Will live rock seed dry rock - Need some schooling!

ydarr · Jan 24, 2016

I've posted a couple of times about setting up our tank. We are a few weeks away from setting up. This is what we have so far:

* We bought a used JBJ 28g HQI tank, a couple of years ago.
* Have had the tank running with water/vinegar, and it's pretty darn clean now - almost looks brand new!
*I know it needs to be rinsed & dried out - can we use distilled water? Fresh water is too high priced around here to waste like that.
* We've purchased 25lbs of dry rock, live sand, Two Little Fishies A & B, Chemi-Pure Elite, sponge filter, ceramic rings....salt & fresh water will be purchased next Saturday.
* Will be buying 20lbs of CaribSea Life Rock from @MarineDepot this week.

So here goes: We have never set up a tank with dry rock. The threads I've read are a bit confusing to me. Will the CaribSea Life Rock seed the dry rock? Will the tank cycle? Are there any extra steps that we need to take? Are there any other items we need to purchase?

How do we do this?

Tru REEF · Jan 24, 2016

Yes, but may need additional help to cycle the tank like ghost feeding or a piece of shrimp to jump start the cycle. Live rock will seed dry rock also giving the month that the tank cycles all of the necessary bacteria will colonize itself over that time. So pretty much yes to everything except the actual cycle one or two extra steps may be needed to start it.

ydarr · Jan 24, 2016

Tru REEF said:
Yes, but may need additional help to cycle the tank like ghost feeding or a piece of shrimp to jump start the cycle. Live rock will seed dry rock also giving the month that the tank cycles all of the necessary bacteria will colonize itself over that time. So pretty much yes to everything except the actual cycle one or two extra steps may be needed to start it.

Thank you @Tru REEF ! My husband is not a fan of using a pc of shrimp to start the cycle - he's read a little bit about that, and just doesn't like it. So, we'll stick with the ghost feeding.
Please forgive our ignorance - we have been out of the reefing world for about 10 years. Our first tank, upon starting up we did live sand, live rock, a few cromis, snails & crabs - in a month time the tank cycle beautifully - it was actually the best looking tank we ever had! We are just having a hard time wrapping our heads around the dry rock. So, I guess the ghost feeding would basically be the same, except we just don't have fish in there. Would you suggest placing hermits and snails while it cycles? Again, the dry rock is messing with our heads

PatW · Jan 24, 2016

If you do not like the idea of rotting shrimp, buy some ammonium chloride to cycle the tank. You can get it online from Dr. Tim's and many local fish stores carry it. I like it because I can control the ammonia dosage and it does not stink.

Tru REEF · Jan 24, 2016

I started with all dry real reef rock (30lbs) and 20lbs. Live rock alone with 50lbs. Of bio-active live sand and I honestly cycled in a week my first fish went in the beginning of week 3. I would add invertebrates as soon as you start to see algae growth.

ydarr · Feb 8, 2016

Thank you @Tru REEF . We finally got the tank up and running this past Saturday! We have 20lbs of dry rock, and 20lbs of [HASHTAG]#caribsea[/HASHTAG] liferock - which took forever for my husband to find just the right look/position for the rocks. We went to our local store and their LR doesn't really look good. We are ghost feeding the tank, adding Brightwell Aquatics MicroBacter7, and chem Laboratories Freshwater and Marine Stability, according to bottle instructions. My husband is curious about copepods and phytoplankton - when should we be introducing those to our tank? How do you fee about Two Little Fishies A&B, this early? Oh, and is there anything else that we should be doing?

ArowanaLover1902 · Feb 8, 2016

Live rock is rock with tons of macro and micro organisms in it (algae, sponge, starfish, copepods, etc (though I actually saw an octopus sneak in at my LFS)) Dry rock is the same rock, it just doesn't have any of the organisms, so yes, the stuff will eventually spread, though it usually takes some time. Copepods usually do better in a refugium (Or so I've heard, I don't have any experience with them.) Monitor the parimeters of the water and have patience and the tank should go great. Start slow when you do add livestock, and add a small cleaner crew (a few snails and hermits perhaps) a week or two before adding the fish and the majority of inverts, this will make sure that most of that pesky algae is gone and the tank's parimeters are good enough for the fish. Good luck!

ydarr · Feb 8, 2016

ArowanaLover1902 said:
Live rock is rock with tons of macro and micro organisms in it (algae, sponge, starfish, copepods, etc (though I actually saw an octopus sneak in at my LFS)) Dry rock is the same rock, it just doesn't have any of the organisms, so yes, the stuff will eventually spread, though it usually takes some time. Copepods usually do better in a refugium (Or so I've heard, I don't have any experience with them.) Monitor the parimeters of the water and have patience and the tank should go great. Start slow when you do add livestock, and add a small cleaner crew (a few snails and hermits perhaps) a week or two before adding the fish and the majority of inverts, this will make sure that most of that pesky algae is gone and the tank's parimeters are good enough for the fish. Good luck!

Thanks @ArowanaLover1902 . We actually went with CaribSea liferock - which is not actual live rock. So this is why we have all these questions. According to @MarineDepot, it " requires no curing, and is infused with spored, live bacteria. Once placed in water, the dormant bacteria will come alive and begin to colonize: helping to speed up the cycling process" So, we are wondering if this combination of dry rock and liferock, will work out for us. We will definitely take our sweet time on this tank - we just want to make sure that we are doing everything that we need to be doing.

ArowanaLover1902 · Feb 8, 2016

Sorry, no experience with CaribSea, but from personal experience I would suggest placing a few pieces of real live rock in the tank as well, you can order it online if you really want it, but, like everything related to the fishkeeping hobby, shipping is crazy.

ydarr · Feb 8, 2016

ArowanaLover1902 said:
Sorry, no experience with CaribSea, but from personal experience I would suggest placing a few pieces of real live rock in the tank as well, you can order it online if you really want it, but, like everything related to the fishkeeping hobby, shipping is crazy.

SURE IS! That's how we ended up going with the liferock. Thanks for the input!

ArowanaLover1902 · Feb 8, 2016

With live rock you will have a much more diverse and stable ecosystem, there is just so much crazy stuff on live rock, it will be a lot harder to have a good tank without it. If you want to make the 2hours and 55minutes drive you could go to Nemo's reef in Charlotte. I have heard awesome things about them, and while I have not been there to actually see, the stocking from their website is amazing, I'll attach a link so you can see what I mean http://nemofish.us/

ydarr · Feb 8, 2016

ArowanaLover1902 said:
With live rock you will have a much more diverse and stable ecosystem, there is just so much crazy stuff on live rock, it will be a lot harder to have a good tank without it. If you want to make the 2hours and 55minutes drive you could go to Nemo's reef in Charlotte. I have heard awesome things about them, and while I have not been there to actually see, the stocking from their website is amazing, I'll attach a link so you can see what I mean http://nemofish.us/

I might be able to talk my husband into going....I will have to do some sweet talking!

ArowanaLover1902 · Feb 8, 2016

I was hoping on going soon to possibly pick up a wartskin angler, but i don't know when my aquarium will be ready for fish, I haven't even bought all the filtration yet, so it will be a few months probably. Its also quite a drive for me. Good luck though, btw maybe there is a closer store that you can get some live rock from?

ydarr · Feb 8, 2016

ArowanaLover1902 said:
I was hoping on going soon to possibly pick up a wartskin angler, but i don't know when my aquarium will be ready for fish, I haven't even bought all the filtration yet, so it will be a few months probably. Its also quite a drive for me. Good luck though, btw maybe there is a closer store that you can get some live rock from?

We have one about 20 mins from our house, but the LR is...we're not impressed. There is a store that will be opening up in March, and they are maybe an hour away. Do you or anyone in forum that may be reading this, know where online I can buy a small amount - maybe 5-10lbs? Like I said, we already have 40lbs in there. Once I have my phone charged, I will take a picture to post.

ydarr · Feb 8, 2016

Here's a front & side view of our tank.

ArowanaLover1902 · Feb 8, 2016

Very nice aquascaping, I'm glad you didn't do what i did, I aquascaped up, not to say my aquascape doesn't look amazing (because it does, of course), but i am running out of coral room, most of the corals are in front of the aquascape rather than actually on it.

ydarr · Feb 8, 2016

ArowanaLover1902 said:
Very nice aquascaping, I'm glad you didn't do what i did, I aquascaped up, not to say my aquascape doesn't look amazing (because it does, of course), but i am running out of coral room, most of the corals are in front of the aquascape rather than actually on it.

Why thank you @ArowanaLover1902 - It took my husband a couple of hours, of taking out, putting back in, and rearranging.

ArowanaLover1902 · Feb 8, 2016

Ha ha ha, same, seems your husband's aquascaping skill's are more practical than mine by far. BTW example of live rock, just now i found a banded sea serpent in a new live rock piece of mine, that's the second one I've seen today, plus a few copepods when i was killing some aiptasia that was also on a piece of live rock.

ArowanaLover1902 · Feb 8, 2016

You seem to have a deep enough sandbed for this stocking suggestion, though you may want to make sure your rock is secure before adding. Stocking suggestion: goby and pistol shrimp pair, that's my favorite symbiotic relationship, I'm thinking about getting one myself for my upcoming 30 gallon.