Live And Dead

[blindvizion]

I have some questions about live and dead rocks and sand. Can I mix the two like purchace half live sand/rock and half reg. Will they both become live from each other. Also if I get a skimmer would this not allow the live rock and sand to grow? I wish I could ask one you pro members questions personally but don't have pm privilege yet

 

[weezawoo]

You can mix dead with live and it will seed it! It might cause a longer cycle but the plus is saving a little money. Dont bother with live sand, i just used coral sand and the live rock seeds it!

 

[Uriel]

Yeah as weeza said Live rock + aragonite "Coral" sand. No need to spend money on live sand. You can buy dead rock and seed it from live but it can cause all sorts of problems you don't want as a beginner and if you have the patience buy Live rock off ebay or similar as you can get some really good deals, normally half the price of lfs. Skimmers are mechanical filtration. They help to remove rubbish from your system but they won't negatively or positively effect your live rock, they are just another filter method to run along side live rock.

Live rock is the heart and lungs of your marine tank but some other commonly used filter methods are

Skimmer
cheato algea
and phosphate remover.

Also Live rock isn't just the bacteria it contains loads of worms and pods and other microscopic creatures which are good for your system.

 

[woody88]

This is what I did with mine.

I have roughly 30kg of LR in my tank.
8kg of that being dry base rock which is cheap as chips. It's been in my tank now for about 4 months and it's hard to tell the difference between.
Like said it will need to seed off the cured LR which WILL take months. You'll find it will go green first before eventually turning into lovely coraline algae.

If you do use dead rock then make sure you scrub it thoroughly and leave it to soak for a couple of days in plain RO water to get any dirt and debris out of it.

If you want to speed up the process then you can setup a container to act as a LR curing tank and what I found is by letting the nutrients creep up it encourages coraline algae growth and spores. You would also need to supplement the curing tank with live food like a prawn or even flake to keep the organisms alive.

 

[demasonisrule]

I prefer to get base rock and then seed it with live rock, as you don't have to worry about die off when bringing it home, you don't have to worry as much about bad hitchhikers, it's cheaper, and you can often times find better shapes for aquascaping.

 

[seffieuk]

I have just checked your pms, by sending you one - it seems active now

Pop over to the buddy thread and I will sort it out for you

Seffie x