questions about live rocks

You do not have to get rid of your crushed coral. your not doing a plenum system anytime soon I suppose. I would just take 1 thing at a time. switching to sand is a choice not a must.

With everything said above, I agree however I would also add this. pros and cons.

Getting all live rock:
Pros:
;benificial bacteria established.
:larger diversity of life (than a seed rock from a tank).
:Coralline algae is usually well established on most of the surface, which plays an important role in preventing nuisance algae growth and promoting herbivor inverts.
: Also somtimes live rock may have good hitchikers, such as hermit crabs, snails, or even corals and starfish.

Cons:
:As stated by somone a few posts before, Live Rock is generally more expensive than base rock. (Live rock usually is $5.99Ib and up) (base usually $2.00$3.50 averg)
:The same pro of " Good hitchhikers" can also be a con in unwanted hitchikers. (usually higher chance of unwanted hitchhikers than wanted, especially if the rock comes straight from the ocean) commomn unwanted hitchikers. Aiptasia, Majeno Anemones, Nuisance algae, Non reef safe crabs, mantis shrimp, several types of worms and even snails.
:Somtimes "die off" occurs during shipment thus requires "curing time"


getting mostly base rock and seeding with a few pieces live.
Pros:
CHEAPER)
:No curing time!
:No unwanted hitchikers. No aiptasia problems,(u control what goes in your tank)

Cons:
:Takes time for benificial bacteria to fully inhabit the surface.
:Takes longer for coralline to establish.
(not really that bad of cons because both of these can take there time and have no ill effect in doing so.

 

Wasn't aware you were vacuuming the crushed coral. Lots of people don't then have trouble later. Since you're vacuuming it to control detritus, nothing to worry about.

 

Adding to this from my previous exp. My first tank I did the mostly dry rock and a few pieces of LR. Cycles took longer and had more issues trying to stabilize the tank.

This time around I did base live rock $2 a lb 30% and 70% premium live rock $4 a lb.

I do have the Aiptasia and a few unwanted hitch hikers, but I got really lucky with my selection. I got tons of coral growth, a few star polp colonies and tons of feather dusters and quite a few varieties of macro algae. (good kinds.)

I will be waiting longer to add my fish until I get the Aiptasia out of there but I love the fact that my cycle literally jump started in less than a week.

I did spend close to $700 for about 200 lbs of LR all in all.

 

how will i know if my live rock carries bad hitchhikers? will i just need to learn what they look like?

 

one more thing, when i bring the live rock home and have it sit in a fresh batch of salt water, does that need to be in another tank with filters and stuff or is it just to kind of acclimate it and get the die-off somewhere besides my fish tank? the only thing i will be able to come up with for another container to put the live rock in is a bucket filled with the saltwater.

 

Make sure the water is up to temp and place a powerhead or air pump in the tank as well. you are basically recurring the live rock. if you are picking up LR from the LS you shouldnt have much die off so curring is minimal.


As far as unwanted hitchikers you only know when you learn to identify what is good or bad. If you dont know what your looking for, you wont know at all. Even if you do know what your looking for, you still wont know until they have created there problem.
Put it like this, once they go in your tasnk, its already to late.
Aiptasia is the most common. Youll need to search for pictures to see what they or any other bad hitchikers look like.

Just my opinion, I would not get anymore than 5% Live Rock if it came directly out the Ocean. no more than 20% if it came from somones tank I have not seen.

Only If it came out of an established tank that I have seen, that has no pest problems would I get up to 100%

You do not want aiptasia or majenos anemones. Trust me, there ugly as %#$& and are a PIA to get rid of. Manits Shrimp, near impossible to catch and can kill just about anything that breaths.

 

Just curious..

What size tank?
How many pounds of L.R. where you getting?
What kind? (Fiji)
Where from? online instore?

 

i have a 29 gallon tank, today i got about 2 lbs of live rock and about 4 lbs of base rock. i got it from my LFS and i am actually not sure if it is Fiji it just said cured live rock on the tank.

 

Was it corralined covered or just look like baserock? If your LFS has Live Rock that is not corralined covered than i would suggest getting it, as it was probably just base rock that they put in there tank to cycle. but if it corraline covered live rock, always examine it as best you can, check for brown tentacles, any type of odd colors, hairy items that maybe diffrent types of algae. BEFORE you put it in your tank. If you aalready have put it in then I would put in anymore afterwords as base rock.

 

of live rock i got 2 different rocks. one of them had some purple stuff on it and also has some stuff that seamed like moss. the other one was just looking like a rock.