Live rock or dead rock if you could start over? Still trying to decide!

[Reefahholic]

Just wondering if we could have a vote here.

Still trying to decide. I'm very interested to hear everybody's opinions.

Please feel free to elaborate why or where you would buy your rock from.

Seeding may take six months to a year to really get the DR living. Plus, would it really ever be as good as some high quality LR? However, LR is expensive, comes with pests, and you pay for a lot of water weight.

[bdr]

FWIW i started my tanks new years and it looks like someone turned my powerheads off and dumped purple powder in corvering everything. all rock has a purple dusting on it already my ratio was 85 lbs dry rock and 5 live so it didnt tank long to spread and i didnt need anywhere near the recomended 40/60 or 50/50 ratio. from that one piece of live rock at about the 2 month mark i saw all kinds of tiny life slowly appearing. its my first tank but cost wise i would definately go this route again.

[LaOtIn]

Ive always used LR from my LFS. one time i ordered dry rock for my wife's FOWLR and we had phosphate problems for the life of that tank (about 7 months). i decided i would always use LR from then on. the hitch hicker thing, IMO, can be bad and cool, part of the hobby

[Ron Reefman]

75% base or dead rock and 25% LR from TBS or FLR.
http://tbsaltwater.com
http://floridaliverock.com
They have the most LIVE rock of anyplace I've seen.

[jackde]

I used BRS reef saver when setting up my tank and would do it again. Like the fact that I could play with arrangement on a table before glueing together. Only put live rock in sump to seed tank. No high cost of live, no month or two of cureing dead live and even waiting over a month and a half only had small cycle with live in the sump.

[jdhuyvetter]

Fake rock. I set up a new tank with just cerameco, alternative reef and aquamags.

[mwminer]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

75% base or dead rock and 25% LR from TBS or FLR.
http://tbsaltwater.com
http://floridaliverock.com
They have the most LIVE rock of anyplace I've seen.

I agree with Ron. I use live rock from floridaliverock.com ( which is the same as gulf-view.com). In my new 450 we are going to do 100-150lb of marco rocks to build shelves, caves and then another 300 or so of premium deco rocks from florida Live. Best rocks, ship well and full of thinks you cannot get from LFS or online. But as you can see we use 75% live and about 25% dead so our numbers are reversed from Ron's.

Yes, you may get a few unwanted hitch hikers but they are easy to remove.

[jeffesaurusrex]

A fire destroyed my tank so I'm starting over soon. I originally used about 75lbs dry and 60lbs live bought from a local fellow aquarist. Within a couple months I had a tank full of live rock, crawling with worms and pods and covered with feather dusters and coralline.

With that said, I plan on soaking my old rock in acid then bleaching it and finally using dechlorinator on it to get it back to completely dry rock, since the rocks have been sitting in my yard for a month. Then I plan on buying another 50-75 lbs from one of the sites listed above, either Tampa Bay Saltwater or Florida Live Rock I haven't decided yet.

[Playa-1]

I just purchased all uncured liverock when setting up my tank. I liked the idea of the diversity of life that it offered. I got a couple of different types and grades. Then I cycled the tank with the uncured liverock and have no regrets. If I had to do it over then I would likely do it the same way.

[metalmulisha]

Plus one on the base rock idea and live rock as a seed. 60% base and 40% live. I guess it a pends on your setup. If your doing structures base can be base rocks to say the least since it will be submerged in sand (if your using sand? can't see the rock anyways) Again base to me is just helping out what we take out of the ocean. I started with my tank actually with 80% fake rocks from macrorock and 20% of live. My previous tank took 6 months before my fake rocks was covered with purple coraline algae.

[MattinIdaho]

I used all dry Pukani from BRS and seeded with a small piece of live rock. If I had to do it again I would go the exact same route.

[michaelr]

I used 70/30 lr to br. granted the lr wasnt very lively. i recently bought a piece of fla lr and it is hard to beat. the amount of life that comes on lr really makes the tank special. i feel like its exciting to see a new thing spring up out of the live rock. every time i look theres something new and my tank is a year and a half old

[doctorgori]

Live...I miss the sudden appearance of weird critters...but I admit the cost of dead rock is appealing

[albano]

Originally Posted by Reefahholic

and you pay for a lot of water weight.

I have a problem believing that the rock retains "a lot of water" while weighing it?

[Reefahholic]

LR surely sounds so much more fun! Way prettier too!

What are the possible pest that are almost impossible to remove. Anybody care to comment. Also, what are the odds of getting them?

[karsseboom]

I have set up a few tanks with lr but I hate the pest and the next tank for sure will be mostly dead rock.

[Reefahholic]

Are these pests like weeds that can't be killed or do they eat your coral or fish?

Can we list some pests here or see some pictures of some?

Why are they next to impossible to remove? Can't you just pluck them out? Or do they just stay inside the rocks where there is no way to get them?

[Devaji108]

+1 on the primo deco form Florida. there is a hick hick hiker guide on life rock and reef website. lots of life on the LR...so the thing is there is no "right" answer. I went with mostly LR b/c I wanted to see the cool colors sponges macros etc. but if you go with dry you can take your time and drill mold and putty your scape together. what ever way you go YOU must be happy with it and don't look back thinking I should have done it differently.

I feel ya, I spent many of hours thinking the same...

[AVDweeb]

I went with Marco dry rock and I love it! It is priced well, has great shapes to make good structures, little leaching in to my water, and I was able to find it at my LFS!

[Reefahholic]

yeah, that's my plan as well. My LFS has some beautiful LR that is heavily encrusted with coralline algae to seed with.

With all the headaches in reefing, it just seems like avoiding a bunch of pests would be one less thing to worry about.

I just love all the life that comes on LR though.

IS THERE A VENDOR ONLINE THAT IS CONSIDERED TO HAVE THE SAFEST LR AROUND???

[Cloudburst2000]

I used dry rock with a couple pieces live (from my local fish store) for my first tank. Eventually everything was live and looked good but it took a while. However, I never had the diversity of life that people who buy aquacultured rock get. Aquacultured rock is dead rock that is put out in the sea for months and becomes live with all kinds of life (some good and some bad). I am now setting up a new tank and am buying all live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater. Their rock is just so nice with so much life that I couldn't pass it up. I know beforehand that I will probably get some undesirables in the rock...crabs, mantis, etc so I am expecting that and making arrangements. I have a smaller aquarium set up for a mantis/undesirable crabs/etc. I am actually hoping for a mantis. The diversity of life that 'true' live rock boasts has sold me on buying aquacultured rocks. It's for a 16 gallon tank so while expensive, the cost won't kill me. When I set up my 36 gallon tank, I will probably use about half/half base rock and aquacultured rock. Also, aquacultured rock often comes in with corals/macroalagaes/sponges/etc. I think that these hitch-hikers more than make up for the price difference of the rock. A friend got some TBSaltwater rock and had a couple nice corals on it that would have cost him a fair penny at the LFS. He also had some other nice hitchhikers including...a couple porcelain crabs, several snails, a cucumber, an urchin, a couple brittle stars, tons of macroalgae, several largish sponges. The corals and other hitchhikers alone would have probably cost him a good $80 alone probably more. That more than makes up for the difference of price, IMHO.

[Reefahholic]

Yeah, TBS has great looking rock. I hear they do have ALOT of hitchhikers though.

I hear you brother, it's all about the life you get with LR.

I think that Foster and Smith have a way to remove the hitchhikers by adjusting your salinity. I'll post it up if i can find it.

[Reefahholic]

I found this post of Tampa Bay Saltwater Live Rock and thought the rock was pretty amazing! At the same time, I'm thinking of all the problems that could be in the rock as well.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1626705

[Cloudburst2000]

Yeah, some undesirable hitch-hikers for sure, but I think the abundance of good hitch-hikers will make up for the undesirables. I think most of the undesirable hitchhikers from Tampa Bay Saltwater are in the forms of crabs and mantis shrimp (the small mantis version not the large one). If you can catch them, I am sure you could find a taker for them anyway. My friend has either a mantis or pistol shrimp in his tank from TBS. He occasionally hears the clicking but he's never seen the thing and after a good year it doesn't seem to be bothering anything so he just lets it be. He did take out a couple crabs he didn't want and a decorator crab too. Gave them to the local fish store.

[Cloudburst2000]

Oh, and my Tampa Bay Saltwater shipment is scheduled to come in on Thursday. YAY!!!