2024 Ohio Reef Frag Swap

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Author Topic: Live rock vs dead rock  (Read 1413 times)

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Offline Heinbaughb

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Live rock vs dead rock
« on: August 09, 2018, 19:19:23 »
Rico's aquarium recently did a new interview with Mike Paletta. Mike talks about his struggles and lack of success starting with dead rock. Just thought I would share. Being that this is my first go at a reef tank, I've only ever used live rock. I can say through that I have much quicker encrustation and growth when I glue frags directly to the rock instead of the coral encrusting onto a plug. The discussion on this subject begins around 18:30.


Offline lazylivin

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Re: Live rock vs dead rock
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2018, 21:06:26 »
My build I used dry rock. It took a good 1-1.5 years before the system was really stable. I had some initial success but from 6months - 1.5 years it was a rocky road and cost my lots of money in dead coral.

Offline Humphrey

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Re: Live rock vs dead rock
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2018, 22:36:22 »
+1

Offline Heinbaughb

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Live rock vs dead rock
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2018, 22:52:32 »
I got the feeling from Mike that the pros from biodiversity..brittle stars, sponges, bristle worms etc out way potential negatives even if you plan to wait out for the system to stabilize using dry rock. I guess I should consider myself lucky that so far my only pests that I worry about are a few aiptasias and a small patch of colonial hydroids that I keep zapping with my laser. The worms, brittle stars and sponges all seem to add life to the reef. I’m not sure if they would have shown up if I would have just let the tank cure by itself. On the flip side, I couldn’t say if they help keep the coral healthy or not though. Dry rock sure would have been a lot cheaper!

 

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