Dry rock, should I add any bacteria?

45bravo

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So I've been out of the hobby for a few years, about 6, because I started working out of the country and haven't been home more than about a month every year. That might end within a year or so though well see, I'm a little tired of it. In this time I've had a home built and I'm about to finish my basement, actually most likely be the beginning of next year, and I've planned for a large aquarium since before they even started to build the home, whole fish room and everything.

Everything has been ordered, tank, stand, custom sump/ calcium reactor/ ATO reservoir, salt, rock, sand, etc. with the exception of electronic equipment that I know tends to have problems, lights, controller, and power heads. However I do have all of my rock, about 260 lbs of Marcos dry rock (assorted types), and my girlfriend who lives at the house has been setting a lot of this up, at least moving everything from being delivered to the basement, she takes a lot of the things like the rock and takes it down one by one she only weighs like 100 lbs so i know it's a lot to her. (The UPS driver hates me, you can tell on the cameras how ticked off he is when hes lugging those 60 lb boxes up to the porch) I've had her set up a 100 gallon stock tank with my skimmer from my previous aquarium, a 6000-SSS, on a stand to elevate it along with 2 MP40W ESs from the same prior tank. And its also hooked up to an auto top in a 40 gallon brute trashcan that's about half full so she doesn't have to mess with it that often. I had her go ahead and start placing the rock in the stock tank, at least as much as she can, it may not all fit, I did tell her I could order another stock tank and she can connect them with uni-seals. I walked her though the steps and she just doesn't want to mess anything up which is fine. She's already surprised I trust her to do all this stuff, but its not like she can really mess anything up at the moment.

With that rock in there should I just go ahead and order some bacteria, maybe even live pods after it's not full of ammonia and nitrite? (i.e. Dr. Tims, Microbactor) It's going to be a while obviously till I use it, but I'd hate to just waste that time that it could have been cycling and growing a huge pod population. I know she doesn't care about throwing some food in there occasionally to keep the cycle going if she has to it's not a big deal and it only takes a minute to do. (I haven't brought up the water changes shell have to do on the stock tank yet, whoops.)
 

Dbichler

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Perfectly fine to add bacteria. If you want pods also add phytoplankton regularly. Only water change would be 100% change as soon as no ammonia and then it can just sit until ready.
 

EMeyer

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Bottled bacteria do very little in the short term and not really anything in the long term. Since it doesnt sound like you're rushing things, I suggest a little live rock and / or live sand instead, which do contain bacteria that can survive long term in the tank.
 
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45bravo

45bravo

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Bottled bacteria do very little in the short term and not really anything in the long term. Since it doesnt sound like you're rushing things, I suggest a little live rock and / or live sand instead, which do contain bacteria that can survive long term in the tank.

True I'm not in a hurry at all, however I don't want any kind of hitch hikers at all to be introduced, mostly aiptasia, I can handle whatever else and with no substantial food source most anything else would die shortly anyways. I also already have 120 lbs of dry sand, which in reality probably would have been more surface area overall vs the rock.
 

blasterman

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My thought on this.

If you can go through the effort of ordering bacteria in a bottle you can go through the additional effort of ordering live rock, even a few small chunks. LR is a proven success to seed new tanks with. Not so bottled bacteria.
 
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45bravo

45bravo

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My thought on this.

If you can go through the effort of ordering bacteria in a bottle you can go through the additional effort of ordering live rock, even a few small chunks. LR is a proven success to seed new tanks with. Not so bottled bacteria.

I get what you mean, I've only ever used live rock to set up aquariums. I've never used any type of dried rock before, that's why I was asking about the bacteria and how long its going to be sitting. It's essentially an aquarium just without glass and no mechanical filter, with the exception of the skimmer, it will all just be biological.

In this case however I just wanted to start with an essentially sterile system so I don't wind up with any undesirable guests along for the ride. Going though it this way I believe I'll wind up with a large population of various pods when I set the rest of the aquarium up, basically just an 8-12 month head start on the population.
 

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