Starting a tank with dry rock...

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Seems like this is a new-ish trend. I see a lot of pros to setting a tank up with this way. Mainly the ability to scape dry. However, one thing that is often sited as a benefit is the "no pests" to deal with, which sounds great but... from an ecological perspective no life on the rock = no competition if (more realistically when) a pest is introduced. Any thoughts/ experiences that can be shared on this?

Thanks,
Tom

[EMUreef]

from an ecological perspective no life on the rock = no competition if (more realistically when) a pest is introduced.


could you expand/explain this a little more, im not to sure i understand what ur trying to convey

[creefer]

I started my tank that way......I let it run for a few weeks with nothing other than agaralive and dry rock. I then seeded that with "premium" lr. That introduced the life that I really needed. I let it run that way for 3 weeks or so and added a fish. It's been all good since then and the only real pests I have dealt with are a few small aptasi and majano nems and a tiny bit of bubble algae. Seemed to work well for me.

[Rook]

When you talk about the life that comes with live rock there are two things; bacteria and inverts. Dry rock can gain the bacterial diversity you desire but you will need to add the inverts. It's not too big of a. Issue to get some invert micros stars, pods, etc, but you need to take that step. On the other hand I've not had, in my 10+ years any real bad hitchhikers.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Sure. Dry rock is esentially empty space waiting to be filled. If/when a nuisance algae, aptasia hydroid, ect. enters the tank it/they will have no competition. Therefore, they can spread without competition.

Tom

[creefer]

I got some mini brittle stars, bristle worms, and loads of pods. Like I said, it seemed to work well for me, but I'm a noob to reefing. Had FW for many moons, but the reef is new to me....and horribly addicting I might add.

[EMUreef]

i dont think it matters whether its dry or lr, nuisance algae or aiptasia will grow where ever they please.
people like dry rock because they know it doesn't have things growing on it that can bring in harmful stuff.
Also its cheaper, easier to work with though it does take a while longer to cycle.

[jimsflies]

All my rock was dry or ceramic with my current tank.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

i dont think it matters whether its dry or lr, nuisance algae or aiptasia will grow where ever they please.
people like dry rock because they know it doesn't have things growing on it that can bring in harmful stuff.
Also its cheaper, easier to work with though it does take a while longer to cycle.

Cheaper and easier to work with makes a lot of sense. However, a coraline covered rock will not grow HA as easily as a bare rock... which speaks directly to my intent for discussion on this thread. I'm not trying to say dry rock is bad or can't be incredibly successful... I'm just a proponent of biodiversity and there is hardly a better source of diversity for a reef tank than LR.

Tom

[tanglovers]

My last two tanks have been started with all dry rock, this was done for the aquascaping benefits. Before this my 220 I set up 6 years ago was done with 1/2 dry and 1/2 live rock. I feel dry rock is the way to go, a ton cheaper generally and you can see it with a small amount of live rock. Give it 6-7 months and you can not tell the difference.

[Heidi]

I think this might just be a preference between, no control and some control. I personally wanted to go the chem free route, and kinda wanted a little eco system like is really in the oceans. But I even like the micro algae in my tank when others do not. I also love all the little pineapple sponges there's a little grove of them now, and tube worms. I kept my rock wet and never saw a true "cycle" as far as an Ne spike and all that. Granted I am not sure this would work the same with a huge tank (I have only a 35g w/ no sump). I totaly see why people start "clean" but I can't see myself doing that. Like I said I think it is more of a preference of how much control over things you want.
-Heidi

PS I am far from an expert I only just took the plunge in November, so I could change MO in a could years down the road.

[schminksbro]

I like the idea of dry rock from a scaping point of view. However if you seed it with live rock you have a chance of introducing pests that you intended to avoid to start with. I am not sure but I may give it a try on my next build. However a lot of reefers don't realize that you can start out with pristine clean dry rock and then introduce a nuisance algae through foods such as frozen brine or mysis.

[creefer]

I like the idea of dry rock from a scaping point of view. However if you seed it with live rock you have a chance of introducing pests that you intended to avoid to start with. I am not sure but I may give it a try on my next build. However a lot of reefers don't realize that you can start out with pristine clean dry rock and then introduce a nuisance algae through foods such as frozen brine or mysis.

Very good point. I started dry, had a bad HA issue that I attributed to po4 leaching from the rock when in all reality it could have been that I didn't rinse the frozen food and it may have been all the rocket fuel the algae needed.

[rosebud161616]

I prefer using a lot of dry rock. It's so much more economical because not only is the rock usually much cheaper per pound, you aren't paying for the weight of water that you would in live rock. I think it's easier to aquascape with. I'm huge fan of making rock sculptures out of foam and rock and the rock has to be dry for that. I usually do seed it with prodibio and a bit of live rock to bring in bacteria, pods, and coraline algae. I have cycled a tank very quickly with dry rock, so I don't really see the reason to go completely live.

[creefer]

That is essentially what I did and the cycle was nominal.