reef building the fundamentals

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Doug, I've read too many stories of huge algae issues during the early stages. And for me, the LIVE rock is live, having all the bacteria and microorganisms I want in my tank. I've used real rock from the real ocean on 5 separate builds, and only once got any real pests, which took me about 20 minutes to deal with and was kinda fun!
This is where the worms and the pods and the weird little critters come from. And really, the mainstream pests, aptaisia, algae, etc, will eventually get in anyway on frags or as spores in water.
My current tank is in it's 4th year, no pests, no algae, no problems whatsoever. Yes, I have a crab in the tank. So what? He's been there the whole time and I've seen it twice. No damage to anything.
The only real reason that I can see in using pretend live rock is price. It's cheaper, and that is important to some people.

I agree on some things you said..
These answers are only coming from my experience within the past years in the hobby.
I have always believed in getting as live rock as possible But still needs cycling otherwise 1st and foremost algae takes over.
Dry rock is exactly the same as above for cycling.
Pest is and will be always on frags its up to every person as a buyer to be careful and diligent in picking the frags going in any system as I seen it many times over the years people asking me of solving pest problem coming from frags and letting it take over the system as sometimes well more often then not getting people out of the hobby or restarting all over again (a very unfortunate as money is wasted)
I believe if cycling,acclimation and being diligent on what's going in your system will reflect in the end for an amazing picture like aquarium.

Not trying to sound like I am selling my rock but few month ago I did some testing on dry rock (pukani,fiji,plate,...) for cycling periods and algae growth.
3 different bins.
1-dry rock in a heated 82 degree saltwater bin,couple power heads with lights over it and 10% water change every week,seeded with live rock from my system.
2-dry rock in a 82 degree saltwater bin and couple power head without any lights.seeded with live rock from my system.20% water change after 3 weeks.
3-dry rock in a 80 degree running in my sump(no lights) that houses 600glns and about 500 lbs of live rock throughout my tanks.

Some of the results

1-the rock cycled and took longer time and was full of algae that I hater and having a hard time cleaning it.
2-the rock cycled perfect full of bacteria, pods and all (from my original rock) with no issues for algae then slowly introduced lights and started feeding the rock...I love it with no issues now.
3-Best cycle ever lots of life besides nitrifying bacteria and soon will be doing an upgrade to my system using the rocks from test 2 and 3.

What I see lots of people using dry rock and having it cycle with full spectrum lights,fish and at that time I call it junk as it turns rock for a longer period of cycle.(simply people cannot wait for a good thing,...they simple want a reef and a reef done and ready yesterday better than today,...

I still every time I bring a coral shipment do the dip and inspect every coral going in my system or being sold.As my beliefs ..what I don't put in my system should never be sold...

Yes I will miss a crab or 2 as shown in the above photo...but I have no issues with any of my main system rocks