What's your view on Live Rock in 2022? What's changed or hasn't changed?

[bcardoro]

I have read some guys being only worried about getting aiptasia in live rock... Definitely, some have missed what live rock is . Here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/experience-with-indonesian-live-rock.900766/#post-10044570 you can check a thread where I detailed my very recent experience with Indonesian live rock. I wish I would have only found aiptasias lol

 

[Salty716]

I'm newer (only a couple years in the hobby) and my first tank I used live rock mixed with dry rock. I got all sorts of pests pretty early on. For my newer tanks I started with dry rock with a lot of cycled marine pure, and dosed various types of bacteria for the first few months on top of it. Only pests I got were introduced from frags. I liked that route better but it is a personal preference.

 

[VJV]

To me live rock is always the better route to setup a tank, if you can find it. The amount of biodiversity you can get from day one means you will have a much smoother ride in terms of the usual invading algae suspects. However, it is also true that it is very difficult to come buy and very expensive. My current tank was setup with the worst dry rock: ceramic rocks. The first 2 years were just a constant battle against all kinds of pest algae out there. For my next thank (240 gallons) I will be buying some 10Kg of australian live rock to seed it best I can, and the rest I will likely use Life Rock from CaribSea.

 

[schooncw]

If you buy live rock because of the bacteria strains it has, you aren’t understanding the live rocks purpose.

Truth! Many do not understand this point and look at it in terms of just “cycling” the aquarium and yes, the magic bottles do this very effectively but there is so much more to creating and maintaining the “system” of a successful marine aquarium.
There is simply no substitute for live rock and the biodiversity and stability it brings.

 

[scardall]

Ifusing something like ceramic then isuppose its arguable that you can use that instead..but whichever way its dressed up it isnt as efficient andits 'trying'to replicate the real rock.makes sense to use the real thing unless such big differences in price that it stops people doing it properly

Ceramic blocks etc hase more surface area for bacteria to grow on than Rock does. FYI

 

[paul barker]

yes back in the day I had 150 lbs. in a 75 gallon tank now in the 180 i have 120 lbs of dry rock I did seed it in a 55 gallon tank for a year with 4 fish and low light I have no pest I did a algae bloom when I put the big light on but with all the stuff in my sump now that I didn't have 20 years ago all good low nutrients but not to low

 

[Wasabiroot]

I will say that although true live rock appears to be an excellent choice, the argument from microfauna feels a bit misguided or overblown in its importance. It presumes all or most of the life on the rock is
a. beneficial for your specific tank environment and
B. will survive and thrive despite the vast differences in the ocean vs. aquarium environment in regards to planktonic food availability.

Not to mention, the sandbed is a more likely source of beneficial nitrifying bacteria. Additionally- bacteria have been around for billions of years. I doubt they're going, "Blast! Marco rock! Time to not colonize this substrate since it's not authentic!" It just takes longer, which some people are ok with. As a separate note, plenty of bacteria are potentially harmful (see conjecture around Vibrio sp. and its role in BJD).

Sure it might be encrusted with all sorts of sponges etc, but many of these organisms are obligate filter feeders and would likely die off in an enclosed environment. Not to mention the stories of months of "curing", odor, and monitoring, which implicates an entire separate process to prep the rock for its use months ahead of time in some instances.
I do also feel that there is some (hopefully) unintentional gatekeeping or smugness in regards to the "superiority" of live rock starts vs dry rock. Simply put, not everyone has the dough to afford 1k in rock alone, and intimating a new hobbyist is foolish in going the cheaper, economic route rubs me the wrong way. This hobby is already egregiously expensive.
Kind of goes along with the "older is by default better". It is, if you ignore some very key points, and presume some people weigh factors the same as you.
For example, while a bobbit worm hitchhiker is uncommon, it seems a bit disingenuous to maintain a new hobbyist losing fish left and right to a "natural" predator isn't just as frustrating an issue as pest algae.

All that being said, I recognize the benefits of live rock and appreciate the viewpoints some old timers have! Just my 2c

 

[jcolliii]

Very well put. Die-off with LR is a real thing.

 

[reeftwincities]

I do also feel that there is some (hopefully) unintentional gatekeeping or smugness in regards to the "superiority" of live rock starts vs dry rock. Simply put, not everyone has the dough to afford 1k in rock alone, and intimating a new hobbyist is foolish in going the cheaper, economic route rubs me the wrong way. This hobby is already egregiously expensive.
Kind of goes along with the "older is by default better". It is, if you ignore some very key points, and presume some people weigh factors the same as you.

A successful reef tank can be done with just a HOB filter and live rock and sand. When I've tried to do the same with dry rock, it hasn't been nearly as successful. I've found dry rock tanks need to be plumbed (to account for the extra filtration needed), sit for a very long time as the beneficial bacteria and nitrifying capabilities take hold, or simply need to be stocked extremely light (and what's the fun in that?).

In that way....live rock, even at $15/lb, can be substantially cheaper than the costs of a sump, GFO reactor, refugium, etc. And honestly...how do most people start this hobby? With a fully primed CADE reef series tank? Or a petco 29g on sale with a spare heater and whisper filter? The $150-200 for 10 lbs of live rock will save them alot of money and headaches. Appreciate the perspective -- just my experience doing it both ways!

 

[las]

The sponge growth alone on my LR can filter my reef. I understand what you are saying about certain pests. And, you do what you want with your tank. But, I have a coral reef in my living room. Its more alive than you will ever experience. Sorry, but that’s the truth.

 

[Rewd]

TL,DR; I was converted to a forever customer of maricultured live rock, after being plagued with nothing but issues and loss of life, money, and patience over my first year and a half.

After trying live rock, im more excited than ever! Allow me to share...

Started off my tank with 100% dry rock, caribsea life rock shapes to be exact. Tank cycled quickly, added a pair of clowns, and slowly added a few more fish. Added a couple corals here and there, maintained good parameters. Fish were healthy and happy. Corals were too, for about a week, maybe three. They would slowly loose color, PE, then just wither away. I was stumped. Then came dinos, which i eventually beat out. Then tank cleared up, and tried all different types of coral, Softies, LPS, SPS. They'd last two-three months at best, even the "you cant kill xenia if you tried" didnt last. Fast forward to the year mark. Ive beat dino (i now know i had Ostreopsis) a second time. Got rid of those and then came the green plague, turf algae (red and green), cyano, and the dreaded red turf algae, like an ungodly amount of it. I tried everything under the sun, bacteria, blackouts, nutrient reductions, algaecides, and every piece of equipment i could buy. Noting i did made any difference. This went on for about 5 months.

Fast forward to about two to three weeks ago, i was referred to KPaquatics to purchase some live rock to seed the system with good biodiversity. Ordered 15lbs of the starter live rock. I was in love as soon as opened the box. inspected carefully, removed two mantis shrimp, a pistol shrimp, a few worms, and a bunch of crabs. Dipped the rock in some salt water to flush out anything i missed. Replaced some of my algae infested rock with the new live rock. Over the last two weeks ive noticed the tank turning around. Algae is dying off, and corals are looking better every day. So i ended up ordering some of their base rock, and another 15lbs of live rock. second batch arrived and replaced some of the old rock this morning. Ill be placing some in the sump for a few weeks before replacing the rest of my painted cement rock over the next month or two as per my savior's suggestion. I could not be happier with the way the rock looks, and what it is doing for my system.

Maybe it is user error, maybe im not doing it right, but my experience with dry rock has not been a pleasant one. Everyone has different experiences, but for me personally, I am a firm believer in live rock. Do whatever works for your system, no two are the same.

Your experience is almost an exact duplicate of mine including the addition of Kpaquatics live rock which turned this mess of a tank around in a flash. My experience from 2004-2011 using real Fiji live rock, I had thriving tanks loaded with Coraline and growing corals in just a month or two after the tank started that lasted in those trouble-free states for YEARS.

I'll never start a tank with this dry rock crap ever again. Folks who think a couple strains of bacteria in a bottle, or snake oil bottled Coraline, or tossing a couple pods in a sump can compare to the insane amount of biodiversity that comes from true ocean cultured are delusional.

And the constant fear-mongering about "pests" from true live rock is beyond comical lol.

 

[tharbin]

One of the problems I see in discussions about live rock is that live rock is equated with 'beneficial nitrifying bacteria'. Yes it has them and yes it can reduce or even eliminate the 'cycle' but that is not what live rock is about. Today you can get the bacterial load established many ways and very quickly. Forget about nitrifying bacteria when discussing live rock. It is just another in an array of possible paths to the 'cycle'. Live rock is about after the cycle. What you get from live rock and to some extent from live sand and even from rock from an established tank is a diverse biome that competes with dinos, cyano, gha, etc. for nutrients. You get obligate filter feeders, possible beneficial 'hitchhikers' and 'other' bacterial strains that you can't get from a bottle. A reef thrives on diversity. Live rock, at least a little, helps you establish that in a few weeks instead of years.

 

[Rewd]

One of the problems I see in discussions about live rock is that live rock is equated with 'beneficial nitrifying bacteria'. Yes it has them and yes it can reduce or even eliminate the 'cycle' but that is not what live rock is about. Today you can get the bacterial load established many ways and very quickly. Forget about nitrifying bacteria when discussing live rock. It is just another in an array of possible paths to the 'cycle'. Live rock is about after the cycle. What you get from live rock and to some extent from live sand and even from rock from an established tank is a diverse biome that competes with dinos, cyano, gha, etc. for nutrients. You get obligate filter feeders, possible beneficial 'hitchhikers' and 'other' bacterial strains that you can't get from a bottle. A reef thrives on diversity. Live rock, at least a little, helps you establish that in a few weeks instead of years.

Every last word of this!!!