I pretty much ordered everything. Mud, sand, algae, worms, pods, asterinas, micro brittle stars, hermits... anything I could. I was planning on doing this order anyway, but out of curiosity, I wanted to know where I was before the addition and after. I am looking forward to getting my order, and then retesting in a month or so, to note the difference. If it is feasible, I would strongly recommend this. We are all guessing without data, so it’s good to know where we are in the process.What are you going to order from IPSF if you don't mind me asking? I'm a huge fan of them and have been shopping there since 1999 . In fact, setting up a refugium to grow some tang heaven just to feed my tangs. They love the stuff especially the red and their colors are amazing. Real difference when I feed fresh vs. dry.
In any case I'm wondering because as a user of dry pukani in my current tank it takes a long time to mature. I'm 2 years in and can pick up a rock, turn it 90 degrees, and the face will look like I just put it in. No algae, no sponges, nothing yet on the front of it before I moved it is covered with life. To me this is why using dry rock, even if mixed with live seed, is a mistake.
I've not run the test you have although considering it. Would be interesting to compare. Prior to being furloughed last Friday I was considering moving some larger rocks to my sump and ordering a box of rock from TBS. Once I sort things out here next week maybe what I should do instead is do the same test you did, note those results, then do my plan on moving rocks to the sump and swapping out with TBS, wait a month, then retest .
I think Richard has a pretty good backlog so this gives me time to think about this. But long and short of it dry rock isn't all that it is cracked up to be. Other than my children liking it since I didn't raid their college funds to buy rock
Gee...all this from me asking about ipsf - but I really love that place.