Dry rock for a reef tank??

Went to the LFS and put $ down on a pre-drilled 90 gallon. I am seriously considering putting in marco rocks dry rock unless I win the Lotto tonight. My goal is to build a lovely reef tank.

Should I put 100 lbs of dry and add some cured LR (that I am going to have to re-cure at home) or can I skip the LR? Planning on using 100 - 120 lbs of live sand. (Rationale - wont see the coralline anywho...)

I have a 55 hexagon I got from a friend that is in process now. Looking good except that I believed my LFS... crazy me. Scrubbed and did 50% water changes for a couple of weeks. The remaining die off is being eaten by blue legged hermits. (Same store that sold me a sand sifting star fish).

I will muddle through the issues in the 55. I want a better start to my brand new 90 though.

 

Yes you can use dry rock. That's how most people do it as the live stuff cost is so much. All rock will eventually become live.

To spread coraline, you can just add a few pieces of live rock with 95% dry rock.

 

Thank you Seano. I hope to chronicle my new start up with saltwater here once I get started.

That is an enormous savings! Its not going to be cheap, but what habits are? ;D

To spread coraline, you can just add a few pieces of live rock with 95% dry rock.[/QUOTE]

 

80% of my rock came from Marco Rocks The finest aquarium rock available, base rock, live rock, reef rock, marco rock, reef tank saltwater fish, live corals, Marco rocks, Fiji live rock, Tonga Live rock
the coraline hitchhiked in on a few hermit crabs and my first few corals.






For those of you joining us that are new to the hobby - the best piece of advice you'll get around here as a saltwater newbie is 3Reef's slogan
"Go slow, let it grow."
And for those experianced hobbyists joining us - it's still good advice
good luck and post pics soon



Here are a few threads for you to read, then come back and ask about anything you still don't understand. we'll get you squared away and on the right path

http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/how-setup-saltwater-aquarium-89044.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/ultimate-newbie-guide-86462.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-articles-how-tos/all-about-sumps-filters-fuges-79852.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/protein-skimmers/all-about-skimmers-skimmers-skimmer-85389.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/handy-research-links-89299.html

 

Personally thats the only way to start a tank. That way you don't end up with bunches of stuff you don't want.

 

Hitchhikers are always a cool addition. Well, when they don't screw up your tank that is.:

 

Yeah, tell my buddy that, the one that just took his 120 down after fighting a really bad case of byprosis for the last 3 years! Bought some live rocks from a place in Tampa and it took about 2 months and you couldn't see the rocks throught that sh1t!

 

Go with all dry rock. You don't need to seed with live rock as it will become live rock on it's own. Any live rock you buy could be a potential disaster waiting to happen. I've seen quite a few Florida Cerith's come in with pink, green, and purple coralline on them when I've gotten them from Reefcleaners.org. That's all the seeding you'll need.

 

I am a major advocate of going slow. The LFS's around here are in a hurry for me to jam my tank full ASAP. This weekend was the busiest I have seen them in 3 years.

With using dry rock and live sand in a predrilled tank with sump/fuge, should I follow liveaquaria.com on the set up schedule? It seems awfully aggressive and the opposite of what I have seen a lot of reefers suggest.

Reef cleaners week 4 (after curing LR)
Easy corals week 6
Aquacultured corals week 8
Fish and inverst week 10 and 12.

Seems awfully quick unless it is because of the fuge and sump with the LR/LS stabilizing readying the tank more quickly?

 

In those cases they are counting on your live sand (waste of money in my opinion) seeding the tank fast enough to cycle the tank quickly. when I started my tank all dry sand and rock the full cycle took 9 1/2 weeks and then I added a CUC and stocked the fuge over the next few weeks.
Once you reach that point you can start adding 1 or 2 hardier fish every 2 to 3 weeks and a few corals. By the time you reach the 6 month mark you can petty much add corals at will, fish should still be added in small groups at a time with several weeks between additions.