Seeding Dry Rock

[tiredreefer]

I am still in the process of setting up a new nano tank. I have been a long time reader on the forums and decided I would post my first project here. First I will mention there are a lot of ways to skin a cat but I have compiled my reading on seeding rock and came up with my own way to experiment with.

I still have not decided on the tank I want as I have a few already sitting around but do to limited space of kid takeover I am leaning heavily to a biocube 29. While I am in the process of making up my mind I wanted to go ahead and get the rock seeding.

Here is the equipment:

32 gallon brute trash can will be reused for water mixing
75 GPD BRS RO/DI Plus system highly recommended
200W Finnex Heater will be reused
Hydor Evo Nano 425 will be reused
Maxijet 1200 pump will be reused as return pump
50 lbs. Marco Rock
5 lbs. Garf Grunge
Reef Crystals Salt

Do to the limits of LFS in my area I decided on the grunge as I have no one in the area to get sand and such from. The point of this seeding is to control the unwanted. Yes I know diversity and all the other debates that are out there and I will tackle the diversity problem at a later time. This is purely expiremental with hopefully a good result.

Water Paramaters: Ca: 450 mg/lt, PH: 8.3, Salinity: 1.025, Temp: 80 Degrees

Picture Time:

RO/DI Unit

Brute Trash Can and a Couple 5 gallons cans for water changes and cleaning.

Brute Trash Can filled with approx. 25 gallons of RO/DI

Koralia Nano

Maxi-jet 1200

Finnex 200W

50# Marco Rock

 

[tiredreefer]

5# Garf Grunge Original

All the rock in the Brute.

Garf added onto the rock pumps off for 10 minutes.

Pump back on.

After 10 hours starting to clear up.

Assuming I need to feed the bacteria something to help with seeding and spreading of the Coralline Algae? Was thinking a little flake?

 

[SkullV]

You won't get much Coralline without lighting, and feeding a little flake once a week can't hurt but there should be enough die off from those Marco rocks to fuel the cycle (those are ocean mined rocks right?). Alternatively you can get a raw cocktail shrimp and drop one of those in every week or 2.

Other then that, I would have put the garf grunge on the bottom to keep it off the rocks and just let the microfauna make their way up into the rocks. Shouldn't hurt anything though.

Looks good.

 

[tiredreefer]

Thanks and yes most of the grunge went on the bottom I mixed some on the rocks as I might rotate them in cleaning. From my understanding correct me since I am new at this but corraline is a low light algae and should be able to grow with limited light. I was going to expose the experiment to light for a couple hours at a time to allow some growth but wanted to keep it minimal to prevent nuisance algae. They are dry marco and from my understanding are mined from a dead reef and then washed and baked. There should be no die off on them that is why I was assuming there needs to be some kind of feeding of the bacteria since no fish or anything will be present for a long period of time. Like the flake idea more than getting killed by the wife for shrimp hanging out.

 

[Dr. Fish]

Looks like a good idea if you have the extra time.

I love Macro rocks, but I would have just tossed them in the tank with some live sand and let the tank cycle and cure the rocks at the same time.

 

[chrishet]

I started my tank with all base rock...once the tank cycles dose two part to get your Ca levels up, get a bunch of Astrea snails to keep the bad algae from growing, and add a small established piece of live rock to seed the coraline...and it will grow...once it starts it will spread - and don't worry it will....I don't think there is anything you can do to speed this up, patience is key...then you will love it, then you will hate it...

 

[SkullV]

Thanks and yes most of the grunge went on the bottom I mixed some on the rocks as I might rotate them in cleaning. From my understanding correct me since I am new at this but corraline is a low light algae and should be able to grow with limited light. I was going to expose the experiment to light for a couple hours at a time to allow some growth but wanted to keep it minimal to prevent nuisance algae. They are dry marco and from my understanding are mined from a dead reef and then washed and baked. There should be no die off on them that is why I was assuming there needs to be some kind of feeding of the bacteria since no fish or anything will be present for a long period of time. Like the flake idea more than getting killed by the wife for shrimp hanging out.

Washed, dried, baked does not change the organic matter deep in the rock. I wouldn't worry about coralline right now. Just cure them in complete darkness to prevent any pest algae and your coralline will come when they are in the tank. Also if you don't add rock with coralline it will never just show up. Not sure if there are any shavings/spores in the Grunge.

 

[tiredreefer]

Yeah I am very impressed with the rock for sure took a long time in deciding that so haven't decided on the exact tank yet otherwise I would have done it in the tank however all the items I got so far will be reused in the end in one way or another. Trying to clear out some room for a tank since the invasion of 3 kids under 3.

 

[tiredreefer]

Washed, dried, baked does not change the organic matter deep in the rock. I wouldn't worry about coralline right now. Just cure them in complete darkness to prevent any pest algae and your coralline will come when they are in the tank. Also if you don't add rock with coralline it will never just show up. Not sure if there are any shavings/spores in the Grunge.

True on that from my understanding and reading on the grunge it is a mixture of sand, mud, crushed rock, and coraline scrappings. I am still looking for rock a little weary on shipping and it not sitting for a while. I am unable to get anything local as I have no lfs within 5 hours of me besides a big box store which I will not buy live items from.

 

[SkullV]

I'm sure there is a local reefer that you could find a piece of rock from. You could probably trade, since the likelihood of 50lbs of dry porous rock looking right in a 29g is slim. Just too much rock!

 

[tiredreefer]

I had contact with one over a year ago but being in the military not sure where they are now no local clubs that I can find but I am looking all the time. Thanks for the advice and such. I have the patience of a saint so I am in no rush to perfection.