Is love rock from the ocean worth it if my setup is clean.

[christwendt]

I have my new setup started. It has all dry rock seeded with a few small pieces of live rock from my 3 year old reef that’s doing perfect. I just feel like it may be lacking as my first tank I used all live rock from lfs. I found some rock on gulfliverock.com I’m interested in. Is it worth it to risk the pests ? I would quarantine the live rock as long as needed. Thanks

 

[blaxsun]

The extent of pests/hitchhikers is going to be variable and is really a personal thing (some welcome them, others can't stand them).

 

[Chortanator]

I wish I had more room in my tank for live rock from the ocean, I love hitchhikers and microfauna and spend a lot of time staring at the pods and limpets in my sump. I don't know how common or rare bad hitchhikers are, but I think even on LFS live rock it's possible to get something. IMO the biodiversity from ocean rock is very beneficial for the most part

 

[christwendt]

I wish I had more room in my tank for live rock from the ocean, I love hitchhikers and microfauna and spend a lot of time staring at the pods and limpets in my sump. I don't know how common or rare bad hitchhikers are, but I think even on LFS live rock it's possible to get something. IMO the biodiversity from ocean rock is very beneficial for the most part

I feel there is something to the added biodiversity that makes it worth it. I'm limited on some space too but perhaps even a small piece is worth worth it also.

 

[christwendt]

The extent of pests/hitchhikers is going to be variable and is really a personal thing (some welcome them, others can't stand them).

Do you think it's possible to really reduce the chance by proper QT of the rock and removing the bad pests or algae in the seperate tank? I'm not in a rush. Any suggestions on limiting the chances? 2 months in a qt tank with power head? Check at nighttime for pests. I've actually never qted something before and not much info i see online about qting rocks.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Small bit of ocean rock is worth it even if that's all you can swing. The bacteria will be there. It'll just take longer than going with a ton, but it's still plenty to seed more microbial biodiversity

 

[Tamberav]

I have my new setup started. It has all dry rock seeded with a few small pieces of live rock from my 3 year old reef that’s doing perfect. I just feel like it may be lacking as my first tank I used all live rock from lfs. I found some rock on gulfliverock.com I’m interested in. Is it worth it to risk the pests ? I would quarantine the live rock as long as needed. Thanks

yes it is worth it. Pests are over rated and the worst ones come from frags you buy not live rock.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I just added 50lbs KP aquatics rock between my old rock system, and dry rock system.

That's my vote

 

[BeltedCoyote]

I got 30lbs of kp to seed the rock going into both my reef and my frag system. Benefits of the biodiversity outweigh downsides for me

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

100% worth it imo

 

[DaJMasta]

I like live rock, the fresher the better (in water air freight seems to be the shortest time in transit), but I wouldn't do live rock only in a large tank. In the event that you have hitchhikers that you want out (and it's likely there's at least something among everything), it's much easier to notice and deal with in a smaller tank.

If I were to setup a big tank, I'd get some portion (half to a quarter) of the rock in the display as live rock and then either put it in the big tank with only sand for some time (a few weeks) before adding more rock or livestock, or I'd put it in a smaller tank for a while to observe and curate as needed before transferring it into the big system.

 

[christwendt]

I got 30lbs of kp to seed the rock going into both my reef and my frag system. Benefits of the biodiversity outweigh downsides for me

Are you going to QT it? The new live rock ?

 

[christwendt]

I like live rock, the fresher the better (in water air freight seems to be the shortest time in transit), but I wouldn't do live rock only in a large tank. In the event that you have hitchhikers that you want out (and it's likely there's at least something among everything), it's much easier to notice and deal with in a smaller tank.

If I were to setup a big tank, I'd get some portion (half to a quarter) of the rock in the display as live rock and then either put it in the big tank with only sand for some time (a few weeks) before adding more rock or livestock, or I'd put it in a smaller tank for a while to observe and curate as needed before transferring it into the big system.

I plan to order by air plane for your exact reason. I also plan to use the smaller tank idea to keep an eye out for hitch hikers before adding to my big display. Do you think it matters if the new rock is placed in the main display vs sump ?

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Are you going to QT it? The new live rock ?

Kinda have been inadvertently. Although I'm not super concerned about pests.

 

[mtraylor]

You can soak the live rock in high salinity to get out most hitchhikers

 

[christwendt]

You can soak the live rock in high salinity to get out most hitchhikers

I read about that on their website. I worried about it causing harm to some good life.

 

[christwendt]

Kinda have been inadvertently. Although I'm not super concerned about pests.

Which pests would you be most concerned with? I feel like mantis, and flat worms. Perhaps some bad algaes too. I think it wouldn’t take long to notice the bad things.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

How big is the tank? If it's relatively small then it won't be all that hard to catch any bad hitchhikers. And as for the algae, real live rock will actually help prevent some of the "ugly stage"

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Which pests would you be most concerned with? I feel like mantis, and flat worms. Perhaps some bad algaes too. I think it wouldn’t take long to notice the bad things.

Mantis seem to be rare. My foxface ate all the macros that came in. And after watching it for 6 months I'm not worried. May do a high salinity soak before transferring it to my other systems but that's the extent of my concern.

 

[HBtank]

IMO real live rock is fundamental to a reef system, you just don’t get the biodiversity needed without it. If you have an established tank you can seed with, than fresh live rock might not be needed, but otherwise there isn’t any real way to avoid going through a process of bringing it in and removing pests as you are starting it up. You can stage it in a QT to deal with the worst of it, so you are not chasing gorilla crabs and stuff around, but nothing will be foolproof.

Frankly if feels like the real “bad“ pests come in on aquacultured corals or things form other peoples tanks, the pests that target our corals or do really well in aquariums. Many of the pests on live rock only last for a little, are easily removed, and don’t end up being long term problems,