Thoughts on Live / Dry Rock

[Variant]

Had a random thought... and would love to hear from the community whether this comparison is justified.

There seems to be a ton of similarities between the freshwater planted tank community and the reef tank community. In planted tanks, you first need (1) soil that provide primary nutrients for plants and (2) light for photosynthesis. The stronger your lights are, the faster your plants grow (typically) and to keep up with growth, you need to inject CO2 and sometimes supplement nutrients by dosing certain elements. That said, you don't see heavily planted tanks with intense lighting use gravel or synthetic substrate, they use nutrients dense soil like substrate.

So then, in the reefing community, I would think that live rock (and maybe sand) would act as the primary nutrient providing "substrate" similar to soil. Obviously lighting is required nonetheless. Perhaps this is why when folks use dry rock, they end up needing to dose tons of elements like nitrate, phosphate, aminos, and coral foods because they're using a fairly sterile substrate. It would be the equivalent of planted tank owners to use sand or gravel and having to dose tons of fertilizer to keep up with their plant's growth demands.

In following through this thought... I wonder if reefers should think of live rock not only as a way to manage the nitrogen cycle via nitrifying bacteria, but to also think of live rock along with its diverse biome as live substrate similar to that of soil for freshwater planted tank folks.

Thoughts?

 

[glb]

Had a random thought... and would love to hear from the community whether this comparison is justified.

There seems to be a ton of similarities between the freshwater planted tank community and the reef tank community. In planted tanks, you first need (1) soil that provide primary nutrients for plants and (2) light for photosynthesis. The stronger your lights are, the faster your plants grow (typically) and to keep up with growth, you need to inject CO2 and sometimes supplement nutrients by dosing certain elements. That said, you don't see heavily planted tanks with intense lighting use gravel or synthetic substrate, they use nutrients dense soil like substrate.

So then, in the reefing community, I would think that live rock (and maybe sand) would act as the primary nutrient providing "substrate" similar to soil. Obviously lighting is required nonetheless. Perhaps this is why when folks use dry rock, they end up needing to dose tons of elements like nitrate, phosphate, aminos, and coral foods because they're using a fairly sterile substrate. It would be the equivalent of planted tank owners to use sand or gravel and having to dose tons of fertilizer to keep up with their plant's growth demands.

In following through this thought... I wonder if reefers should think of live rock not only as a way to manage the nitrogen cycle via nitrifying bacteria, but to also think of live rock along with its diverse biome as live substrate similar to that of soil for freshwater planted tank folks.

Thoughts?

I’ve used dry rock and live rock to start tanks and they both have pros and cons, but I don’t think of them as nutrient sources. Live rocks can cycle a tank very quickly but they can come with all sorts of unwanted hitchhikers. Dry rock setups don’t have unwanted critters, but they take longer to cycle and don’t become “live” for a while. I think of the rocks as the biggest part of my nitrogen cycle and also as decorative.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I personally don't think it's a fair comparison.

As you said in freshwater planted tanks, plants are drawing most of their nutrition from the substrate, hence not needing strong lighting.

In a reef tank, Your coral are drawing most of their nutrition from the light and the water around them. In nature, corals grow on the skeletons of dead coal. They have no ability to transfer nutrients from the base, to the tips for instance.

Live rock provides a laundry list of benefits to overall health of the tank, But it is not Providing the nutrients for your coral to grow.