Why use 100% live rock in a reef?

[jackson6745]

thanks for the feedback.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

When I set up my 29 I had 2 nice pieces of LR that seeded the base rock I used, when I upgraded to the 55 I used for the most part base rock with the rock from my 29 which had become live by then and for the downgrade to the 24, I just used the rock from the 55 and gave the extra to Jim. All the live rock I have ever used was cured tho they came from established systems.

 

[bigbris1]

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

+1

 

[jackson6745]

I was thinking that rock is just like any other filter media. It does get dirty and in a way exhausted. There must come a point in time in a reef where live rock stores enough dissolved organic matter that it actually contributes to a decline in water quality i.e. "old tank syndrome"

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Definitely a good point rich.

 

[TimberTDI]

Is marcorocks the only place to get base rock these days?

Steven

 

[Awibrandy]

I thought it would be longer before I reported back here. It looks like it only took 3 weeks, and one 95% water change for the base rock that I got to complete it's cycle. Tested the water yesterday, and to my amazement 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrates, when just 2 weeks ago the ammonia was through the roof. How does forest green color sound? I will be splitting this rock between my 120 & a 20g that I am setting up for the GS. I will be seading the one in the 20 with a piece from my reef. The ones going in the 120 will be seaded with the lr that was in my 75.

 

[House of Laughter]

Rich,

Great thread - and my .02

I took ALL the rock out of my 180 reef whcih was teeming with life (and mojanos) and baked the $h1t out of it - it sat out in buckets in the driveway the entire winter - sat in RO/DI water in those same buckets in the driveway for over 2 months at 95 degrees (I used a ranco and a 800w heating tube) - then it went into the sun to naturally bake for weeks on end - rain, sleet, snow, sun sun and more sun. It then went into a 90g for baking in RO/Di water for another month - the first month I changed the water out 3 times and by the end it stopped turning p1$$ yellow. By the time that stopped, I started heating the water to normal temperature and using salted water from the systems water changes which was doing pretty well at that point (the prop system was up and running 3 weeks before the tank was p,umbed into it.

When we were ready to put the rock into the tank, it was heated and clean as a whistle. I am attaching a picture here (cover your eyes) that is almost a month after the tank was set up and you can see how white everything is - almost blinding.

I took some choice fiji select that had nice blue and burgandy coralaine algae on it and left it in the tank for about a month or so (after it cycled for a few weeks) and the tank is teeming with coralaine now - pods running around like crazy and the colors are starting to pop - as you can also see, I went with an open look with less rock and am using the shallow sand bed with a remote deep sand bed approach again (just like in my 180).

So, I guess to answer your question - or your statement - I did what you're recommending - bake everything and hand seed it.

House

 

[meschaefer]

I was thinking that rock is just like any other filter media. It does get dirty and in a way exhausted. There must come a point in time in a reef where live rock stores enough dissolved organic matter that it actually contributes to a decline in water quality i.e. "old tank syndrome"

I actually take issue with the idea of rock as a filter, it really isn't filtering anything. It is at most an analogy. The purpose of rock is not to trap material, but to provide a place for a biological process to take place. I do agree that rock does store up certaain organics, and many people "cook" there rock. The rock is stored in saltwater in a dark container,, with circulation. The idea is to kill off photopynthetic algae, and to allow bacteria to use up the organics. There are a couple of threads on RC that go into detail about the process and the science behind the idea. Pods, microstars, sponges, worms and other non photosythetic animals should survive the process. I had a rock with hydroids on it wich is being dried out before being introduced into the new tank.

 

[loismustdie]

I was thinking that rock is just like any other filter media. It does get dirty and in a way exhausted. There must come a point in time in a reef where live rock stores enough dissolved organic matter that it actually contributes to a decline in water quality i.e. "old tank syndrome"

Rich, do you remember last year at about this time when my tank wasn't so good? You, Kaesi and Dave all came over and said the same thing. My PO4 was high. You guys first said, remove the fuge. Next, you said to remove the rock I was using to baffle water going into my sump. The rock was just loaded with PO4 NO3 and all kinds of other crap. Both the fuge and those rocks were leaching more crap into the tank than I could possibly remove with a NW/MW skimmer. Within 2 weeks of removing both the fuge and the rocks, my PO4 was within acceptable levels without me doing any water changes.
Yes, I believe our rock/sandbeds sucks up tons of nutrients and eventually, it gets saturated and leaches them out, causing Old Tank Syndrome. Anthony Calfo suggests removing and replacing a certain amount of your live rock every year. I don't remember how much, but it was not unreasonable. When you have enough of a stash built up, you can bake you rock like Jim did and reuse it. This is also why I will use a remote DSB in any future tank I might set up if I decide to smoke a pile of crack rocks and swallow 3 pounds of crazy pills.

 

[TimberTDI]

future tank I might set up if I decide to smoke a pile of crack rocks and swallow 3 pounds of crazy pills.

this can be arranged.