for them to host in and let the CORAL GROW! I very much want a maintince friendly setup and am stryaing away from fish.

L.R.

 

[jay24k]

What is the issue with fish? If you want corals, you should have fish. What do you think feeds the corals? A nutrient defecient system is one that doesn't do well. Many believed this to be the key but have realized that fish really do help corals grow and have great colors.

On a side note, what type of corals are you going to be adding? I'm assuming maintenance friendly means softy and lps as SPS do require a bit more care. I'd set the tank up and then let it set for at least 2 months before adding corals.

 

[LoneRanger]

I should have rephrased that!

I meant I dont want a super heavy bio load on my system. I would like some type of smaller fish that would school together. I seem to see a lot of small tanks say 100 gallons or less that people slam up with large tangs, and other "impressive" fish. that just doesnt do it for me.

sorry if I sounded to anti-fish LOL


L.R.

 

[MitchReef]

Check out some chromis....they school beautifully....

 

[jay24k]

They will school till they feel safe. Fish school mainly for one reason: protection. Once they feel safe, they will stop schooling. With Chromis, eventually they will spread about more.

 

[Mattmcf]

agreed, if you do not have a large fish to keep them in line they will spread out. I have 8 chromis in 220 and they school because i have a large naso that finds it entertaining to chase the strays back into the school.

 

[TheGrog]

not to mention a tang helps keep some of the algae down and cleans up the tank a bit.

 

[rdnyva]

LoneRanger - When we moved 2 years ago, I broke down my 90, dried out all the LR and transported it here. The 90 is now my sump and after reseeding the now base rock and adding some more Lr it is now live rock again. It does'nt take long to become LR and, after all, PATIENCE is the key to this hobby. No to mention the $$$ you will save that can be put to better use on equipment or livestock.