Keys for successful dry rock reef

[Drew1900]

I want to hear from those who have used dry rock in their system. What did you do/not do that led to your success or failure? Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done differently? This isn’t meant to be a live vs dry discussion. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Also, I would love to see some pictures of some successful dry rock reefs!

 

[WIReefer]

Personally I wish I would have started with live rock, started with all dry this time best advice would be patience!

 

[csb123]

I wish I started with at least some live wet rock. I believe it would have stabilized quicker (less than the 2-3 years it took), and reduced the number of battles I had that are associated with dry rock.

 

[SliceGolfer]

 

[Forshurley]

I cycled with dry rock for the first time this year and is not easy. In hind sight I should have placed some old rock in tank to help speed along but wanted to avoid based on trying to keep tank clean from pest, so conflicted.

 

[Reef man 89]

Started with dry rock and hate it. Wish I did half and half. This thing is all over the place year and 3 months in to it.

 

[92Miata]

Ignore everything BRS says - they still don't seem to get that dry rock tanks are fundamentally different than live rock tanks and you cant just wait things out. They advise way too many miracle cures (vibrant, chemiclean, nopox, etc) that just move your nutrient imbalances around.

Be aggressive with physical removal of algae, and your siphon hose. Do everything you can to get coralline established as quickly as possible. That means you should be maintainig Alk from day one. Do everything you can to get any other nutrient consumers established - sponges, corals, macro, etc. All the advice to wait for months before corals does way more damage than good.

Start with bottle bac . Don't dose ammonia!!!!! And if you do, dose it once. Don't keep 'verifying' your cycle. You're just driving your nitrate and phosphate further out or balance and creating a good environment for edge consumers like algae.

Just pour a bottle of BioSpira in the tank, give it a day, then add a fish and turn on your skimmer. You'll never have measurable ammonia and you'll never have problems.

If you've never kept an SPS tank - and you think you have too much flow, you're wrong. Add another wave pump. Arrange them so waste collects at the front where you can siphon it.

 

[User1]

I want to hear from those who have used dry rock in their system. What did you do/not do that led to your success or failure? Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done differently? This isn’t meant to be a live vs dry discussion. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Also, I would love to see some pictures of some successful dry rock reefs!

The tl; dr is this - I would never use dry rock again nor would I recommend it. Unless you age it in parallel of your build or ahead of time.

The wall of text. Dry rock takes a long time to mature and that is the crux of the problem. It isn't that it is bad but depending on the rock type, how porous it is, the amount, nooks and crannies and everything in between know that it is going to take about two or more years to fully mature. And just to clear this piece up by fully mature I mean being able to pick up a piece of rock in the tank, turn it 180 degrees, and have it look exactly as the face of it that you just turned. That is correct. Lift it, turn it, and it should look the same. The next challenge is to take that rock out and split it in two. While it won't look like the surface or face of it the nooks and crannies should have established biological growth that is visible. If it isn't, well, back to the aging.

I used 170 lbs dry rock (Pukani) in my upgrade. I had an established 6 year old 40 breeder that I needed to move. Lots of rose bubble tip anemones, hammer corals (large colonies), and random soft corals mixed in. I set up the 210 gallon, setup the initial aquascape using the Pukani, and started the cycle in February. Fishless cycle and it took probably about 20 or days to be able to process 4 ppm of Ammonia in under 24 hours. In March I said ok lets figure up the skimmer and turn on the lights for a couple hours a day to get it going and ran this way through April. Checked parameters again and the tank is doing great. At this point I put in one of my Pajama cardinals to see how the tank was because his buddy was picking on him for some reason. Fish did amazing and the rock was starting to form visible corilian algae so figured it was time to move.

Long story short is that yes, the tank was fully cycled and starting its biological growth on the rocks as I expected. I performed the upgrade and was pretty happy with the results. As days passed by I started to see some downturn in the corals especially the hammer colonies and xenia of all things. I tried placements, removed corals showing visible signs of death and decay, but couldn't really trace it to anything bad. The only thing was larger tank, upgrade, more rocks, etc. Continued to pay attention, move things around, change water flow, and test. Still nothing obvious and then about 2 months after the merge of tanks it started to settle down. At this point the hardest hit was the hammer colonies and xenia which left me to 1 hammer and a small patch of xenia.

Where am I going with this. Well it is my experience that the dry rock takes time to fully mature. As I noted above today I can still reach in and move a rock with the back area looking as if it was brand new and only added today. That is what I mean by mature. Live rock, or rock aged in our aquariums over the years have that biological filter in bedded deep much like an old tree and its root system. BRS has been talking about this in a few of their videos as well with dry rock and bare bottom although they say about a year. It really does take a while to get inside everything and that is why I'd never use it again nor recommend it.

It saves money. It is fun to watch it evolve. New systems I would say sure, it is fine. Upgrading or merging I'd never use it. I feel in my case I should have used TBS rock like I originally wanted...

Few examples with crummy photos. You can sort of see the evolution of maturity on the rock is what I mean. It just takes a while - if the hobbyist is ok with that then great. It all works out That whole planning thing and vision Have a great day.


Dry rock, new (January 18th 2018):

Closer upfront (May 15 2018):

2019 May

August 2020:

 

[lapin]

I used dry marco rock in my 600g. 2 months of cycling in 100 tubs while I built my tank. After about a month I was dumping in old water from pod and rotifer grow out buckets. It took a good year for it to mature in the tank. Large corals from reefers giving up, helped bring a lot of life to the tank. Some good and some bad. The cost for 1 ton of dry 40 lb pieces vs 1 ton of live 40 lb pieces ...... It was a no brainer. Im retired and on the dole.....

 

[rwreef]

I used dry rock for my 75g in wall tank. I cured the tock for 2 months before putting into my tank. I've also used true "live rock". It is all about expectations. Don't rush , dry rock takes longer to become "live" , with live rock you are buying time.

 

[flampton]

Well if you want to avoid live rock because of specific pests or price I would suggest getting some of the ipsf stuff. That's what I'll be doing with the new build. You can get Hawaiian live sand, coralline plates, zooplankton, reef mud detrivores, etc.

My order comes in about a week

 

[Ippyroy]

I recommend putting the dry rock in heated circulating saltwater with bottle bac and ghost feed for as long as possible. After you put them in the DT, give it another month or so with bottle bac and dose ammonia. Use live sand, not dry. Talk with the guys from ipsf.com and get a couple of packages from them. Leave your lights off for a few months and don't dose coraline in a bottle. As soon as your rocks start to grow algae get an aggressive CUC. Wait until the algae is growing, not before. If you feed the CUC, they will not work. IF at all possible pick out snails with coraline on the shells, this will seed the tank.

I started my tank with TM bio-activ salt. It kept my nutrients in check and helped start the bacteria that I needed. I haven't dosed anything in a bottle other than Turbo Start and Microbacter XLM. My tank is not perfect, but everything is in control and doing good.

 

[Anthrax15]

Pros for Dry Rock start:

1. Can aquascape and take your time, getting the rock work to look exactly like you want it. Able to secure it so it never falls or wobbles.
2. No hitchhikers (Bristle worms, crabs, bobbit worms, nuisance algaes, mantis shrimp, etc..)
3. Can buy Life Rock or Reel Reef rock that is painted purple to look mature.
4. Don't have to rush your tank build to get live rock into water

Pros for Live Rock start:

1. Cycle is quicker and tank can establish faster.
2. Beneficial algae and bacteria you can only get from live rock that has cured in the ocean.
3. Some people consider hitchhikers fun to discover and can get some really unique creatures in the rock not available otherwise.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

I think, sticking to your actual question, the best advice is to start brewing the dry rock in tubs e with a powerhead and bottled bacteria. Brew for a month minimum. Give it a few drips of ammonia once in a while. Not much. Add stuff faster than most people say, fish, corals... keep nitrates over 5 and SCRUB AND SIPHON in the tank and add an aggressive CUC to include an urchin. Don’t remove the rock and use peroxide, don’t dose vibrant... manual removal, time, and add stuff steadily. Don’t add like a maniac, but add. Live sand, yea.... won’t hurt. If you can get water from the ocean or an established tank. Do it. Of course add live rock but that isn’t your question. That’s a no brainer. Dry rock sucks. You can take your brewing rocks and still cut and scape... the bacteria lasts a long time. Just put them back in tub when done.
Patience. The uglies will be bad. Just scrub and siphon. Then in a year you will have a great tank.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Well if you want to avoid live rock because of specific pests or price I would suggest getting some of the ipsf stuff. That's what I'll be doing with the new build. You can get Hawaiian live sand, coralline plates, zooplankton, reef mud detrivores, etc.

My order comes in about a week

I'm gonna go that route too.
Please post your thoughts on the items you receive.
Would love to know what you thought was best bang for the buck or if anything is a must have.

 

[flampton]

I'm gonna go that route too.
Please post your thoughts on the items you receive.
Would love to know what you thought was best bang for the buck or if anything is a must have.

Yes will do...check my build thread at the end of the month. Be aware they're backed up and so it's around two weeks till delivery. So order earlier than need be.

 

[HB AL]

Hopefully you can be patient for atleast a year, unless you add in some live rock.

 

[jennesque]

I've liked using dry rock.. I have always used established media on my filtration, but dry rock after I had to deal with too many hitchhikers with live rock. You've got to be patient while cycling the tank, and I get algae growing on the rock.. but honestly not much more than what I had with live rock.

I haven't ever been interested in keeping SPS, but I've had success with most of my softies and LPS.

 

[WV Reefer]

I want to hear from those who have used dry rock in their system. What did you do/not do that led to your success or failure? Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done differently? This isn’t meant to be a live vs dry discussion. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Also, I would love to see some pictures of some successful dry rock reefs!

Just being patient is all you need. All my reefs were started with dry rock and I’ve never had algae issues or any other issues because of it.