Building a full tank aquascape with wet rocks?

[miPapareef]

How do I go from a tub of rocks to a beautiful aquascape in my first aquarium build?

Not asking for aquascaping tips and tricks, all kinds of threads on that, but more about do you do it wet and try to preserve the bacteria in the rocks?

I have 75 pounds of Pukani in a tub for 6 weeks and a water change last week. So now the water looks good and I can raise the ammonia to 2ppm and it will go to zero in 30 hours.

Do you dry the rocks?
Do you try to keep the rocks under water?

My current plan is to take the rocks out of the water and just work with them wet. If I can't get them cemented and mechanically fastened together wet then, I'll just wait for them to dry out.

Here's a few pics for you.

 

[Evan West]

You dont want them to dry out, pretty sure you will lose most of the bacteria that way but im not 100% positive.



#reefsquad can help

 

[Erik R]

Years of debate on that. You need a certain amount of that bacteria culture to get your tank cycles started. Its all about risk and reward:
1) Keeping all the live rock alive gives you LOTS of things that can be beneficial (algaes, bacterias, various beneficial critters). but you can also get some nasties with it. Critters you DONT want... Risk is there, but its low.
2) If you kill off all that rock and dry it out, you gain the insurance of minimizing introducing something unwanted. But you also wont cycle your tank as fast.

In my next tank (Personal preference) I am going to do mostly dry rock with one or two small live rocks for culture. My reasoning is that in my last tank, I had a nice frightening black bristleworm hidden in a rock. I dont think he hurt anything, but he gave me the twitches every time I saw him.

Point being? No real answer for you. Just understand that with all things there is a cost/reward associated. There is an article in this New Aquarium forum that talks about this topic more. I suggest you visit that article and it will explain (hopefully) better than I did.

 

[Evan West]

Years of debate on that. You need a certain amount of that bacteria culture to get your tank cycles started. Its all about risk and reward:
1) Keeping all the live rock alive gives you LOTS of things that can be beneficial (algaes, bacterias, various beneficial critters). but you can also get some nasties with it. Critters you DONT want... Risk is there, but its low.
2) If you kill off all that rock and dry it out, you gain the insurance of minimizing introducing something unwanted. But you also wont cycle your tank as fast.

In my next tank (Personal preference) I am going to do mostly dry rock with one or two small live rocks for culture. My reasoning is that in my last tank, I had a nice frightening black bristleworm hidden in a rock. I dont think he hurt anything, but he gave me the twitches every time I saw him.

Point being? No real answer for you. Just understand that with all things there is a cost/reward associated. There is an article in this New Aquarium forum that talks about this topic more. I suggest you visit that article and it will explain (hopefully) better than I did.

I mean it looks like he started with dry rock and cycled it so likely there are no pests in the rock, its a question of keeping the bacteria alive.

 

[miPapareef]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes it's all dry rock. The BRS Pukani. I have a GFO reactor going and pulling phosphates now. I keep adding a little ammonia chloride salt every few days.

I just can't imagine how to work with the rock all wet. When I watch the BRS videos and E-Marco videos it looks like everyone does it with the rocks dry. I know the E Marco will bond when wet but how do I manage all the dripping and mess.

 

[Diesel]

Well, for one that's personal but here a great link that did help out a lot of R2R members.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-on-creating-amazing-aquascapes.97209/

 

[miPapareef]

Also I've seen some beautiful aquascapes where people used true live rock, so I assume they stacked all that rock when wet. How'd they do that?

 

[Diesel]

Also I've seen some beautiful aquascapes where people used true live rock, so I assume they stacked all that rock when wet. How'd they do that?

Stacking works but securing with some kind of epoxy safe for reefs or zip ties is you best approach for a save reef for years to come.

 

[Evan West]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes it's all dry rock. The BRS Pukani. I have a GFO reactor going and pulling phosphates now. I keep adding a little ammonia chloride salt every few days.

I just can't imagine how to work with the rock all wet. When I watch the BRS videos and E-Marco videos it looks like everyone does it with the rocks dry. I know the E Marco will bond when wet but how do I manage all the dripping and mess.

You can dry them out some to the point were they are no longer dripping all over, just take them out of the tub and set them on a towel for a few minuets. Just keep a spray bottle of salt water on hand and mist them to keep them moist. this should keep post of the bacteria alive.

 

[Maritimer]

Would J.B. WaterWeld work for this sort of thing?

It's available at your local home improvement center, and claims to work underwater . . .

~Bruce

 

[miPapareef]

Thanks for the link and help all. Hopefully this weekend I can make a long time dream come true and have an aquarium that starts to look like a reef tank.

@Maritimer here is the MSDS list of ingredients for JB WaterWeld. NO WAY that's going in my tank and while I'm no expert I'm sure no one should use that.

 

[Diesel]

No biggie my friend, please keep this updated how progress will go this weekend.
Btw, I have always used this http://www.epoputtyusa.com/

 

[Waters]

As long as you don't let them totally dry out, the majority of your bacteria will be fine. Just cover them with wet paper towels as you finish sections.

 

[miyags]

Just make sure your rock has stopped leaching phosphate. Then you can drill and peg it, superglue and epoxy. Then do a cycle in your tank,just to be on the safe side

 

[Idoc]

I'm actually in the exact same boat with a bunch of BRS Pukani...and had the same exact question on what to do next! Well, since I want to do this right the first time and not jump the gun, I chose to cure the Pukani for 6 weeks as well in order to remove as many of the leeching phosphates as possible...I used a bag of Phosguard and changed it every 4 days rather than GFO, though (LFS guy's advice).

I actually cured the rock in dechlorinated freshwater since I wasn't trying to start the saltwater bacterial cycle...and didn't want to waste tons of salt just curing this stuff! I just wanted the dried organic material deep in the Pukani to clean out and hopefully limit my phosphate leeching later when really attempting to cycle my tank. So, after the 6 weeks, I removed the rock and let it totally dry out again...and now I am working on the aquascape slowly...and constantly changing it. I liked this approach best since I wasn't "rushed" to keep the saltwater nitrogen cycle bacteria alive. Now, I can take my time to get the look that I really want. You may like this approach as well since you are obviously demonstrating patience since you took the time to cure the dry Pukani in the first place. When I cycle my tank (soon hopefully), I know it will be another 4-6 weeks of it running it empty before even adding my first livestock. But, I'm not in a hurry...prefer to play it safe and hopefully be successful and enjoy this hobby. I'm thinking I will go ahead and setup my QT soon and maybe get my first fish or cleanup crew ready for when the cycle ends (not sure what to add first...haven't asked that question yet, lol). In the meantime...I just keep reading R2R forum articles and learning as much as I can...occasionally throwing in a newb question that many are very nicely tolerant to answer!

 

[stevieduk]

Years of debate on that. You need a certain amount of that bacteria culture to get your tank cycles started. Its all about risk and reward:
1) Keeping all the live rock alive gives you LOTS of things that can be beneficial (algaes, bacterias, various beneficial critters). but you can also get some nasties with it. Critters you DONT want... Risk is there, but its low.
2) If you kill off all that rock and dry it out, you gain the insurance of minimizing introducing something unwanted. But you also wont cycle your tank as fast.

In my next tank (Personal preference) I am going to do mostly dry rock with one or two small live rocks for culture. My reasoning is that in my last tank, I had a nice frightening black bristleworm hidden in a rock. I dont think he hurt anything, but he gave me the twitches every time I saw him.

Point being? No real answer for you. Just understand that with all things there is a cost/reward associated. There is an article in this New Aquarium forum that talks about this topic more. I suggest you visit that article and it will explain (hopefully) better than I did.

years ago we used to get wet rock from our local fish store that had not been cured . after it had been in the tank a few days ,we would spend ages at night, after the lights had gone out , with a torch, looking at all the wonderful stuff that came out of the rocks. all types of fan worms, crabs ect. you would get the odd mantis shrimp but they were easily got rid of.
It boring now when you buy live rock as all the stores cure it before sale in our area. personaly I would prefer wet rock as we are trying to keep a bit of nature in our tanks , not a cosmetically engineered enviroment

 

[alanbetiger]

With the epoxy it won't "stick" to wet rock. Pretty poorly to dry rock also. So one way to use a lot of epoxy and have it wrapped around sections of the rocks so it's holding on. The other way I personally prefer is to use a combination of epoxy and super glue on wet rock. The superglue sticks and the epoxy helps get into the small nooks and crannies. I mix up epoxy and then put super glue on the top of bottom of a ball of epoxy. Squeeze that inbetween the rocks you need glued together. Alot of people do use JB Waterweld

 

[Flippers4pups]

This last build I decided to go dry rock (Marco rock) and built my rock structures dry with fiberglass rods and quikqrete hydraulic cement.

I did place all my rock into a brute with fresh water for weeks to test for po4 before I built the structures.

After the structures were built, placed in my tank and cycled as normal. No need to cycle the rock before going into your tank. Take them out and let them dry out, then build your structures. Much easier.

 

[miPapareef]

Thanks a lot. This is helping me.

Based on @miyags comment, I stopped the GFO and the PO4 doubled since yesterday. Looks like it will be a few more weeks before those rocks are good to go. This is definitely a patient mans hobby.

Thank you @Flippers4pups. Your rock work looks awesome. Hoping I can follow your lead and get my rocks to come out like that.

More to come...

 

[cmcoker]

I used this on my latest build, but I did let the rock dry it was pretty fun to work with.