ALL dry rock set up questions - Copepods and coralline algae

neebs · #1 12-23-2011, 01:00 PM

I'm setting up my tank (red sea max) with ALL dry rock I got from bulk reef supply next week. Going to use dr. Tim's one and only to set up the cycling.

Besides bacteria dry rock appears to be missing a couple of things:

1. Coralline algae

Does anyone have this product or similar product as indopacific sea farms does not ship to Canada.

For those who dont know what this is and are curious check out the following link http://www.ipsf.com/corallinebooster.html

2. Beneficial hitch hikers
It will be some time before I actually put live stock in. Was wondering if it was beneficial to put Copepods in, to kind of seed the aquarium. Will they reproduce even if I don't put phyto algae in?

Anything else anyone suggests i stock to make up for the lack of biodiversity in dry rock (except for live rock or sand)

Another question I had is on quarantine, I was thinking about putting a dymax iq3 aquarium in the cabinet. Is a quarantine even necessary? Is coral dip or other similar chemicals good enough?

Thanks for your help

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MarkoD · #2 12-23-2011, 01:04 PM

just get a piece of live rock from somewhere and put it in your tank to seed the dry rock. it'll cycle faster and you'll get some of the beneficial critters to move in

Seamazter · #3 12-23-2011, 03:08 PM

The corals you buy will have Coraline and should have some pods.

Nano · #4 12-23-2011, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seamazter

The corals you buy will have Coraline and should have some pods.

+1 to both of the above, I am doing a new tank soon too, and I will be doing the same thing, All dry rock in the display, with live rock in the sump, maybe 1 or 2 small chunks of live rock in the display, to help seed it. Dry rock is awesome cause it seeds fairly quick and is a lot easier to work with in terms of aquascaping.

Nano · #5 12-23-2011, 03:19 PM

also, QT's are good to have on stand by, when you add new fish you don't want to risk infecting your livestock or tank like I did

if you QT them for a few weeks at least, with either Hypo salinity, or just QT and watch for signs of illness this is a better approach IMO. better safe then sorry!

dc4 · #6 12-23-2011, 05:43 PM

I seeded my tank and fuge with a few thousand copepods when I did my tank transfer as I only used a few pieces of my old live rock to seed the new rock I put in but I have pair of dragonets to think of.it all depends on what you are planning to stock. Copepods will reproduce as long as there is some kind of food source, doesn't have to be phyto, though that would stimulate population growth.

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PurpleMonkey · #7 12-23-2011, 06:39 PM

I setup my tank with all BRS ecosaver dry rock. All I did to seed the tank was borrowed a piece of dry rock from another guys tank and took what was inside his filter sock. I put it all in my tank and let nature do its thing. I left the seed rock in for about 6 months just to make sure i got all the goodies out of it.