Live Rock

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downwithfescue

Hello All,

I have a few questions and hope someone can help me out. I would like to buy some live rock but don't know how much or what kind and from where. I have a 100 gallon Oceanic and have some rock that came with the tank but would like to seed a Deep Sand Bed and bring some critters into the eco system.

Thanks All,

Colin
 
The old rule of thumb I heard was 1lb per gallon. That said, not all live rock is the same. If you got some Pukani from BRS it would be much lighter than say, base rock or Fiji and you could probably use less.

Your choices kind of boil down to a few main categories:

1. Dry reef rock like the Pukani and others that are sold that has been "pre-cleaned"
2. Mined or quarried rock like what Marco Rocks sells
3. Live rock from established tanks/systems
4. Dead rock from an existing system or setup that has been sitting around for a while and is now dead.

Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

If you have the time to cook and cure your rock, I'd start with Marco, Pukani, and other types of dead rock because you can be sure you do not have pests to start with. Then seed it with some well cured live rock that is free of pests as best as you can tell. You can also form structures with reef safe mortar, CPVC, acrylic rods, zip ties, etc and work easily with the dry dead rock.

If your system already has a bunch of stuff in it and you need to get biofiltration running now then existing live rock might be the way to go. Just realize that whenever you get live rock from any source you can bring in all types of things, good and bad, into your tank.
 
I do have time to cook since this will be a new tank. So you are suggesting use dry rock like the BRS pukani and other dry rock. Then seed from a well cured live rock. Can you recommend a good place to buy the well cured live rock from?

Thanks again!
 
Order from reefrocks.net. It is the same rock as the Pukani from BRS, but delivered from the wholesaler at a fraction of the cost. Depending on what type of "look" you are going for in your tank, Steve will try to match the rock he sends you to suit your needs. He also has sand that is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous. It is pre-washed, so you can dump it straight into the tank and the clouding is minimal and will clear up within about a half hour or you can pour it into the tank from a smaller container near the bottom and get almost no clouding at all. We got 600# of rock and 300# of sand in a GB for about $1.20 a # for the rock and $100 for the sand.
 
I just saw that GB. Darn missed out. Thanks I might wait for another group buy or may just breakdown and buy it. I am still setting up the tank and filtration system and will need to run a little bleach through the system.

Anyone with recommendations on the well cured live rock?

Thanks again.
 
Just to throw in one more option is

Real reef rock. This stuff is pretty rocking!
http://reefbuilders.com/2011/02/08/fish-heads-shelf-nano-live-rock/
http://reefbuilders.com/2011/01/22/walt-smiths-fiji-cultured-live-rock-fish-heads-real-reef-live-rock-head-head/
 
@sunfun wrote:
Order from reefrocks.net. It is the same rock as the Pukani from BRS said:
Pukani is from Fiji, it is collected in the ocean cleaned and dried, reerocks is from a limestone quarry in Florida. Not the same rock, not saying its no good, just stating its not the same.
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@Andrew wrote:
[I]@sunfun wrote:[/I][quote="Order from reefrocks.net. It is the same rock as the Pukani from BRS said:
Pukani is from Fiji, it is collected in the ocean cleaned and dried, reerocks is from a limestone quarry in Florida. Not the same rock, not saying its no good, just stating its not the same."]

Your right, I was thinking of Marco Rock. Either way it is a much more eco friendly solution as it doesn't destroy any reefs and you don't have to worry about any critters as the rock has been dead for millenia. No need to kill off the reefs for a higher cost, when you save them at a lower cost. [smilie=wink.gif]
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Yeah, if you have time, start with the dry rock and cure it. From what I've read, the quarried rock like Reef Rocks and Marco Rocks don't have the phosphate leaching issues that other types of rock have. Still, if you have time, it doesn't hurt to test for those just in case. If you do have lots of phosphates leaching out, you can treat for it before it goes in the tank.

As for seed rock, I would try to get some from folks here who have established pest free tanks or perhaps go to your LFS and look through their rock tanks and see how it looks. No way to know for sure but if you see a bunch of aiptasia, majanos and bubble algae everywhere that is probably not a good sign [smilie=wink.gif]
 
If you want to go all out on cooking and curing it I've got some information in my build thread on different things you can do.
 
I read that thread before posting. That's why I was a little worried. If I put the rock in the tank and let it naturally cure in saltwater how long will that take for all the deed stuff to I guess rot off?
 
@MBSL55 wrote:
The old rule of thumb I heard was 1lb per gallon. That said said:
There is no way to get 1 pound per gallon of BRS pukani in an aquarium. I have a 15 pound and a 10 pound rock and they take up 25% of my aquarium lol
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@downwithfescue wrote:
I read that thread before posting. That's why I was a little worried. If I put the rock in the tank and let it naturally cure in saltwater how long will that take for all the deed stuff to I guess rot off? said:
Depends how much stuff is on and in it. I've read it can take up to 3 months to fully cure if you are doing regular water changes and even longer for all the phos to leach out. I think a few folks were saying up to 6 months on phos but I don't have anything to backup that estimate.

How much time do you have avail? You can bleach bath for a few days dry it for a day or two, then acid wash in a day, dry for another day, LC bath for a week. That should do it.

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk 2
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