Questions about live rock

[Kim Hewlett]

I have been looking for live rock at a good price and I found a web site and also have a private party that wants to sell me live rock that is dried.

How can it be "live rock" if it isn't wet or at least damp? This does not make sense to me.

Is it OK to puchase it this way?

Can someone help?

Thank you so much.

Kim

 

[plack]

Dried/Dead or Lace rock--- As long as it is Porous and lightweight will/should work well.

All "live rock" Has Living bacteria inside and outside of it. Also Many Times Coraline algae.

Sometimes Micro Algae's Small bits of coral . Sometimes Unwanted pests and Aptasia etc

This bacteria grows and multiplies and changes to the point where it can break down the fish waste and is a living Filteration system/Colony of bacteria.This will take a few days to a few months. It is called a Nitrogen Cycle !

This bacteria will grow in a tank naturally and grow inside the dead bacteria free rock and in time become live rock in this way!

From a looks standpoint it should in time get coraline algae( Mainly Purple and sometimes Red and other shades) which can form everywhere eventually.

Some people will get another person who lives close to them and has an established (older than 7 Months) Tank to save, say a bucket full of there water or more from a water change.

Have them scrape some of the corraline algae from there glass off and siphon it out of there tank into the buckets of water.

Then you can use this to start your cycle and also to seed the tank with coraline algae!

So Yes you can use it but it will Take a bit longer For the nitrogen cycle to complete itself !

If there is no Older tanks nearbye to use then you could also just Buy a piece or two of Live rock and add it to the pile of Dried/Dead/Lace rock and it will seed all the other rock with all of it's Bacteria !!




Paul

 

[aquariumdebacle]

Yes, purchase it! It will become "live rock" once it is in your system with no associated die off. Just don't pay more than a few dollars a pound.

 

[Sascha D]

I've never purchased dried out LR, but let me just commect on the "Lace Rock". When I first started, the guy at the LFS sold me some Lace Rock and told me it would become LR after awhile. I wanted to believe him because I was young and I didn't have much money to buy quality LR. First off, its dirty and not in the good kind of way. It has a concrete texture and it breaks, often crumbling under pressure. After 2 years it looked pretty much like all the other LR, but it still looked like concrete that had fallen off the pier.

I dont suggest it.

 

[NC2WA]

Kim,

Before I moved from NC to WA two years ago, I saved all of the live rock from my 120 gallon tank (approx 100 lbs). Before I packed it up into storage, I placed outside in the heat to dry thorough (this took about 2-3 days). It was in storage for 3 months. At this point, it was dead rock and yes it was completely white. However, the point is that it was still good rock, just dead. It took a couple of months for the rock to get corralline algae on it, but now it is seasoned, cured live rock. This rock is now in my 375 gallon tank. (Just click the link under my signature to see the tank and rock.)

If you don't mind looking at white dead rock, I say go for it, just add a piece or two of seasoned cured rock to help the nitrifying process along.

Kirk

 

[Kim Hewlett]

Thank you all for the feedback. Can I add the dry and some cured live rock and still start adding the fish from my 55 gallon within 3 to 4 weeks? I didn't realize that I needed live rock at all untill I started reading this site. Also do you know of a faster way to get my fish moved from the 55 to a 120 tank? I want to do this the fasted way but still keeping my fish healthy.

Thank yo so much for your help.

Kim

 

[plack]

There is Heavy Non-porus Live rock/Dead rock/Lace rock/dry rock
Don't buy it if it is not porus Light weight for it's size and APPEALING in Form !!!!

Bojangles apparently bought something that looked ugly---- I say The shape won't change so Don't buy it !!!!!

But look at salsakings 750 reef the entire back wall was NOT live rock at first and it's nice looking !

Look at it at post's # 163 then 192 etc.. !!!

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33452&page=11




Paul