Why did you choose all dry rock to start your reef tank?

[a.t.t.r]

TBS, local pick up, real ocean live rock.

Yeah does not make sense to ship for a small tank.

 

[Mikeltee]

I started with live rock 40 years ago. I've done both live and dry tanks many times since. The key is patience, with both approaches, and you'll avoid the uglies.

It's interesting that nobody has mentioned live sand. The 'Ocean Direct' live sand works great when combined with dry rock. I just got a bag shipped to me in the middle of winter and my dry rock tank cycled just like it had live rock. I guess bacteria don't discriminate in what they tag along on.

I also continue to add bacteria after a tank is cycled and established. When I add Aquaforest life source corals open up and color up.

I bought into the Life Force snake oil and used a 1000g bag over the course of two months. IMO, it was a waste of time and money and now I have chuncks of mud in my sand. Using live sand is probably the best way to get natural ocean bacteria into your tank while having the best chance to avoid pests. My 130gal display cycled in Dec from bottled bacteria has been incredibly slow. The rock is Phosphate bound and it's now down to .1ppm. It started at over 2ppm. Dinos just showed up today. I'm going to get some live sand as I don't feel that bottled bacteria is enough. I used Tim's, Microbacter7 and Microbacter Clean. I won't be adding any coral until the rock is covered in coralline. I just got a new batch of phyto cultures and had the option to add some coralline flakes so I did.

In another 40gal tank, I used 95% fresh Marco Rock and 5% Cycled rock from a LFS. I got dinos 2 days later but it was never bad. I was able to blast it all off everyday. I immediately started dosing silicates. The dinos have been about 95% gone for a month, but ill dose silicates until the rock is covered in coralline. This tank was put together Christmas day.

Going forward, I will cycle tanks with fresh Marco Rock and live sand and no bottled bacteria. I'll check out Ocean Direct as TBS hasn't shipped in awhile. This is an option that I am unfamiliar with.

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Dinos comes from bacteria? have you more information about this?

Symbiodinium, the zooxanthellae in corals, are dinos.

The second largest group in the phytoplankton. About half of the known species of dinoflaggellates are photosynthetic, the other half are heterotrophs, some of which are mixotrophic.

ref: dinoflaggelaten

 

[Belgian Anthias]

I started with live rock 40 years ago. I've done both live and dry tanks many times since. The key is patience, with both approaches, and you'll avoid the uglies.

It's interesting that nobody has mentioned live sand. The 'Ocean Direct' live sand works great when combined with dry rock. I just got a bag shipped to me in the middle of winter and my dry rock tank cycled just like it had live rock. I guess bacteria don't discriminate in what they tag along on.

I also continue to add bacteria after a tank is cycled and established. When I add Aquaforest life source corals open up and color up.

Why one should add bacteria to a conditioned established tank? Which species or clades of bacteria could you add to a conditioned aquarium that are not already present? If living conditions are favorable, certain bacteria will grow better than others. You can add as many bacteria as you wish, it will make no difference unless it disrupts the natural balance between the species. Every animal you add contains a diversity of bacteria that you will never be able to add with commercial preparations.

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Why one should add bacteria to a conditioned established tank? Which species or clades of bacteria could you add to a conditioned aquarium that are not already present? If living conditions are favorable, certain bacteria will grow better than others. You can add as many bacteria as you wish, it will make no difference unless it disrupts the natural balance between the species. Every animal you add contains a diversity of bacteria that you will never be able to add with commercial preparations.

 

[Opae]

I don’t like the idea of airplanes full of rocks, I think the environmental impact of dry rocks is better.
And a lot of life rocks are dead anyway if they aren’t 100% fresh from the airplanes.

 

[jabberwock]

I don’t like the idea of airplanes full of rocks, I think the environmental impact of dry rocks is better.
And a lot of life rocks are dead anyway if they aren’t 100% fresh from the airplanes.

"Airplanes full of rocks". Does anyone really believe this is what is happening?

Is Amazon moving goods around the world in 2 wheeled donkey carts?

 

[gbroadbridge]

"Airplanes full of rocks". Does anyone really believe this is what is happening?

Is Amazon moving goods around the world in 2 wheeled donkey carts?

I'm pretty certain Australian Live rock does not arrive in the US by donkey cart.

Maybe Amazon have a top secret teleport device.

 

[jabberwock]

I'm pretty certain Australian Live rock does not arrive in the US by donkey cart.

Maybe Amazon have a top secret teleport device.

Several legal mariculture companies here in the states. I would not buy live rock from Australia and shipped to the US just due to time in shipping = die off. I doubt the plane is "full of rocks"...

Maybe they could pull the Donkey cart with a jet ski?