live rock & tufa

[Myka]

Originally Posted by vic622

Hmmmm .... See and I thought I'd been doing my homework
I was told that tufa was a good option and that its quite a bit lighter than live rock.
Guess that's why I'm posting here, to find out the error of my ways before I have to pay twice to get it right!

As to the detrivore kit, thanks for the heads-up. I thought it would be a good option to help seed the sand & refurgium - glad to know its money for nothing that I'll get anyhow with good live rock. Maybe once I get my system up and happy I'll see if I can sell some, too

I'm going to take a closer look at a dry rock/live rock combo. Going this route, what proportion of live to dry should I realistically consider to avoid waiting a year for cycling?

Vic

I wouldn't say that Tufa would be a "wrong" choice, as there are plenty of people out there who use it, and swear by it, but there are also plenty of people who have been burned by it. The way I see it, why take the chance?

Tufa is lighter when it is dry. Once it is wet it should be the same weight as good quality live rock. Live rock when dried out is quite light too! In fact one of the ways to tell quality live rock is that it should seem to be quite light for the size of it (dry or wet).

You will always wait a year for dry rock to be fully seeded. You can't go around that. However, it won't take a year to cycle the tank. The tank should actually cycle in the same amount of time. You simply may see more nitrates in the first year or so that your aquarium is up and running as the dry rock matures and develops full colonization of anaerobic bacteria within it. Just keep to light stocking of the tank as far as fish and critters go for the first year or so as you see nitrates developing.

My recommendation would be to buy as much live rock as you can afford. The trouble is that you are starting with quite a large aquarium, and your start up costs are going to be significant. I would try to do 50/50, but 25/75 dry/live is acceptable as well. I have even seen people use all dry rock, and just one piece of live rock to seed. This works too, but takes a significant amount of time before the rock looks pleasing to the eye.