The thing I don't get is people will start a bare bottom frag system with no rock and do fine...
Dry Rock Reef - 11 months in
- Thread starter Teague75
- Start date
phc567
Supporting Member
I can’t speak on how others do it. But a lot are tied into a main sump that’s part of an older system.
Or they might use a sump with old bio media.
My friend that owns a fish store told me that I could keep anything alive if I did 100% water change everyday.
Also. How long are they growing the frags in the tank ? A few weeks, months is easy.
My friend also told me the 8-10 months of a new aquarium is where problems will start happening.
1.5-2 years is when things will start to smooth out.
These are just guesses of course.
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RandyC
Supporting Member
That makes no sense. If the biome isn’t there to support coral, how would a 100% water change everyday have coral grow long term? That just implies that I need to have clean water with stable parameters. And then what about nitrate and phosphate?
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phc567
Supporting Member
Sorry. I should have written it better. I’m writing on my phone. I think the reason why people can’t keep sps / torches. Is because the biome isn’t there. I don’t have any proof. But when I first started in 99. My 300 was 4 large pieces of dead rock. I struggled for a very long time. My friend Jesus had a 240. He had a full blown sps aquarium. It was started with all live rock. Nothing would die. He would give me frags and they would die in my aquarium. I gave him frags that were not doing well and they got better in his aquarium. I tried to do everything like his husbandry. Even fish. I gave him a blue line angel. It was about to die. He put it in his sump that was in his garage. That blue line lived in his sump for over a year. Until he broke his aquarium down.
Another friend that owns the aquarium store. He said the biome would grow on the surfaces.water changes everyday, The water would be perfect. Dunno. That’s what he told me years ago. Never tried it.
Oh. He also said something about the ocean and it being clean and our aquariums are dirty. But I was lost by then, I was still a noobie back then. As for phosphate and nitrates. There weren’t any test for that back then. It was like 2000ish.
So yeah. I do believe there is something that comes out of the rock or lives on the rock to support coral health. On the flip to that. I know guys in LA that start with dead rock and they seed their rock with sps frags. They put in a lot of frags and they get it going. But those guys are super experienced. Dunno. There’s some talent in LA. They say. You just have to know what to look for. But they never told me what that is. Sorry. I don’t know that secret.
I linked a chat earlier. ABC corals ( Vincent ). He talks about why people can’t keep sps. He also states that the biome isn’t there and tells you how to build it with zeofit. I built my biome differently. I asked people that I knew that had old aquariums if I could have a small piece of rock or sand.
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Coral2Coral
Supporting Member
I just did a complete rock swop out(everything) a little over a month ago with the Tampa bays one, sps turn around within a few days, growth started again and colors are back.
I got a bunch I can give/sell this week in Sunnyvale. Buyer beware as I have aiptasia and red planaria, but those can be dealt with.
grizfyrfyter
Supporting Member
I think sand is bad but if you're going to do it, might as well add the beneficial bacteria.
Or use dry sand and grab some brightwell aquatics microbacter start
I used microbacter start to start this tank. I don't think it has the variety of bacteria were talking about here. I think it just has the bacteria to breakdown ammonia and nitrite into nitrate.
grizfyrfyter
Supporting Member
Live sand isn't going to have anything beyond that.
Why do you believe that?
I'm not saying you're wrong, I don't know either way, but it seems like sand supposedly collected from the ocean could have more biodiversity. Just like live rock is expected to.
grizfyrfyter
Supporting Member
Bagged live sand isn't hosting organisms from the ocean. It's dry sand that has had bacteria added.
Can't separate wet sand by grain size. It has to be dry for that.
Can't separate wet sand by grain size. It has to be dry for that.
RandyC
Supporting Member
Carribsea ocean direct sand is from the ocean, not dry sand with added bacteria (e.g carribsea arag-alive sand).
grizfyrfyter
Supporting Member
That is the exception, hence why you can't choose grain size on the ocean direct.
I forgot they sell that. I avoid ocean direct anything if I can. The benefits don't outweigh the pest potential.
It's funny though, pest prevention is why I went with dry rock and sand... IMO pest potential is extra high getting rock from another reefer.... Maybe not crab/ shrimp pest, though I doubt those are coming in on sand.
grizfyrfyter
Supporting Member
The real skill in reef keeping is pest management lol
RandyC
Supporting Member
The chances of pests in ocean direct sand is not high. Not much besides bacteria could survive the long shipping times, temperature fluctuations, lack of food and lower oxygen levels.