Are you using live rock?

[LRT]

What is said old school approach of cleaning and curing sir, I have some live rock I am about to cure together with dead reef rock and some nice shaped mined rock in a dark vat to avoid pests, yet get a good microbiome.

When I got into this hobby somewhere around 96. One of my lfs i frequented literally took his live ocean rock outside and power blasted/cleaned his ocean rock with his power sprayer. He did this on several occasions throughout his cycle and cure process before he sold his really good rock. He would sell it straight out of the box with dead and dying stuff on it for much cheaper.
What he accomplished by curing this way is fast removal of unwanted algae, dead corals etc. Im finding out now that also means super fast reduction of Nitrates and Phosphates along with all the other benefits of removing undesirable algae and critters.
You could did this in separate container really easily in pretty record time depending how diligent you are with cycle and curing the rock. Would be a great way to seed your "dead" rock.
I had my fiji rock sitting in sump with gulf rock and by 6-12 months together. My fiji rock was pretty well seeded with all the fan worms, bivalves and sponges that came on my gulf rock.

 

[Schraufabagel]

I love the option of using CaribSea life rock. It’s the happy medium of no hitchhikers while still providing some of the benefits of live rock from the sea

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I just ordered my second order of k.p premium live rock and its pretty good rock at a decent price, I mention it because I was very happy with them and its not mentioned yet. Thank you

 

[ying yang]

When bought my tank 5 years ago and all the research before and after and up till I set up my tank ,was reading or watching lots you tube videos and got scared about all the pests and such so thought ok I buy dry rock and only get in tank what I put in,but even though I dip all corals and shake vigourously to dislodge worms and pods and such,i never added any critters but my rocks and sand covered in large variety of different size ampripods and copepids and munnid isopods plus other woodlice ( roll poly) bugs and spider looking bugs and lots different worms so I soon found out I won't only just get what I put in lol and wished I got at least 2- 3 big chunks of real ocean live rock as get more enjoyment from all the critters after lights out ^_^

One day I will try aquire at least a little piece of good live rock from my lfs and hopefully get some more bio- diversity .
I'm about 8 months in and my ugly stages not been that bad really,I see some threads of lots gha few inches long and dino's and some crazy crazy ugly stages but that hasn't been my experience ,I have currently got some brownish algae on rocks but urchins are doing great job of mowing it down and can see clear clean rocks where they been and just keep adding more cuc as and when needed ^_^

 

[ahiggins]

Live rock used to be the norm. Then dry rock became more popular, with the ability to control exactly what goes in. Recently, it seems theres a strong push back to live rock. What camp are you in?

I started my tank with dry rock years ago and have never added live rock, but I plan on adding some when i upgrade and get a larger tank.

I 100% believe in a pestless tank but it comes with major drawbacks. Mostly the cyano/Dino breakouts. Dinos are the absolute worst. Now that my tanks are over 5 years old I don’t really deal with anything “new” and they’re pretty self sufficient for the most part. I’m doing a new display tank this week and I’ll use dry with seed rock from my current tank. About 50/50. I don’t trust my lfs and I can’t afford the super amazing ocean live rock lol

 

[Reefahholic]

I’ve done both and prefer dry rock, because you can take as long as you want aquascaping and avoid several annoying pests. In a few years it’s basically the same if you seed it and add the right organisms. I couldn’t tell any major differences after it became established. My Acro’s grew about the same. It’s harder in the beginning which is why some people tend to shy away from it, but others have the patience to wait for it to mature. Both work well and I guess it really comes down to personal preference. Some people really like all the critters. The rock I’ve had brought in Stomatella, Vermetid Snails, Bristle Worms, Pistol Shrimp, Feather Duster’s, Aiptasia, Spirorbis Worms, Other misc worms, Hydroid’s, Spaghetti Worms, Peanut Worms, etc. The list goes on. For me it was always another battle because I’m OCD with my reef. If you’re not, you may welcome those critters.

Good luck!

 

[BadSquishy]

I started with dry rock and some very old, very dead dried out reef rock this time around. Partly because I didn’t want pests, but mostly because of the sustainability aspect. Half the world’s reefs are already gone. I didn’t want to help destroy them faster. Plus, eventually real live rock will no longer be available and we’ll have to find good methods of establishing a diverse biome in our tanks from scratch if we want to keep our hobby alive in the future. I figured starting with dry rock (plus buying aquacultured corals and captive bred fish whenever possible) would be an interesting experiment towards that goal. Bonus points if I can manage to keep aiptasia out!

 

[ScottB]

I do some project work for my LFS, namely when he sells a "larger" aquarium and the people want a picturesque mixed reef system "out of the box". People that have a large budget or carte blanche. So, yeah, not that often.

Anyway, the only way to start these with a minimal ugly period is with all live rock. My LFS buys 800lbs of live rock at a time and then we stuff it in all of the store sumps. (Obviously, there is no copper in these systems, just fish & coral.)

Within a few days of filling with water, we stock the fish over two weeks. A week or so later, I stock the tanks with zoas, feathers, gorgonia, torches, LPS, SPS and even acropora. I would never do that with a dead rock start.

Here is the last build we did together. We lost 1 fish to combat wounds, and 2 species of coral (Pavona Maldivensis and purple stylo) while the rest are sailing along nicely. Live rock and fairly heavy bioload & filtration really seem to make a big difference when you want a reef to look good on a timely basis.

Large Build - Welcome to all the fun: setting up a 12 foot reef tank

Firstly, this system is not my own. I am merely an assistant to the building, stocking, and maintenance process. I will list my functions later in the thread for anyone who gives a fish-poo about it. Spoiler alert: I only have to do the fun/interesting parts. Mostly, anyway. Second, it is not...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Timfish]

I wouldn't set up a reef system without a good quality maricultured live rock (I get mine air freight from GulfLiveROck.com) In difference to @LRT expericnces in the 90s my mentor who started keeping reefs in the 70s would only do a quick initial inspection and removal of dead organism before placing in tanks to sell at his LFS. I ahven't seen this posted yet but this article shows the advantages in using a quality live rock in esptablishing a healthy microbiome

Establishing a Healthy Microbiome in a New Aquarium Using Live Rock

Studying the effects of live rock in a newly established aquarium shows that high-quality live rock promotes the rapid establishment of an effective biological filter and a microbial community similar to those found in mature reef tanks.

www.reef2reef.com

As far as pests go, the vast majority I've gotten have come from other aquarists not from live rock. And the one pest that has caused more dieoff and killed more fish over the decades I've been keeping reef systems are BTAs. IMO all the hype about pests on live rock is from fear mongers. Will there be pests? Sure. But any coral can be a pest if it starts outgrowing it's neighbors and I can't think of a fish I've had killed by a mantis shrimp or goriilla crab but I've had quite a few killed by tank mates before I could rehome someone. The techiniques needed for keeping a system healthy and minimizing aggression are the same one used to isolate and remove the occasional pest encountered on live rock.