My Dream Tank - 3 Rock Options - Advice Needed

Brian Drab · Oct 9, 2019

I currently own/maintain a 60 Gallon Rimless Cube Aquarium. I've been soooo excited to finally upgrade. Six months ago I ordered a tank through my LFS and they ordered it through what I thought was a very reputable company that made quality aquariums. Tank is already paid for...never came and the company isn't returning phone calls. Was originally supposed to take 6 to 8 weeks. My heart is in my stomach. The LFS said that he cancelled the order and his credit card company said eventually he would get his money back but it would take 6 months or so. I'm very stressed out. In any event the LFS said he would take the hit until he gets his money back and would order from another place.

So supposedly I have an 8ft 310 Gallon aquarium that will be coming. My dream tank! I have a rare day off of work because I'm sick, so I've spent the entire day researching/reading trying to determine the rock/sand to get for the tank. I have all the equipment figured out....that was the easy part. This seems to the most difficult.

After tons of research I narrowed it down to three options.

Live Rock Option
https://tbsaltwater.com/index.html (I would do “The Package”)

Dry Rock Options
https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/rock
https://caribsea.com/aquarium/#

I was hoping those more experienced or maybe that have experience with any of these companies can guide me to an answer. There are so many people "for" live rock and so many "against". I'm trying to set up the tank for the BEST chance of success.

Any guidance or advice or questions to help me better determine this is greatly appreciated. And if it helps at all as far as tank personality goes, given the options of Dabbler, Enthusiast or Junkie, I'm definitely in the Enthusiast camp.

Peach02 · Oct 9, 2019

Congrats on the 8ft tank! Personally I would recommend dry rock over live since it has no risk of hitchhikers and diseases. As for the type of dry rock when I was researching Marco rock seemed to be the best but it's a pale white initially. I have heard good things about carabean rock but haven't heard anything about Florida rock. The sand you can use will be depending on what coral and fish you want to keep

flsalty · Oct 10, 2019

"Best" is only a matter of opinion. I prefer live rock. The person above me prefers dry. All you're doing is setting off another live vs dry debate.

Mountainraised · Oct 11, 2019

Brian Drab said:
I currently own/maintain a 60 Gallon Rimless Cube Aquarium. I've been soooo excited to finally upgrade. Six months ago I ordered a tank through my LFS and they ordered it through what I thought was a very reputable company that made quality aquariums. Tank is already paid for...never came and the company isn't returning phone calls. Was originally supposed to take 6 to 8 weeks. My heart is in my stomach. The LFS said that he cancelled the order and his credit card company said eventually he would get his money back but it would take 6 months or so. I'm very stressed out. In any event the LFS said he would take the hit until he gets his money back and would order from another place.

So supposedly I have an 8ft 310 Gallon aquarium that will be coming. My dream tank! I have a rare day off of work because I'm sick, so I've spent the entire day researching/reading trying to determine the rock/sand to get for the tank. I have all the equipment figured out....that was the easy part. This seems to the most difficult.

After tons of research I narrowed it down to three options.

Live Rock Option
https://tbsaltwater.com/index.html (I would do “The Package”)

Dry Rock Options
https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/rock
https://caribsea.com/aquarium/#

I was hoping those more experienced or maybe that have experience with any of these companies can guide me to an answer. There are so many people "for" live rock and so many "against". I'm trying to set up the tank for the BEST chance of success.

Any guidance or advice or questions to help me better determine this is greatly appreciated. And if it helps at all as far as tank personality goes, given the options of Dabbler, Enthusiast or Junkie, I'm definitely in the Enthusiast camp.

Each dry and live option is really up to individual preferences. Each has its pros and cons to live v dry. There are alternatives to live that have been through similar manufacturing.

My preference:

Live-ish: Walt Smith's 2.1 , or Arc Reef (both maricultured)

Dry Rock: Real Reef, or Marcos Rock Reef Saverdry rock if you wanted to seed a sterile system.

Ultimately, if you are doing everything right with it all, in 2 years you likely will have 100% coraline algae covered rocks.

Jon Fishman · Oct 11, 2019

How much does your local shop sell live rock for? I would buy 200lbs and let it run in the tank for a few weeks and weed out hitchikers. of course if you have the patience dry rock will make it easier to drill and make scapes. I like to keep all of my rock removable though