How Long does it take Dry Rock to become Live Base Rock and how Long does it take Base Rock to becom

[that Reef Guy]

How Long does it take Dry Rock to become Live Base Rock?

And how Long does it take Base Rock to become Premium Live Rock?

My LFS sells all 3 - Dry, Base, and Premium

Dry - 2.99 a Pound
Base - 4.99 a Pound
Premium - 9.99 a Pound

I am wondering which of these three to get.

Obviously Premium is much better than Dry.

If it is relatively quick for the Dry Rock to upgrade I will do that to save money.

But if it takes years to upgrade then Dry is not worth it - Same goes for Base.

So I am wondering how long the change takes?

 

[Tahoe61]

Completely dry rock with no seeding products or live sand roughly 6-8 weeks.

 

[that Reef Guy]

Completely dry rock with no seeding products or live sand roughly 6-8 weeks.

Will it officially be Base Rock in 6-8 Weeks?

How much Base Rock should I add if I do not want to wait that Long?

Is there a certain Ration to Follow like 50/50 or 1 Pound Live Rock for every 10 Pounds of Dry Rock? etc.

 

[TJ's Reef]

My thoughts and experience with this is: 'Real' Live Rock is just that and guessing that most is years old. I happened to cut some 4year old 'Marco Rock' open from a friends tank which seemed to never be truly stable even after that long and found it to be rather void of life/sterile in center compared to my LR. none of the black/grey anaerobic bacteria smelling like rotten eggs that you find in real LR. I even drizzled a bit of Malachite Green on it and viewed through a cheap hobby microscope and did not see hardly anything compared to LR. I would love to see a real scientific study on this.

Cheers, Todd

 

[that Reef Guy]

My thoughts and experience with this is: 'Real' Live Rock is just that and guessing that most is years old. I happened to cut some 4year old 'Marco Rock' open from a friends tank which seemed to never be truly stable even after that long and found it to be rather void of life/sterile in center compared to my LR. none of the black/grey anaerobic bacteria smelling like rotten eggs that you find in real LR. I even drizzled a bit of Malachite Green on it and viewed through a cheap hobby microscope and did not see hardly anything compared to LR. I would love to see a real scientific study on this.

Cheers, Todd

Wow, Interesting.

Then why do so many people now talk about it like its the best thing since sliced bread?

Many have told me that since using Marco Rock for the first time they will never use anything else ever.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Live Rock is just that, Live Rock, nothing will ever come close to it, as its dead coral, and teaming with lil critters, for who knows how long. Macro Rock is the bomb, I have it, and would use it in an entire new tank if I were to start one all over again.
You don't need all the critters that come with live rock, most are a nuisance anyways, Macro Rock will team with the life you need to keep and sustain a proper reef for the home, thats all you need. Most corals you receive now have lil critters on it, that will take over your rock, and thus give something else to the tank you once did not have.
To become what live rock is, nothing can take its place, but to have bacteria infested rock to sustain life in your tank, takes 6-8 weeks, all tanks are different.

 

[tyler1503]

You don't need all the critters that come with live rock, most are a nuisance anyways.
To become what live rock is, nothing can take its place, but to have bacteria infested rock to sustain life in your tank, takes 6-8 weeks, all tanks are different.

+1.
Real live rock can be decades old, although dry rock can support life after a couple of months.
I'd personally use mainly dry rock and only a few kg of live rock. Maybe a kg of live rock for every 5-10 kg of base rock. You'll get all the nice colours spreading onto the base rock and it will look like live rock pretty quickly.
Goodluck!

 

[mfinn]

Wow, Interesting.

Then why do so many people now talk about it like its the best thing since sliced bread?

Many have told me that since using Marco Rock for the first time they will never use anything else ever.

The big appeal with a dried, dead rock like Marco rock is that you don't get the bad side of natural live rock. Aptasias, pistol shrimp, crabs, algae's, and a ton of different types of predatory worms, etc.

I have some Marco rock and while it's not bad, most of the shapes seem to be fairly similar. Not a lot of variety, atleast in the order I got.

 

[that Reef Guy]

Live Rock is just that, Live Rock, nothing will ever come close to it, as its dead coral, and teaming with lil critters, for who knows how long. Macro Rock is the bomb, I have it, and would use it in an entire new tank if I were to start one all over again.
You don't need all the critters that come with live rock, most are a nuisance anyways, Macro Rock will team with the life you need to keep and sustain a proper reef for the home, thats all you need. Most corals you receive now have lil critters on it, that will take over your rock, and thus give something else to the tank you once did not have.
To become what live rock is, nothing can take its place, but to have bacteria infested rock to sustain life in your tank, takes 6-8 weeks, all tanks are different.

Don't you need the Critters (Copepods, Isopods, etc.) to Filter the water of Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate?

I mean that is why it is called Live Rock Right?

 

[bearjohnson]

You need the bacteria that colonizes the rock.

Copepods and what not can be added to the tank as most of us do from time to time until they have established themselves.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Don't you need the Critters (Copepods, Isopods, etc.) to Filter the water of Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate?

I mean that is why it is called Live Rock Right?

Nope, certainly don't. Bacteria does the filtering.
And if you go with corals, along that line, you do pick up critters here and there.

Live Rock As A Biological Filter: Hit or Myth? by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D.. - Reefkeeping.com

 

[DebraLV]

Beginner question....I have about 10 lbs of dry rock and a 10 lb chunk of "life" rock in an aquarium that's cycled. It was leftover rock. I have no fish or coral in it. I just use it for WC's on my bigger tank, then I refill it with SW.
If I throw a cup of water in it from my fowler tank or dose it with Dr. Tims, will that rock eventually become "live"

 

[Shroom]

Wow, Interesting.

Then why do so many people now talk about it like its the best thing since sliced bread?

Many have told me that since using Marco Rock for the first time they will never use anything else ever.

I think they have marketed this new sterile environment so hard that people just make up their minds about how much better it is before they come to their own unbiased conclusions. Probably having not even truly tried a real LR.

 

[sam2216]

I think they have marketed this new sterile environment so hard that people just make up their minds about how much better it is before they come to their own unbiased conclusions. Probably having not even truly tried a real LR.

this post was in 2014... lol

 

[Patx]

I miss so much real live rock...
after 10 years mine doesn't even have peanut worms anymore. Lol
(Canada)

 

[Sean_B]

this thread has taken on some interesting conjectures in my subjective thoughts.

I would love to have my entire tank be filled with living rock, but the reality of that is minimal, for several reasons.

money and aquascaping are the 2 foremost reasons. I would love to have my rockwork teaming with life similar to that of the real ocean my inhabitants would be familiar with, however it is not idyllic to create an aquascape via living rock. it is my humble opinion to create an appeasing aquascape via macro rock and then seed it with living rock for a solid duration, perhaps a year or so? I'm at a complete loss as to why rush this type of "hobby" with living matter? there should be a stronger consideration for what is best for the inhabitants rather than instant gratification.

the first 20 or so threads I read on this forum all revolved around "nothing happens quickly" in this hobby. That premise stuck with me, as it should with every invested fish keeper

 

[Doctorgori]

I disagree that you can make Dry/Marco rock become as effective as natural ocean rock…

BTW how can we delineate “base rock” from the other type(s) ? (by biodiversity or life coverage, I dunno)

As for pest, I think those long bryopsis/aptasia/flatworm/spider/isopod “battle threads”
scared the begezuz outta newbies and sent BRS stock skyrocketing

at some point we may as well let “A.I.” download images of the Great Barrier Reef into our brains and be done with it

IMO get a load or two of REAL ocean rock and skip the “bacteria in the bottle” stuff

 

[Tavero]

How Long does it take Dry Rock to become Live Base Rock?

And how Long does it take Base Rock to become Premium Live Rock?

My LFS sells all 3 - Dry, Base, and Premium

Dry - 2.99 a Pound
Base - 4.99 a Pound
Premium - 9.99 a Pound

I am wondering which of these three to get.

Obviously Premium is much better than Dry.

If it is relatively quick for the Dry Rock to upgrade I will do that to save money.

But if it takes years to upgrade then Dry is not worth it - Same goes for Base.

So I am wondering how long the change takes?

Uh... Never? If it's not from the ocean it will obviously never be live rock. Even Wikipedia agrees on this one (even though it's not really a relatable source)

 

[Tavero]

this post was in 2014... lol

Edit: Wow guys... Why are you practicing necromancy?