POLL: Live Rock or dry rock

[schooncw]

real live rock, hands down- the biodiversity that it provides is far worth the potential risk of unwanted hitchikers. I've always told folks that live rock is good for your tank for far more than just the bacteria it brings, it's also the pods, the worms, the starfish, the tiny cukes, and so on and so on. I know a piece of "seeded" rock should hopefully have most of the variety, but I just don't see it having the extent.

if you're not concerned with the flora and fauna, then the dry will be much more practical. My intent on my upgrade from my 34 (has about 50~60 pounds currently in it) is to use dry rock to build a basic structure, but to transfer all of the existing live rock into the new setup, regardless of the size.

^^ Could not have said it better! The entire point of "live rock" is the biodiversity. I welcome hitch hikers.

 

[Betty1964]

I use live rock that I have acquired from other reefers. I have moved it in buckets of water from Virginia to Florida and to Missouri...all five hundred pounds of it.

 

[jeff williams]

I say dry unless you have live rock from one of your own tanks that you know is pest free. To much hard work can go to waste when you get live rock from an unknown source. also if you like the look of instant coraline there's fake dry options available that come purplish

 

[Forsaken77]

I'm in the process of upgrading to a 180 and just bought 180 pounds of the coraline colored Life Rock that's supposed to be "infused" with bacteria. I don't know if I buy the bacteria bit on dry rock, and plan to rinse it in rodi water, but it's made of aragonite base material that will buffer the ph and looks great out of the box. Plus no curing is needed because it was never in the ocean and contains no concrete. It also contains a nice pore structure. So that's what I'm trying with my new setup. I'm sick of the ugly brown rock forever.

 

[Tsev03]

I used live rock and if I could do it again I'll use dry rock that I cure before setting up the tank. The main reason is aquascaping is much easier with dry rock. You can attach them and make beautiful aquascape without worrying about hurting any coral or plants or sponge that might be on the live rock. I have a lot of beautiful rock but I'm having a hard time stacking and glueing it together.

 

[ReeferRoo]

setting up my first tank, have all BRS Dry Pukani.

 

[BigAsh]

I'm using about 150 pounds of dry rock in my new 180. Half of it came from my old 90 and had been bleached, rinsed and dried out for about 2 years after a move and in-between tanks. The other half came from BRS (half Pukani and half regular). I cured all the rock in two 45 gallon Brutes for about 3 months and did about half a dozen 100% water changes along the way. I'm using 100% natural seawater from Scripps Institute in San Diego (free of charge). The water in the Brute with my old rock was clear and clean from day one. The Brute with the BRS rock went crazy and foamed over and was pretty dirty until about the halfway point. Even at the end, that rock left behind a lot of "dirt" when I removed it from the Brute.

After adding the cured rock to the new tank, I filled up with natural seawater (four round trips to Scripps) and added three large bottles of BioSpira. I added a QT'd Damsel a few days later. After a week, no ammonia or nitrite, 2 ppm nitrate. I will keep testing to see if there is any real cycle at all. I had no noticeable cycle in my QT tank using the natural seawater and BioSpira. Also, the Seachem ammonia badge never registered any ammonia.

In my previous 90, I started with 100% BRS dry rock but didn't cure it and had to do a several big water changes initially. After adding coral colonies that came with base rock plus "live" rubble added to the fuge, I ended up with pests including bubble algae and Aptasia that I eventually battled to submission (foxface, filefish and Berghia nudis).

Long story short, I believe that unless you very carefully dip and QT everything you add, you will eventually have pests and bio-diversity whether you start with dry or live rock. It will just take longer with dry.

 

[Neptunes Aquariums]

I would go with dry rock and seed it with some nice pieces of live rock, I know you risk introducing some unwanted hitchhiker but getting up at night with a flash light to see critters that made it all the way from their collection point as larvae or eggs is one of the things I like the most about this hobby, just last night I found a little crab that's filter feeder it has two apendices like seafans in constant motion, really cool.