Scrubbed my rocks today...

[CBonito]

I've started tanks with dry rock and sands, I've also use wet live rock form my local fish stores, and a couple of years ago I tried the maricultured stuff from the good ladies at Tampa Bay Saltwater. The TBS rock and sand is now hands down my favorite way to start a tank.

That said, I know some members here really embrace the dry rock and sand approach. I don't think that a certain kind of rock necessarily means you'll have a problem, but I do feel that using real, live rock will minimize any problems you may have.

As mentioned by @Subsea and others, simply adding a little well seasoned or maricultured live rock to your system, can have a dramatic and positive effect.

Best of luck here!

If I could do it all over again, I would be ordering TBS Rock and not playing any games. It took my tank so much longer to come into its own, the algae and dinos were a PITA and I had to build a mud refugium with Keys mud in it just so the tank would populate and become live.

Just do the TBS rock. I miss the days when I could drive over to Tropicorium and pick up a whole box of live fiji, throw it live into the tank and be done.

IMO, Fake Rock is crap.

 

[Fish Fan]

If I could do it all over again, I would be ordering TBS Rock and not playing any games. It took my tank so much longer to come into its own, the algae and dinos were a PITA and I had to build a mud refugium with Keys mud in it just so the tank would populate and become live.

Just do the TBS rock. I miss the days when I could drive over to Tropicorium and pick up a whole box of live fiji, throw it live into the tank and be done.

IMO, Fake Rock is crap.

I won't go so far as to say that fake rock is garbage, but yes, I am with you here It's maybe not cheap, but the maricultured rock and sand from TBS simply can't be beat, in my humble opinion, and does indeed result in a more mature tank is less time, with less issues. I believe new reefers would be best served by starting a tank with high quality live rock.

Just to offer an alternative approach, I do know of a couple well respected R2R members that really like to use dry rocks and sand, and they can build a beautiful tank, even if it takes them a bit longer.

But yes, I agree, I'm a huge fan of using *real* wet live rocks and sands

Thank you for your reply!

 

[Baylott224]

I bought Florida live rock but they sold it after it had been curing so it was ready. And shipped wet very clean no hikers. It was actually ebay but I looked alot to find the right one

 

[Subsea]

I use Hanna and Salifert. NO3 2 (S), PO4 0.00 (S), Ca 400 (S), kH 9.1 (H), pH 7.7.

zero nutrients with emphases on phosphate & nitrate is a recipe for opportunistic algae invasion.