Thoughts on stocking 10% live rock and 90% Marca dry rock for 350 liter?
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My last tank was all live rock from my LFS. It was nothing more than dry rock running in a vat for who knows how long. All they did was put bottled bacteria in there and sell it for 6.99-8.99 per pound. What a waste of money. The rocks went thru the ugle stage just like the dry rock maybe slightly better.
My newest tank is going with 100% live rock that was maricultured from Florida. The difference is pretty extreme. The real live rocks offers all kinds of living organisms where the LFS live rock was just completely devoided of life other than bacteria that i can't even see.
My newest tank is going with 100% live rock that was maricultured from Florida. The difference is pretty extreme. The real live rocks offers all kinds of living organisms where the LFS live rock was just completely devoided of life other than bacteria that i can't even see.
livinlifeinBKK
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Exactly...that's why I always differentiate between real ocean live rock and LFS bottled bac live rock...it's not even close to the same thing
I did 50% live 50% caribsea in my old 120 and it worked out well.
Check my build thread on it.
I was always a 100% live rock fan prior.
Check my build thread on it.
I was always a 100% live rock fan prior.
Just one observation from tank transfer last year -- used roughly 50/50 live vs dry rock:
-- Aqua-cultured live rock probably not even from the ocean but was fully encrusted with coralline when purchased (((had it now in my tanks for over a year)))
-- New dry/white rock (((Not truly Marco rock but looks the same)))
Currently, roughly 7-8 months since tank transfer:
-- Pockets of GHA have been sprouting up on the dry rock structure for a few months
-- Zero speck of GHA on the live rock structure
-- Aqua-cultured live rock probably not even from the ocean but was fully encrusted with coralline when purchased (((had it now in my tanks for over a year)))
-- New dry/white rock (((Not truly Marco rock but looks the same)))
Currently, roughly 7-8 months since tank transfer:
-- Pockets of GHA have been sprouting up on the dry rock structure for a few months
-- Zero speck of GHA on the live rock structure
Exactly! I only got the uglys on the dry caribsea rock. After a year you could not tell the difference between the two.
The caribsea will not show the uglys as bad as dry white rock.
ZombieEngineer
Valuable Member
I used 90% dry rock and just a couple really mature rocks from a previous tank in all of my builds and it worked out great. The initial cycle and ugly phase takes longer, but it allowed me to get a really nice aquascape that wasn't just a haphazard pile of rocks. The small number of fully mature rocks seeded the dry rock with a variety of worms, copepods, sponges, etc and within 1 year the coraline, sponges, critters, etc had covered all the other rocks to the point that even a veteran aquarist could not tell which one was the live rock and which were dry. Even 6 months in it was pretty hard to tell.
It is never zero sum game.
The luxury would be able to have a completely decked out from the gulf/keys scape is something that we should all aspire to. In my opinion the secondary benefits of the other organisms on that fresh from the water rock helps the tank along tremendously. 5050, or 6040 is better than zero.
Six months from now I don’t think that you will regret the extra expense.
18 months and 12 months into my two tanks I just recently added a couple of softball sized pieces and I can feel the benefit from them. Even see a little bit.
The luxury would be able to have a completely decked out from the gulf/keys scape is something that we should all aspire to. In my opinion the secondary benefits of the other organisms on that fresh from the water rock helps the tank along tremendously. 5050, or 6040 is better than zero.
Six months from now I don’t think that you will regret the extra expense.
18 months and 12 months into my two tanks I just recently added a couple of softball sized pieces and I can feel the benefit from them. Even see a little bit.
Excellent point on aquascaping in advance -- if going with dry rock, plan and build the scape in advance!!!
*meant to but,,, uhhh,,, got lazy and went "heat of the moment", haphazard, rock pile for my dry rock side of the tank. (Recently tore it down for more open space with more horizontal room to mount corals but had to do that all in tank which is,,, obviously,,, less than ideal)
ZombieEngineer
Valuable Member
Check out my build thread linked above for an example. You can make some really cool dry rock aquascape in a few hours with a bottle of glue masters thin or bob smith instaset and some dry rock crushes into a powder to tac weld rock together. Goes much faster than the BRS NSA videos but ends with the same result (really heavy joints use 2 part epoxy putty and cover with the powder/glue to make it dissappear)
Budget also plays a factor. Live rock is great but not everyone can afford 70 pounds of 14$/pound rock. And you shouldn't feel guilty for that either.
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Considering what we pay for all the gear , it's a small price to pay for premium rocks. Here's my invoice for the Package from TBS. 80 pounds total. 40 lbs base, 40 lbs premium live rocks . critters, and live sand.
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