Where did you get it for .80c a pound??? its not boulders from someones yard is it??? LOL
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Where did you get it for .80c a pound??? its not boulders from someones yard is it??? LOL
If you GLUE your rocks together first, put them straight on glass, then sand... If your not gluing, you need the egg crate.
Depends on the rock. Both Fiji and pukani rock from BRS are VERY porous. I agree base rock is not porous. If you take the time to pre-cure dry rock you can avoid most of the algae issues.
Definitely don't use egg crate. Totally unnecessary and quite an efficient detritus trap. Just place it right on the glass. In thirty years I have never seen nor heard of a tank breaking.
Good luck with your dry rock.
Looks good. Kind of a step up from base rock. Be sure to cure it for 6-8 weeks and it will speed up the cycle in the tank and avoid the worst of the algae outbreaks.
Will do, what temp should I have the rock in? What should I look for while testing the water?
Dry rock is not porous enough to get both aerobic and non aerobic bacteria in the same piece of rock that fresh live rock has
I cured my rock during the summer so it was warm out and I didn't have to heat it. I would keep the water at reef temps around 76 degrees. My rock from BRS had a bunch of dead stuff in it and on it. That was enough to start the cycle. I added biospira and Dr Tims and then later ghost fed with pellets. Your rock looks pretty clean so I would add the shrimp or pellets to get it going. I only did one water change but made sure there was flow in the tub. Be sure to top off evaporation to keep salinity at 1.025. Its almost set it and forget it. The longer you can cure it in the tub the better.
I had time because I had torn down my old system and was having work done in the family room where the tank was. I had to wait until the work was done before I could set back up. It forced me to wait and cure it for those eight weeks.
This is my thoughts so far as I'm planning my first reef
Amount of rock you need depends on if you plan on running a Berlin system for bacterial filtration or if you plan on using other systems along with the rock (DSB, plenum, etc). If you for instance run a plenum or DSB you don't need as much rock as you would otherwise and the porosity isn't as critical.
I'm leaning towards using live rock along with a plenum in my refugium and the reason is mostly that I want to bring in as many organisms and hitchhikers as possible. My build will be quite slow and I don't have a problem with running the tank with just rocks for as long as it takes before adding other livestock so any pests can more easily be dealt with. Adding live rock from the ocean is to me equally exciting as adding corals or fish. It's a way to bring in some added complexity and a piece from the actual ocean to our little glass boxes. That's how I see it anyway. [emoji4]
This seems like a pretty bold statement
Do you have any evidence of this. As mentioned above, I would say that may hold true to most dry base rock on the market but I think that the better known dry rock on the market is plenty of porous enough.
If bubble algae and aiptasia were your problem they more than likely weren't introduced with the live rock. If they were you likely got some rock that resided in another tank between its leaving the ocean and arriving in your tank. That's why when I was in the business we never put rock that customers brought in into our rock tub. Only the stuff straight from the airport went in there. We kept the tub full, heavily skimmed, and illuminated, and we went through a lot of rock. Mind you it was the Nineties and nobody would have even remotely consider not using it. The trend of using dry rock these days is not that much different than the tanks my sister kept in the Seventies filled with big coral skeletons. It's a step backwards and Peter Wilkens is turning in his grave.
I know that was a little dramatic, but I am a huge proponent of live rock can you tell . It's just so much easier and I don't have the patience for dry. I wish you success.