Why use 100% live rock in a reef?

[jackson6745]

Just about everyone here has started their reefs with mostly live rock, perhaps base rock exceptions. Is this just the norm that everyone has excepted? Do people feel that they actually need x lbs of live rock for their reef to thrive? It seems that the more "stuff" rocks have growing on them, the more appealing they are i.e. tbs rock. I believe that all the "stuff" is actually detrimental to the health of a new reef since the tank will undoubtedly cycle. All the live stuff on the rock will die, decompose, and add to the waste level in the tank.
We use rock as our primary source of biological filtration........to complete the nitrogen cycle. Bacteria can host on all surfaces. The more surface area, the more bacteria. The point that I am trying to make here is that a tank would be better off started with 95% dead CLEAN rock, which is free of phosphates and will not have decomposing organisms contributing to poor water quality, but will still host bacteria. Not to mention that your rock will be free of nuisance algae. You can also "seed" your rock with select pieces of "live" rock with a certain color coraline, sponge, or whatever else you wish.


I am interested in hearing what everyone thinks on this matter. I am going to start my next reef with dead rock from my previous tank. I did sun dry, boil, and power wash each individual piece though

Your thoughts?

 

[BlueSi4]

Personally, i was told that with live rock, the cycleing process will be a little bit faster, so that's why i went out and got live sand and live rock, but it's also interesting the point you brought up about the live stuff in the rock descomposing and adding waste to the tank. I'm not an expert on tanks so that's just my opinion, but i would like to see the answers that come out of this!!

 

[jackson6745]

Bluesi4, live rock that has cycled (stuff already died off) can immediately handle a bioload. If this rock is from a stable, established tank you will not get a cycle but you can inherit problematic algae growth and there is also a good of dissolve organic matter in the rock that can add to increased phosphate and nitrate levels.

 

[tosiek]

I was thinking the same thing back when i started. But according to all the reading and research i did , the tank cycles and time up to the point of stabilization showed that starting with dead rock and just a piece of live to seed it takes 2-3 times as long but is more stable once the cycle is done. For people impatiently starting the hobby like everyone else its a quick sell, tanks up in a month and a half, not 2-3 months before you can really add anything if your starting with dead rock/seeds.

Also as far as the live rock goes, most of it is colored up on coralline and hitchhickers that may add up to potential nice coral if your lucky. Makes the tank look nice from day 1 with purple rocks and not have to wait 6-8 months down the line before you start seeing major coralline growth.

 

[ming]

If I had to start over, I would use all base rocks and seed with a piece of live rock. I think when I first started, I just couldn't wait to have a nice reef so I was impatient. But you live and learn. I would believe more live rock per x amount of gallons would be more beneficial to having a higher bioload, but is not a necessity depending on what you're stocking.

 

[ScottK]

I had a 29 gallon tank set up a few years ago that was probably 40% LR and 60% base rock. Rich, I think you're right that you could start off with just one or two pieces of LR to go with a bunch of base rock. The only think I didn't like was the really white color of the base rock. It made the tank look weird, much more artificial than if there was just LR. It took a while before I got much coraline algae or anything growing on the rock, so I tried to hide them behind the LR and corals as much as I could.

 

[Bahamian1999]

I think you are right! I started my 55 gal with dead rocks. After 3 years, I just started adding live rocks to give a little color along with coral (dead and artificial coral). My tank param. have never been better and all my fish (9) are healthy. Have not lost any.:Hydrogen:

 

[ireefny]

all my tanks started the same way. I collected alot of rocks from folks throwing in the towell, thay sat for a few weeks drying under the sun , rinsed several times hose & rain. asked a few pieces from other reefers & I just sit back & let the stuff mature, longer wait but saved me a ton of money.


I sold sun dried rock @ $1/lb I havent heard of complaint yet

 

[LeslieS]

I was thinking of setting up my next tank with flower pots full of sand stacked in some interesting way. The corals would sit in the pots like flowers, ad the fish could hide in some upside down pots.

It would be like a giant deep sand bed. As I needed to refresh the sand, I could just do it one pot at a time.

To seed the tank, a piece of LR could temporarily be put in the overflow. The down side would be when coraline started growing on the pots, they would look ugly.

 

[meschaefer]

With my upgrade i want to go with a more open look, giving corals room to grow and fish pleanty of room to swim around. Even with that I still I need alot more rock for my tank, I decided against using live rock and have instead purchased 50lbs of dry Fiji and 25lbs of dry Tonga Shelf to make up the difference. I still may need more but I will wait until I get into the new tank to see what is necessary.

While the intial logic of using live rock is that you get plenty of hitchikers, that is the problem. You almost always end up with pests in addition to the good. Furthermore, even if you get a alot of different types of good hitchikers, predation will wipe out may of these species leaving you with only a few different types. You would be better off seeding your tank with good rock that is known to be pest free.

 

[meschaefer]

And I will point everyone to the thread I posted yeasterday, on a deal on shipping over at Marco Rocks.

 

[Awibrandy]

Great thread Richie! Especially for the new folks doing research on the best way to start a reef. I shall start on how I got started in the salt water hobby.

My first salt water was started with crushed coral substrate, and dead colored coral skeletons. I waited the prescribed 2 month period, and then added fish.

For my reef I did the southdown, and live rock from the lfs(Petland to be exact). Cycle went much faster, and I believe I would not have had a problem with nuisance algea had I not used tap water. I also became lazy with the maintenance which also added to the algea problems.
I cleaned up my act when I switched out the tank. RO/DI, and frequent water changes for the past 6 months, and so far no algea of any kind.
I am now starting up a smaller tank, which I am using nothing but base rock from a friend. This rock has sat in bins in my friend's yard so it will be a whole new venture. I am looking forward to see how this one goes, and will report back here over time.

 

[Ray039]

I started in the hobby (3.5 years ago) with 90 lbs of live rock from Foster and Smith. The die off and the ammonia was HUGE!! I covered the tank with garbage bags and lights out for 6 weeks. That was the longest six weeks of my life!

I still have the same rock in my tank and it's doing great. I'm thinking that one of the benefits of lights out dark cycle was/is I have never had any nuisance algae in the display. Just the film algae on the glass.

EDIT: I still have the same fish I started with. I've put those guys through alot over the years but they're still hangin with me!

 

[loismustdie]

I started my tank with 80% dead rock and 20% LR.

 

[jhale]

my 120's reincarnation was all my old rock baked in the sun then cooked for 3 months. I used a few nice pieces Herman gave me to seed it.
Pest free live rock is the way to go.

 

[Ray039]

And I will point everyone to the thread I posted yeasterday, on a deal on shipping over at Marco Rocks.

Marco Rock is great stuff. Marc maintains an excellent reputation up here in New England!

 

[ming]

I don't know if it counts, but I killed off my rock once by essentially having it almost frozen in the winter. This was done not on purpose, but because I was moving and I had no good way of moving my tank as well as everything else in my apartment, so I put all my rock in a rubbermaid vat, threw it on the back of a U haul in Dec, and 8 hours later when I got to my destination, everything was pretty much dead. Had to cycle my tank again with my corals on the glass bottom of another tank while I got things running again. Things were worse then they sound, but I'm going to plan my next move differently

 

[nyfireman3097]

Rich my LR was 100% LR but if I had to do it again I will be buying macrorock and cooking the rock for months before putting it into my tank and then going from there.

 

[drperetz]

...

I am also pro clean, base rock. Less problems with unwanted nuisance.

Seeding is best...

:Hydrogen:

 

[inline6]

I probably used 25% LR and the rest base for my 58g.