dry rock

This is my first reef aquarium so it will be a small 55 galloin. I have been scouring the 3w's for live rock and found some affordable dry marco rock. Has any one here ever had any experience with dry rock or marco rock. After I put the rock in how long should I wait before adding fish and a clean-up crew. And for this size tank with 50 lbs of rock what would be the best clean-up with out going overboard.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/live-rock/marco-rock-vs-bulkreef-eco-rox-58057.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/live-rock/anyone-used-marco-rocks-54820.html

try these links, they should help

 

I would do 30% marco rock and 70% live rock, that way the live rock will seed the marco rock. I like to use aquacultured rock from Florida - I use marc rocks dry FL. coral rock as well. So in my 120 I used 50 lbs of Marco florida rock and 100 lbs of Fl. Key aquacultured live rock - I got that at www.liverockandmore.com. Ended up being really cost effective, and it looks good to have the live rock on the base rock (the marco rocks are totally white, dead rocks). Here is a thread I have on my build that shows how the rocks look together. http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/my-new-120-gallon-thread-57116.html

 

A lot of people have been saying things like this lately. Do you mean seed for coraline? There's really no point to 'seed' rock when your curing it anyways. The whole point of cycling is to grow bacteria, whether or not you seed the rock, you will grow bacteria. Either way your just cycling your tank. Save your money, get all base rock and just cycle it. If your worried about coraline, don't. It will grow when you parameters are proper and stable. In fact, it becomes a big pain when it's all over your glass.
I've had a bad experience with Marco rock, I dont' like the way he does business. I have ordered from bulkreefsupply too and loved their service and product.

 

even cheaper is to make your own rock...otherwise just go with all base rock as stated. use the money you save to upgrade your lighting or something

 

I like a lot of the stuff that comes with the live rock - feather dusters, corals, etc. I know there is also concern about undesireable items, but I have found them to be manageable if you get good rock to start with. So that is really what I mean by seed.

 

I got "good rock" from a reputable company when I set up my 90 gallon. 8 years later, I'm still battling the bryopsis from that rock when I transferred a coral from the 90 gallon into the 180 gallon. Our tank went from this:



to this:



and is now devoid of corals. Bryopsis killed them all.

 

Marco Rocks is a fantastic place to order from now that he has a new distributor that he gets his rocks from, He use to have a problem with shipping his rocks out before when he took to many orders but now he has 2 facilities and is ALWAYS stocked so there is now lag time in delivery.
I ordered 105lbs from him last week and received the 2 boxes 4 days apart, FedEx held the second box at their Orlando Facility for some reason.
I have another 20lbs being delivered tomorrow.
Marc is a great guy to order from and if you have a problem with his order just contact him via email or call him and he will get right on it.

I will also add that his rocks are excellent.

This weekend I will be filling my tank up and begin my cycle. I was going to add some live rock to it to help the cycle along but now I am not going to go that route. Instead I will just add a piece of shrimp to the tank and let nature take its course.

I will not have those nasty unwanted hitch hikers that I hear horror stories about.

 

Wow that sucks, sorry about that. But you sure do have one nice looking clam in there, it grew a ton.

 

Clownfish killed it. Loved it to death.