Starting a tank with dry rock...

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.

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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.

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.

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