Cali Kid Corals

"Livening" up a brand new tank with Maricultured Rock

SpaceCased

SpaceCased

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I was hoping to get some opinions on peoples recommendations for "Livening" up a tank. I am starting up a brand new tank and so far it is with all dry marco rock and sand. I was thinking about buying 5lbs of the seeding Maricultured Live Rock. Shipped its $129.

I think my big question is, do you think something like this would be worth the cost and are there better/cheaper options available either shipped or locally? Im sure that the general consensus will be that of course it is beneficial with certain reservations like getting hitchhikers, but Im wondering if overnighting stuff from Florida is the only good solution. Is getting some "Live" rock locally just as good? Or would grabbing some from a local member also be a good choice? Is there a better way to safely add biodiversity?

Im curious here what others do in a situation like this. Thanks in advance.
 
Honestly I think this particular subject has lot of opinions and even more so when you start comparing which live rock vendors are better. I’ve gotten live rock from Salty Bottom Reef Co and also Tampa Bay Saltwater. Still got an ugly phase with both. Still got dinos in the early stages. Everyone has different experiences. I think the only “true” way is if you had the rock/media tested by AquaBiomics to actually see the numbers. They sell tested rubble but it’s very expensive and usually out of stock. There’s also risks with pests, hitchhikers, etc in any live rock or media you get whether that’s from another reefer/LFS/vendor. Having said all this, I would recommend getting live rock from somewhere. I’ve heard people have good experiences with rock locally from @under_water_ninja . If you buy rock shipped, it’s going across the country so it must be shipped overnight otherwise you’ll have to cure it which kinda defeats the purpose I’d say. You could also find a local trusted reefer who would be willing to sell/share/swap rock with you. A lot of reefers also keep bio media bricks in their sump for situations like this and would be willing to swap their “used” one with a new one. If you do buy live rock from another reefer, make sure it’s porous rock. I’ve seen too many FB/Craigslist threads of people selling live rock and it’s Caribsea purple rock or something similar. In my opinion and experience, that rocks not really porous
 
The average reef tank has a very different microbiome from the ocean. Live rocks you get from a local reefer would not contain nearly the same diversity that a reef rock would.

On the other hand, if you get ocean live rocks, I doubt the diversity would stay around for very long without the conditions necessary to keep the other bacteria around

If you don’t want to enter the rabbit hole I’d just swap a brick with a trusted reefer and call it a day, especially for cycling purposes. Don’t expect to skip the ugly stage though
 
Since this is a collection of opinions, here is mine.

Do not start with dry rock only.

Buy as much live rock as you can afford and needed for your tank.

If this is for your 32 g biocube, the best you can buy in the US is most likely from them - 10 lbs will be sufficient: https://www.kpaquatics.com/product/aquacultured-live-rock/

If you get the rocks or bricks from someone else, you also inherit how they managed their tank - good and bad. I would not do this but it is better than dry rocks only, and cheaper than the KP or Tampa bay live rock options. So if money is the issue, proper live rock (not ebay) will not be feasible as it is expensive.

The ugly phase is a good thing. Can you avoid it? Maybe (temporarily). I could, in the beginning, and then my nutrients dropped too low and I still got the ugly phase eventually.
 
I agree with @Alexander1312 - the more live rock you can start with, the better. I used 100% live rock from TBS and a local LFS (Kenny) and had fish and SPS in the tank within a couple of days, no ugly stage, and things have been happy and growing since.

My experience with dry rock was…a nightmare. Obviously everyone has different experiences but there certainly seems to be a lot of truth to the notion that live rock helps start tanks, and we probably don’t even really understand all of the reasons why.

You can certainly have success with dry rock or mostly dry rock starts, many people do - but it’s typically a longer journey with more risks and challenges. So IMO add as much live rock as you can, that’s the bottom line.
 
My most recent setup used cured dry rock in Kenny's system, dry sand, PNS pro bio soaked additional rock, lots of tisbe pods, phyto, and no light for a couple weeks. Before the lights I added a lot of trochus and cerith snails plus a tuxedo urchin and things have been pretty clean since besides the glass. After a month I added dipped rocks from my nano and have been doing very heavy feeding for the fish. A little brown dusting on the sand that is getting taken care of by snails and a star.
 
Srt4eric said:
I completely skipped the ugly phase by putting my rock in a brute can and a couple media blocks from various members tanks. I let them cook for a few months.
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I did similar with my peninsula. Rock that was acid washed and bleached. I used bottle bacteria. I believe I had some I'd cooked that way I added too. Standard sand, washed with a hose outside. Added some pods and phytos

Zero uglies on that tank setup. Zero pests. Tank is healthy as can be.

I've also never had uglies in my frag tank which was only stuff added after cooking.

Not sure the secrets, given I've also had major uglies and dinos on my previous tanks, which were funny enough solved by sand from @under_water_ninja 's tanks at High tide.

Edit: All this to also say, you don't have to get rock taken from the ocean to have a healthy tank. Possible it helps. Possible it doesn't. Hard to say.
 
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richiev said:
I did similar with my peninsula. Rock that was acid washed and bleached. I used bottle bacteria. I believe I had some I'd cooked that way I added too. Standard sand, washed with a hose outside. Added some pods and phytos

Zero uglies on that tank setup. Zero pests. Tank is healthy as can be.

I've also never had uglies in my frag tank which was only stuff added after cooking.

Not sure the secrets, given I've also had major uglies and dinos on my previous tanks, which were funny enough solved by sand from @under_water_ninja 's tanks at High tide.

Edit: All this to also say, you don't have to get rock taken from the ocean to have a healthy tank. Possible it helps. Possible it doesn't. Hard to say.
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Also possible a couple pieces of junk from the ocean we literally live right next to could be all you need if you really care to go that route. My kids bring mountains of sand home from the beach in their shoes and the back of my van. If you grab a half a cup yourself it's not going to ruin the environment more than us indirectly paying people to steal animals from their native environment and fly them to us. Rinsed and soaked for a day and I'd imagine any bad stuff leaching out would be mitigated. Especially if used to seed a cooking tank of rock.
 
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