Dry Rock
- Thread starter kp33
- Start date
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“Dry rock” like Marco rock, CaribSea dry rock. Is literally just rock, mostly mined limestone used to build structures and decorate your tank, once in your tank it will eventually be colonized by bacteria, algae and such.
Where as “Live Rock” has been pulled from the ocean, maricultured, or even aquacultured to grow bacteria, algae and other beneficial things to help your tank instantly thrive.
Dry rock can take a while to cycle and sometimes absorbs a lot of nutrients in your tank such as phosphates which can be a pain so people like to “cure” dry rock in a bin of saltwater for a few months.
Live rock can come with unwanted pests and nuisance algae.
Everything has a give and take.
If you pop on google there are options for aquacultured pest free, coralline covered, live rock. I have never purchased any but it seems like it would be the best of both worlds for a new tank.
Good luck
kp33
Active Member
It’s not a new setup I’m getting a bigger tank and transferring everything from my current to the new one and hoping I don’t get any spikes but I will need to add some rock since the new one is a 150 compared to my current which is a 90.
With dry rock and dry aragonite sand I would always recommend curing it in a bucket of saltwater as soon as possible. I have had nothing but problems when putting it directly in the tank. But that’s just my 2 cents. I’m sure others didn’t experience any problems.
Gumbies R Us
Another Fish in the Sea
When I started up my tank I used dry rock. For me personally I haven’t had any issues starting with dry rock. But I know others on here have had issues. Just depends on who you ask
Rewd
Active Member
This has been my experience. Sorry this is going to be long lol.
2004: 1st reef tank, standard 75 gallon started with 125lbs of uncured Fiji live rock. Rock went through die off and ammonia spike but that was a brand new tank and this was to be expected/planned for. Cycled lasted about 2 weeks and tank was growing abundant coraline algae in 1-2 months, thriving right after that. never a pest algae or ugly stage. This tank was moved several times in its life and was finally shut down in 2012 when i took a break from the hobby.
2020: Return to the hobby with a 90G this time started with 100% dry rock. This tank was pure hell for 11 months. Every awful pest algae I had only ever read about up to that point and some I had never heard of! Cyano, dinos, lyngbya, GHA, vermatids galore. I tried every remedy under the sun and never had any meaningful turnaround until I bought an additional 35 pounds of ocean cured live rock from KPaquatics. This improved the tank, but even right up to last weekend when I broke this tank down finally, I still had cyano issues.
2022: Started a brand new 50 gallon Waterbox. Used 35lbs of 100% ocean cured live rock from KPaquatics shipped in water. Never a cycle, never an ammonia spike. I was so confident in this rock that I put a fathead sunburst anthias in this tank 2 days after adding the rock and he is still with me, fat and gorgeous. Never a pest algae, never an ugly stage. Tank growing coraline abundantly 1-2 months after starting. Still thriving to this day.
2023: Started a brand new 120 gallon Proclear tank. Used 100lbs of 100% ocean cured live rock (80lbs from KPaquatics shipped in water, 20 pounds of aussie rock shipped in newspaper that I cured a month ahead of time). Never a cycle, never an ammonia spike. This tank did experience a brief Bryopsis outbreak but I nuked it with Flucanazole in 2 days and it has never returned. Tank growing coraline abundantly 1-2 months after starting. Still thriving to this day.
2024: I just broke down my aforementioned 90gallon and saved a few choice pieces of live rock from that tank that were added later and gave away all the man-made crap. I am about to transfer all of the inhabitants from that tank to a 200 gallon innovative marine and for this tank, I am using 40lbs of real Jakarta live rock that local fish store has been curing for a few months. Absolutely gorgeous pieces; even nicer than my fiji rock from back in 2004. I am also adding 50 pounds of ocean cured KPaquatics rock again and I am hoping for some really exceptional biodiversity from mixing these two. Curious and excited to see how this goes!
Let's talk about hitchhikers! Fear mongering over this topic drives me insane, so here goes:
2004 tank: never had any hitchhikers to speak of except for small bi-color bristle worms, peanut worms, spaghetti worms. Never saw any of the nastier things you can get out of the indo regions (bobbit worms anyone).
2020: dry rock tank no hitchhikers obviously, but the year-long algae hell was way worse. I did end up with vermatids and aptasia galore regardless, and these are far far FAR harder to eliminate than a crab.
2022: the 50g was more interesting. For this one with the Florida rock, I ended up with 2 mantis, 1 pistol shrimp, spaghetti worms, etc. The mantis I absolutely adore... they have stayed small and have not bothered my fish, but HAVE periodically taken out my peppermint shrimp. One of the mantis I would handfeed with tongs almost daily and he grew to maybe 2" and was a beautiful red. Smasher mantis that I eventually decided to trap because I had to keep paying $15 a pop for peppermints lol. He was INSANELY easy to catch. I put a bottle trap in the tank and he was out trying to get the clam meat by the time I turned around lol. And just 2 weeks ago I discovered the second mantis which is much smaller and more elusive, but still taking out my peppermints. I may trap him at some point but I'm not in any rush. And pistol shrimp is still in there and thriving and is absolutely gorgeous with blue legs and bright orange claws, but is very elusive. I only see him here and there unfortunately, but you can hear him from time to time. Also countless small brittle stars that are excellent CUC.
2023: the 120G had very interesting hitchhikers. In this tank I have 2 large brittle stars, a fleshy limpet, 3 pencil urchins, 3 brown short spine urchins, some kind of pretty green encrusting coral, countless small brittle stars. I do have lots of large bristle worms which I don't mind but I did have to pluck out of fireworm that I saw crossing some rock one night, but was easily removed with tongs. This tank has also had vermatid snails come in on coral frags, but they have never been able to take hold like they did in my dry rock 90 gallon. not even close.
2024: the jakarta rock and new shipment of KP rock aren't in the tank yet, so we shall see soon!!!
Overall: my experience with live rock is VASTLY superior to the horrible dry rock nonsense. I will never use dry rock ever again. You couldn't even give me that crap for free lol. I have had to remove exactly 2 hitchhikers and both were easy as can be while 11-12 months of horrible algae was way worse. At the end of the day, hitchhiker fear mongering should never scare anyone away from live rock.
2004: 1st reef tank, standard 75 gallon started with 125lbs of uncured Fiji live rock. Rock went through die off and ammonia spike but that was a brand new tank and this was to be expected/planned for. Cycled lasted about 2 weeks and tank was growing abundant coraline algae in 1-2 months, thriving right after that. never a pest algae or ugly stage. This tank was moved several times in its life and was finally shut down in 2012 when i took a break from the hobby.
2020: Return to the hobby with a 90G this time started with 100% dry rock. This tank was pure hell for 11 months. Every awful pest algae I had only ever read about up to that point and some I had never heard of! Cyano, dinos, lyngbya, GHA, vermatids galore. I tried every remedy under the sun and never had any meaningful turnaround until I bought an additional 35 pounds of ocean cured live rock from KPaquatics. This improved the tank, but even right up to last weekend when I broke this tank down finally, I still had cyano issues.
2022: Started a brand new 50 gallon Waterbox. Used 35lbs of 100% ocean cured live rock from KPaquatics shipped in water. Never a cycle, never an ammonia spike. I was so confident in this rock that I put a fathead sunburst anthias in this tank 2 days after adding the rock and he is still with me, fat and gorgeous. Never a pest algae, never an ugly stage. Tank growing coraline abundantly 1-2 months after starting. Still thriving to this day.
2023: Started a brand new 120 gallon Proclear tank. Used 100lbs of 100% ocean cured live rock (80lbs from KPaquatics shipped in water, 20 pounds of aussie rock shipped in newspaper that I cured a month ahead of time). Never a cycle, never an ammonia spike. This tank did experience a brief Bryopsis outbreak but I nuked it with Flucanazole in 2 days and it has never returned. Tank growing coraline abundantly 1-2 months after starting. Still thriving to this day.
2024: I just broke down my aforementioned 90gallon and saved a few choice pieces of live rock from that tank that were added later and gave away all the man-made crap. I am about to transfer all of the inhabitants from that tank to a 200 gallon innovative marine and for this tank, I am using 40lbs of real Jakarta live rock that local fish store has been curing for a few months. Absolutely gorgeous pieces; even nicer than my fiji rock from back in 2004. I am also adding 50 pounds of ocean cured KPaquatics rock again and I am hoping for some really exceptional biodiversity from mixing these two. Curious and excited to see how this goes!
Let's talk about hitchhikers! Fear mongering over this topic drives me insane, so here goes:
2004 tank: never had any hitchhikers to speak of except for small bi-color bristle worms, peanut worms, spaghetti worms. Never saw any of the nastier things you can get out of the indo regions (bobbit worms anyone).
2020: dry rock tank no hitchhikers obviously, but the year-long algae hell was way worse. I did end up with vermatids and aptasia galore regardless, and these are far far FAR harder to eliminate than a crab.
2022: the 50g was more interesting. For this one with the Florida rock, I ended up with 2 mantis, 1 pistol shrimp, spaghetti worms, etc. The mantis I absolutely adore... they have stayed small and have not bothered my fish, but HAVE periodically taken out my peppermint shrimp. One of the mantis I would handfeed with tongs almost daily and he grew to maybe 2" and was a beautiful red. Smasher mantis that I eventually decided to trap because I had to keep paying $15 a pop for peppermints lol. He was INSANELY easy to catch. I put a bottle trap in the tank and he was out trying to get the clam meat by the time I turned around lol. And just 2 weeks ago I discovered the second mantis which is much smaller and more elusive, but still taking out my peppermints. I may trap him at some point but I'm not in any rush. And pistol shrimp is still in there and thriving and is absolutely gorgeous with blue legs and bright orange claws, but is very elusive. I only see him here and there unfortunately, but you can hear him from time to time. Also countless small brittle stars that are excellent CUC.
2023: the 120G had very interesting hitchhikers. In this tank I have 2 large brittle stars, a fleshy limpet, 3 pencil urchins, 3 brown short spine urchins, some kind of pretty green encrusting coral, countless small brittle stars. I do have lots of large bristle worms which I don't mind but I did have to pluck out of fireworm that I saw crossing some rock one night, but was easily removed with tongs. This tank has also had vermatid snails come in on coral frags, but they have never been able to take hold like they did in my dry rock 90 gallon. not even close.
2024: the jakarta rock and new shipment of KP rock aren't in the tank yet, so we shall see soon!!!
Overall: my experience with live rock is VASTLY superior to the horrible dry rock nonsense. I will never use dry rock ever again. You couldn't even give me that crap for free lol. I have had to remove exactly 2 hitchhikers and both were easy as can be while 11-12 months of horrible algae was way worse. At the end of the day, hitchhiker fear mongering should never scare anyone away from live rock.
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