seeding diy live rock

[culinaryninja73]

I am setting up a new 80 gal. reef. I made my own rocks back in june '05 and am finally done curing them (oyster shell & portland cement). How am I going to get these rocks alive? Is as simple as floating a piece of protein in the water until bacteria grows, or will some critters from a sandbed seeding move into the rock? I am looking for the optimum diversity of critters in the rock and sand bed.

 

[michaeldaly]

I'd suggest buying a few pieces of good quality live rock and use that to seed the DIY rock

 

[culinaryninja73]

How long would that take to get enough filtration going to support a cleaning crew

 

[michaeldaly]

When your tank cycle has completed

 

[WaterKeeper]

Hi Ninja,

What's cooking?

Mike is right on in suggesting use use some real LR to seed your homemade rather than counting on a piece of shrimp to add all the bacteria you need. The process is slow and even slower without true LR to help you along. The true test is when you see some coralline growing on the base rock. That tells you that the manmade rock is well seeded and light loading of the tank is now possible.