Lets talk about 'Live rock"

[OriginalUserName]

The majority of "live rock" people tend to use is little different than cured dry rock. All the large animal life is scrubbed off or just dies during the typical curing process that wholesalers use. If you aren't getting rock in bags of water then it's not that different than older dry rock that has been colonized by bacteria etc.

That said, dry rock can reduce the pests, but my dry rock tanks wound up with the same pest algaes and whatnot anyway. I suppose the only thing you can avoid is pest crabs/worms. I'll probably stick with dry rock into the future due to ease of aquascape and lower environmental impact.

 

[MnFish1]

I have a system that is currently in the set-up phase and after watching the WWC-BRS series I'm going to try the method of not turning the lights on for two months and adding coraline from my other tank. It seems that the algae like the ammonia better than nitrate so that makes sense. Hopefully leaving the lights off during the ammonia phase will help this. I figure it's not that different from what I was planning already so it's worth a shot.

you should check out @Lasse 's method of starting a tank.

 

[MnFish1]

I have a system that is currently in the set-up phase and after watching the WWC-BRS series I'm going to try the method of not turning the lights on for two months and adding coraline from my other tank. It seems that the algae like the ammonia better than nitrate so that makes sense. Hopefully leaving the lights off during the ammonia phase will help this. I figure it's not that different from what I was planning already so it's worth a shot.

you should check out @Lasse 's method of starting a tank.

 

[Lukas75]

you should check out @Lasse 's method of starting a tank.

I have, while it seems like a great method it does not meet my needs especially since I have a basement full of dry rock I'll be using!

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

To me, your #1 is live rock, #2 is base rock or fully cured live rock and #3 is called death rock.

 

[MnFish1]

To me, your #1 is live rock, #2 is base rock or fully cured live rock and #3 is called death rock.

Can you explain?

 

[fish farmer]

See the quote below. But yes - here is a question - If you leave a piece of "dead rock" in the ocean for a month (lets say) - does it become "live rock".

I believe once it's wet and becoming established with bacteria and/or microfauna, algae, coral it can be considered live rock. Much like the coralline rock I got from Gulf View many years ago. It wasn't the super live fully encrusted show rock, but came with life.

I've used dry base rock in my tanks, eventually they get bacteria. coralline algae, pods, tube worms, etc colonizing it. It is now live rock, it may not be ultra premium Fiji live rock, but it is still live rock.

Think about this, say you take the best fresh cultured rock or the best RAW Fiji and bring it into your system. Then through time many of the organisms fail to establish or die off like barnacles, sponges, feather dusters, etc, would your LIVE rock no longer be considered live because it lack the abundant diversity that it originally had?

 

[MnFish1]

I believe once it's wet and becoming established with bacteria and/or microfauna, algae, coral it can be considered live rock. Much like the coralline rock I got from Gulf View many years ago. It wasn't the super live fully encrusted show rock, but came with life.

I've used dry base rock in my tanks, eventually they get bacteria. coralline algae, pods, tube worms, etc colonizing it. It is now live rock, it may not be ultra premium Fiji live rock, but it is still live rock.

Think about this, say you take the best fresh cultured rock or the best RAW Fiji and bring it into your system. Then through time many of the organisms fail to establish or die off like barnacles, sponges, feather dusters, etc, would your LIVE rock no longer be considered live because it lack the abundant diversity that it originally had?

Yes exactly. This is one of the reasons I started the poll