live rock or dry rock?

so i am getting ready to order my rock and i cant decide between live or dry rock any opinions? i know i can get some dry and some live to seed but live aquaria has 45lbs of standard fiji on sale for 79.99 right now

 

For me I would get some nice quality dry base rock, like what John @ ReefCleaners sells. To seed it I would get 10% live cured rock, making sure there was no aiptasia, majano or algae on it. You cut way down of bad hitch-hikers that can lead to a huge head ache down the road.

I love all the sponges and some of the cool hitch-hikers that come in on quality LR, but the head aches down the line have made me rethink that option.

 

Better bet is to go with dry rock. Reefcleaners has nice rock like mentioned. When it comes live rock, your better off hitting craigslist & some other places, you can find it definitely cheaper, plus locally it is fresher & you wont have as much die off as you will from 3 days in the mail.

I also am not personally the biggest fan of the LA rock. I bought that package when I started my first tank. It came lightly packaged with rock puncturing both the bag & the packaging. It is some DENSE rock. There was also alot of mud/sand and die off, I got a couple cups worth out of the tub I pre-cycled in, which I definitely recommend, this rock you wont want to just drop in the tank.

Now dont get me wrong, was it worth the money, eh sure I guess. Maybe my expectantions were to high. Now that I am further along in the hobby & a little more wise I probably wouldnt go that route again. I do still however recommend both DD & LA, just maybe not thier rock.

 

I dont really have to many choices for live rock where i live.(besides getting itfrom the ocean) but do you know anything about marcorocks dry rock, i live within hours of them and could go and hand pick the dry rock out that i want along with some live rock maybe

 

Dry from reefcleaners no hitchhikers.

 

Delete

 

I'm following this thread with interest and will post a similar question on RC...I got a 50/50 mix but the live percentage of my rock sat in tanks from a wholeseller that was closing and it lost all the sponges et that LR normally has....

OTOH I have no aptaisia or crabs or nusiance algae

my dilemia has been to get a few rocks to get the cooler hitchhilers like slug, crowries, snails, sponges et but risk getting aptasia, bubble algae et

so i dunno...I've had a few tanks before and those things were present but not in horrible proportions....

wish i could get a "clean" rock w/o the nasties

 

Check the thread in my sig, thats marco rocks. I got thier sand/rock deal & was very happy with it. I've also used BRS rock in the past as well. More expensive, but higher quality I personally beleive, but it comes at a higher price tag. If I were to do another tank in the future I would use both again.

 

No hitch hikers in dry rock.

Really check out Reefcleaners, John is the nicest guy you could ever deal with. Tell him what you want, shapes, sizes you can not go wrong.

Looks at some of his feed back or do a search for either ReefCleaners or John @ ReefCleaners.

 

+1 To reefcleaners. I didnt buy his rock because of the deal on marco rock/sand, but I am a repeat shopper of John's (reefcleaners) for CuC's and macro's. If it's something he sells its worth looking into.