Ocean Live rock fans

[Sump Crab]

Hello! I must admit that Ocean live rock is the most important factor for me when it comes to a reef tank. If ocean live rock was no longer available I would seriously never start a new tank again. For me there is literally nothing negative about ocean live rock (besides price!). Ocean live rock provides insane stability and an almost instant cycle. It’s teeming with unbelievable life that (for me) is just as interesting as the coral we buy. Also actual reef rock (like Aussie stuff currently available) is extremely porous and has the most unique and interesting shapes available.

Currently I have a mix of old school South Pacific rock, newer Australian rock, and KP aquatics FL keys rock.

Are there any other ocean live rock obsessed reefers out there? If so tell me why you love ocean rock so much and where yours was sourced from.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Live rocks is the foundation of reefs. I've seen too many dry rock failures and restarts. Get it right the 1st time by getting the real deal.

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Ocean live rock is the ducks nuts. It’s still pretty readily available over here in Aus and imo the best I’ve used over the years is the WA collected rock.

Funnily enough though, I’ve started my last two nanos with dry rock. It’s a longer, more difficult road but strangely satisfying watching it mature. I can see why new hobbyists sometimes struggle with it.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Live rock for the win! Dry rock is great for rift lake cichlids, but very little else. Large and diverse bacterial populations are essential to any reef (either captive or wild) and no amount of "bottled bacteria" will have the same effects as a single piece of live rock. Yes, dry rock will eventually turn into live rock after a year or so, but I see no legitimate reason to use it. Algae and hitchhikers are inevitable, and trying to avoid them in a manner that severely compromises your system just isn't a good idea.

 

[fish farmer]

My opinion and experience. I started reefing in 2000 when live rock and live deep sand beds were the push and made sense to me as an ecosystem approach. I started with 50/50 uncured Fiji live rock and dead coral/tufa rock. I cured/cycled in tank. "Hand cured" by pulling off rotting things, doing WC's to keep ammonia manageable. It was a small tank, 38 gallon. Main cure cycle was quick, but did have some ammonia bumps several months later, but was using cheap test kits. I was putting soft corals in this tank at month two AND getting into a routine of testing weekly, maybe a bit more and doing WC's every other week. I also started dosing kalk....I wanted to get the coralline to spread off the live rock as well as the tube worms, forams and the other micro life that utilizes calcium. I did have the typical uglies but don't ever remember dinos being a thing. By year two I had a nice tank of mixed softies and LPS that were growing I even had a rescue porites that was doing well before I upgraded at the beginning of year three.

With the upgrade to a 55, I got 30 lbs of Florida cultured coralline live rock, cured in a vat for a month or so. Upgrade went well, I had about a dozen urchins plus various red macroalgae, sponges, etc come on that rock. Then disaster struck, a heat wave struck that tank and nuked "everything". I recured/cycled the rock and had problems after that, but looking in my records several months later I was seeing pods and worms in my tank and one particular macro algae was taking hold that had come off the live rock and I couldn't manage it, urchins would not eat it and pulling it only make it spread since it was very brittle. It eventually went away. I did add a couple of pieces of cured Fiji live rock from a great local source and still have one of those pieces over 20 years later still with coralline coverage and a pair or large tube worms.

My routine maintenance faded for several years with upgrades, even with adding "live haitian rock" which was moist boat rock with the only visible life was fruit flies. Although that rock became live again when I downgraded to my current setup.

My current 29 gallon was set up in 2010 with the choice pieces of live rock I had, plus some dry marco rock. Around year two I had good coral growth, but also had hair algae taking over dry and live pieces.....neglected maintenance due to dating my future wife. The last few years I've managed the algae well and my marco pieces look like live rock and corals growth is great, dose kalk, mag and do occasional WC's. I even added some bucket cycled dry rock recently and it isn't really getting over taken by algae, a little cyano, but I did stir some things up when I moved things around.

I don't have experience with 100% dry rock so I can't comment on it's use, but one thing I haven't dealt with are dinos....maybe there was a little tuft of it when I was testing low nutes, but my guess it something ate it or out competes it.

The only "live rock" I've added to my system now would be the base of a coral or frag plug. I rarely dip, when I did I killed about 7 mini brittle stars, couple worms and pods. FWIW though I do have pests like vermetids and aiptasia, had them for years from previous systems. I manage the aips best with peppermint shrimp or kalk paste. I'm trying bumblebees for the vermetids, but may try coral snow.

I almost pulled the trigger on getting a treasure chest package of live rock rubble from TBS, but thought I still HAVE life on my rock now and corals are doing fine. I even found a brittle star in my glass scraper the other day.

 

[Waters]

I know this isn't a dry vs live rock debate, but my most successful tank I have ever set up in over 20 years was 99% marco rock with one small piece of live in the sump. I have not had one issue with dinos, algae, etc in going on two years now. They both work......dry rock start ups just need to be handled a little differently.

 

[zoomonster]

Interesting... I was not even aware we could get Aussie rock in the US but a number of places now have it online at a typical price of $25 a pound (ouch). Just for the shipping distance I guessed that much before I even looked. It looks pretty exceptional from some of the pictures I have seen online and eventually I may have to have some.

And yes 100% real rock for me with probably 150 pounds of Hawaiin, Marshall, Fiji etc.

 

[X-37B]

After 30+ years of live I have set all current systems up with 50/50.
Half live and half dead has worked as well as 100% live for me.

 

[lopez052308]

I know this isn’t a debate thread but If we keep taking live rocks from our ocean there is not going to be a good outcome in the future.The live rock does the same for the ocean as it does our tanks. Many will disagree but I’m dry all the way. It may be a little more work or and a pain but if it’s saving our reefs I’m all for it.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

If we keep taking live rocks from our ocean there is not going to be a good outcome in the future.The live rock does the same for the ocean as it does our tanks. Many will disagree but I’m dry all the way. It may be a little more work or and a pain but if it’s saving our reefs I’m all for it.

Something that most people don't realize is that live rock is a sustainable resource. Most of the wild rock we use is formed from coralline algae growing around a piece of dead coral. That layer of coralline is built up as it grows, and as patches of it die (mainly from urchins eating the surface off it) a new layer grows over those dead patches. Combined with the fast growth rate of wild stoney corals (branching and foliate corals can grow very fast on the reef), it takes only two years or so for a piece of rock about 6" wide to form. Bigger pieces will take only a bit longer. Most of the live rock we use hasn't been broken off the reef (note that very few pieces of ocean direct rock have a recently broken side) and was collected from the bottom after it naturally fell off the reef due to the actions of rock-boring worms. These pieces would eventually become sand if not collected. Lots of the ocean rock we use (such as the rock in my own tank) is actually from pieces of dry rock placed into the ocean and allowed to develop life over a few years. There are certainly no sustainability concerns with this farmed rock, and there are very few from wild-collected rock either.

 

[Reefing102]

I’m all for live rock. Not only for the natural boost but the hitchhikers and everything else.

If we keep taking live rocks from our ocean there is not going to be a good outcome in the future.The live rock does the same for the ocean as it does our tanks. Many will disagree but I’m dry all the way. It may be a little more work or and a pain but if it’s saving our reefs I’m all for it.

I’m not against dry rock users but I have to disagree with the thought of destroying reefs here. Maybe back in the early 2000’s this could possibly be seen as a concern but the vast majority of live rock now is either aquacultured off the Florida coast or Australian (and my understanding with this is it’s previously loose rock being collected not dynamited like it used to be) @Eric Cohen maybe be able to provide more insight on the collection.

 

[doubleshot00]

I know this isn’t a debate thread but If we keep taking live rocks from our ocean there is not going to be a good outcome in the future. The live rock does the same for the ocean as it does our tanks. Many will disagree but I’m dry all the way. It may be a little more work or and a pain but if it’s saving our reefs I’m all for it.

You do know they put the rocks there just to be harvested for aquarium use right?

 

[doubleshot00]

All for live rock but can be a pita to get. I did all dry rock in my tank but if i had to do it over i would have used some live rock. I did seed it a little with some live rock but i suspect it did nothing.

 

[fish farmer]

I know this isn't a dry vs live rock debate, but my most successful tank I have ever set up in over 20 years was 99% marco rock with one small piece of live in the sump. I have not had one issue with dinos, algae, etc in going on two years now. They both work......dry rock start ups just need to be handled a little differently.

There's a guy in the Boston area by the name of Greg Hiller. I remember reading back in the early 2000's his system was comprised of dry coral rocks collected over the years on beach vacations (when you could do those things) AND one carefully sourced 5 lb. piece of live rock.

 

[cpschult]

Man you have a real hard on for ocean live rock.

There are a few negatives to ocean live rock; price ($25/lb for Aussie, $6-9/lb for domestic) , and pests. Both are major turn offs for me. The cost is going to be the major turn off for most.

 

[AcroNem]

I never want to start a system with dry rock. I will add small pieces of dry (rubble) when attaching coral colonies or for growout but always want the majority of my rock to be live

 

[lopez052308]

You do know they put the rocks there just to be harvested for aquarium use right?

But aren’t we taking the critters from the ocean if Rock is simply being placed then removed? Pretty much still taking from the ocean.

 

[Sump Crab]

I know this isn’t a debate thread but If we keep taking live rocks from our ocean there is not going to be a good outcome in the future.The live rock does the same for the ocean as it does our tanks. Many will disagree but I’m dry all the way. It may be a little more work or and a pain but if it’s saving our reefs I’m all for it.

Most of the ocean live rock available to hobbyists today is farmed. Outfits lease ocean floor bottom from the government and place dry rock and then collect it after several years. In this case I think the argument can easily be made that ocean live rock actually creates more habitat vs destroying it.

 

[lopez052308]

Most of the ocean live rock available to hobbyists today is farmed. Outfits lease ocean floor bottom from the government and place dry rock and then collect it after several years. In this case I think the argument can easily be made that ocean live rock actually creates more habitat vs destroying it.

But then we’re taking it out right? Along with all the living thing on it.

 

[zoomonster]

Something that most people don't realize is that live rock is a sustainable resource. Most of the wild rock we use is formed from coralline algae growing around a piece of dead coral. That layer of coralline is built up as it grows, and as patches of it die (mainly from urchins eating the surface off it) a new layer grows over those dead patches. Combined with the fast growth rate of wild stoney corals (branching and foliate corals can grow very fast on the reef), it takes only two years or so for a piece of rock about 6" wide to form. Bigger pieces will take only a bit longer. Most of the live rock we use hasn't been broken off the reef (note that very few pieces of ocean direct rock have a recently broken side) and was collected from the bottom after it naturally fell off the reef due to the actions of rock-boring worms. These pieces would eventually become sand if not collected. Lots of the ocean rock we use (such as the rock in my own tank) is actually from pieces of dry rock placed into the ocean and allowed to develop life over a few years. There are certainly no sustainability concerns with this farmed rock, and there are very few from wild-collected rock either.

LOL so true and the Parrot fish here in Florida probably eat more coral and live rock in a year than the hobby uses in a year.