Why the trend to dry rock?

[Rmckoy]

So many contributing factors .
1) cost of live rock compared to dry
2) some dry rock sold now is manufactured and not collected from actual reefs .
3) manufactured rocks can replicate many different shapes desired
And 4) I read a article somewhere stating rocks such as the pink coloured dry rocks sold in lfs to be environmentally friendly options to preserve reefs and pests free .

I am on the other side of the fence .
I used to enjoy the part of finding new pests and critters , researching what they were etc .

 

[tautog83]

What happens if you buy the live rock from someone but it started out at as dry rock?? I started out with dry rock , dip every coral and still have bristle worms. I dont want Caribbean live rock , try hunting down gorilla crabs and Eunice worms in a 6 ft tank with 100lbs of rock . Dont get me wrong , I agree that starting out with live rock is the way to go , however i rather get 10lbs from a friend , that I know doesnt have anything crazy

 

[X-37B]

I will say it’s a good thing we have options in the hobby. Few pics of my bare bottom dry rock tank from 2014 before I got sick at that time and took it down. Some might not like this tank at all, maybe say it’s not a reef tank, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Beautiful and awesome job with dry!

 

[elorablue]

Hey! You can’t do that with dry rock!! Blasphemy!
Nice “Coral Display “ you got there

 

[Vyper]

That’s the best part about dry rock. We have options on our rock scapes instead of the normal stacking. I went for the nsa look and the wife did her own thing with caves of sorts. I do have a tank with live rock for around a year and a half. Bristle worms are a nightmare in it and I have done a lot to try and battle them back with little luck. I am hoping with dry rock I can actually keep the unwanted pests out. At the very least I have the aqua scape I want.

 

[X-37B]

I have always done live. My current 120 is 50/50 and turned out well.

 

[regisshan]

With dry rock you might start off with no hitchhikers, but unless you’re super careful about quarantining before adding anything to your display tank (which it seems like most new reefers, including myself, heh, skip), you’re going to end up with the most common hitchhikers that multiply rapidly (aptasia or vermetid snails for example) with no competition, which is going to rapidly cause plague numbers. For someone new to reefing it may seem like a clean slate is the best way to start, but may not know what to look for if they get a pest with a new addition. I’m less than a year into this hobby, but if I could start over I would start with live rock instead of dry rock.

 

[ScottB]

It is ironic in a way. Forgive the generalization but old reefers have a tad more patience and a lot more confidence in dealing with hitchhikers. Thus we use live rock and have SPS running in a month or so. So maybe that makes old reefers actually LESS patient as we refuse to wait out 18 months of uglies before gluing in the goodies.

I actually find that purchasing sump rock GREATLY reduces the variety of hitchhikers. This build had SPS/LPS in within weeks of getting wet and no coral mortality or detectable pets. 200lbs of sump rock. No visible uglies.

Large Build - Welcome to all the fun: setting up a 12 foot reef tank

Firstly, this system is not my own. I am merely an assistant to the building, stocking, and maintenance process. I will list my functions later in the thread for anyone who gives a fish-poo about it. Spoiler alert: I only have to do the fun/interesting parts. Mostly, anyway. Second, it is not...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[davidcalgary29]

With dry rock you might start off with no hitchhikers, but unless you’re super careful about quarantining before adding anything to your display tank (which it seems like most new reefers, including myself, heh, skip), you’re going to end up with the most common hitchhikers that multiply rapidly (aptasia or vermetid snails for example) with no competition,

You can also add "ectoparastic diseases" to that list unless the rock has been lying fallow. That's a very small, but real risk that won't come with dry rock builds.

I think that the concern about hitchhikers is valid, but people do not extend that same level of concern to anything else that's wet that they put into their tanks. I imported aiptasia several times on macro purchases, and they also tend to carry their own (sometimes scary) biome. It's difficult to find and eradicate eggs on coral frags, as well. If it's wet, and going in your tank, you've got to assume that it might carry something, even if it's not LR.

 

[Harold999]

The benefits of live rock far outweigh them in my humble opinion. I started mine with 7 year old rock from a sump from a guy who was tearing down. Had vermitid snails and aptasia as well as tons of sponges and a few mushrooms. Well, a year later after treating the aptasia with aptasia-x, none to be found.

With the aptasia-x you probably killed also 99% of all other micro-organisms in/on the rock, could have started with dry rock anyway.

 

[N.Sreefer]

My biggest reason for using mainly dry rock is the fact good ocean collected rock is near impossible to find in canada.

 

[Uncle99]

LR never.
It took me almost two years to finally get rid of every single pest, including Aptasia, Bristleworms, a long worm like freaking thing, which turned out to be a bobbit worm.

I use the Carib-sea purple painted rock so it looks great, day 1.
Some Fritz 9, some Seachem Seed, Microbacter 7 and were ready to fly, with zero pests.

 

[Rmckoy]

My biggest reason for using mainly dry rock is the fact good ocean collected rock is near impossible to find in canada.

20 years ago it was everywhere . And where I ended up with over 300 lbs of it .
Another 200 lbs of what I am going to call diy rocks ( Portland concrete , oyster shells , and rock salt to make holes .
Soaked in water to dissolve the Salt and remove anything not wanted in the rocks )
Add to the sump for a few months to colonize bacteria


they work well for base rocks but I personally don’t like how they look

 

[davidcalgary29]

My biggest reason for using mainly dry rock is the fact good ocean collected rock is near impossible to find in canada.

But you live near the ocean!!

 

[Rmckoy]

But you live near the ocean!!

Being in Ontario it’s a little hard to find live rocks .
and no ocean .
not sure if either east or west coast of Canada have reef rocks ( no coral reefs )

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

Caribsea LifeRock FTW. Have had really good luck with this stuff.

 

[Jekyl]

I got into this hobby from the love of sea life and the ocean. Part of me enjoys the hitchhikers and the things I find that I have never seen before. Yes there are some bad ones. However they can all be managed. I wouldn't trade the surprise of new life for not seeing it at all.

 

[fishybizzness]

I started my 55 gallon with live ocean rock in early 2017. My rock was completely covered in coraline in no time. I would spend at least an hour every night staring at the tank to see what new creatures I could find. It was an amazing experience. The only negative was that I had to rearrange the rockwork multiple times before I got something i liked. I always said that when I set up any new tank that it would be with dry rock so that I could take my time and build an aqua scape that I was happy with. Fast forward to early last year. I finally set up a 120 and used caribsea liferock for my aqua scape. Everything was good as far as the scape was concerned but I wasn't having the same kind of pleasure that I had with the live rock. The dry rock was actually pretty boring. I found that over time I really, really, really, really, that's 4 realies, missed the experience of seeing new things appearing nightly on the live rock! After awhile I added a few pieces of live rock in the sump and one piece in the display just to see if i could add some diversity. I have battled algea issues for months. The only rock that doesn't have any algea is the piece of live rock. I have to scrub all of the liferock every other week or it looks crappy. It is finally starting to get alot of coraline growth and starting to look better for the first time in over 6 months. I've contemplated removing all the rock and replacing it with live rock numerous times. I don't know if I will get a bigger tank in the future but if I do it will definitely be set up with live rock! First photo is the 120 and the second is the 55 after a few months.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Being in Ontario it’s a little hard to find live rocks .
and no ocean .
not sure if either east or west coast of Canada have reef rocks ( no coral reefs )

Another reason to travel to Moose Factory.

There's another interesting issue: Nova Scotia's waters are, if I remember, classified as "Maritime Boreal" and those off of southern B.C. aren't tropical, either. Exactly what would hitchhike on those offshore rocks? It would make an interesting (and perhaps disastrous) experiment.

 

[burningmime]

I will say it’s a good thing we have options in the hobby. Few pics of my bare bottom dry rock tank from 2014 before I got sick at that time and took it down. Some might not like this tank at all, maybe say it’s not a reef tank, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Where's the rock?