Live Rock And Lights

[Spinal]

One very simple question. Does live rock need light to grow? I'm going to culture some base rock into live rock, but my life would be alot easier if I could do this in the garage (but its very dark in there, I used too grow ####ake's in there )
Michele

 

[SkiFletch]

If you want to culture base rock into Live rock, the process takes literally months to complete and is best done with lights in place. A few days or weeks in transit doesnt harm most life on LR but prolonged exposure to lack of sunlight will kill many beneficial photosynthetic organisms. How much BR were you hoping to cure into LR?

 

[Spinal]

Alot...
I'm a sweetwater junkie at the moment, and am thinking of going marine this summer. Hence, I'm making some base rock (roughly 60kg, oyster shell/cement/lava rock/pasta 4:1:1:1 mix); I'm predicting it will be cured by march, which will leave me roughly 4 months to convert the base-rock into live rock. I was thinking of a 10% seed (so 6kg of LV to 54kg of BR). I'm still unsure, but I believe fragmenting the live rock and dispersing the fragments around my BR should speed things up a tad...

 

[sparklefuzz]

Alot...
I'm a sweetwater junkie at the moment, and am thinking of going marine this summer. Hence, I'm making some base rock (roughly 60kg, oyster shell/cement/lava rock/pasta 4:1:1:1 mix); I'm predicting it will be cured by march, which will leave me roughly 4 months to convert the base-rock into live rock. I was thinking of a 10% seed (so 6kg of LV to 54kg of BR). I'm still unsure, but I believe fragmenting the live rock and dispersing the fragments around my BR should speed things up a tad...

I've read you need 50% live rock... but I could be wrong... someone confirm please?

 

[Betta5]

BR will become LR eventually in a marine setup with no LR present.

 

[SkiFletch]

BR will become LR eventually in a marine setup with no LR present.

Umm, no not really. Live rock is called "live" because it contains hundreds if not thousands of organisms native to coral reefs. True, Base Rock will seed appropriate bacteria to process the nitrogen cycle to turn waste ammonia into nitrate without any LR present. However you wont have any beneficial tunicates, arthropods, photosynthetic algaes, anaerobic dentrifying bacteria, sponges, and many many more life forms that help keep a reef in balance. You need LR to seed these other countless beneficial organisms in your tank.

If I were you Michele, I'd get a big plastic bin or perhaps multiple plastic bins to do your curing in. Each bin should be fitted with a powerhead for circulation. Then you should fill the bins with your base rock and add say 20-30% of LR to seed it. Try and keep all rocks on the bottom of the plastic bin (basically dont stack rocks on top of one another. Obviously fill the tanks with saltwater. I'd light the entire apparatus with say a 250watt 10000k pendant metal halide on maybe a 6-7 hour timer. The pendant halide will give you simplicity and a large light coverage area. To properly seed all the beneficial photosynthetic organisms From the LR on to the BR you will need light.

HTH

 

[Betta5]

Sorry just what i read on another forum, egnore what i said skis advice sounds better,
also can you seed it in an aquarium? (a question for everyone, not just taking over)

 

[SkiFletch]

Absoloutely, I did it

 

[Spinal]

Perfect, thanks! My idea was too get one of those childrens swimming pools (the inflatable types). They go on ebay for 5/10£ including shipping. I was going to shove that in the garage and add heating + powerheads + water to it. Now I'll add lights too. Out of curiosity, do you think the British "sun" (the little we see) would be enough? (instead of the lights?) It would imply me passing a power cord to the shed (which has a transparent roof) - and digging up half the garden in the process, but I'm sure the other half will be understanding ("yes, I plan to dig a trench in the flowerbeds, pass a 220V cable to the shed where I'm putting a kiddie pool full or rancid salty water and rocks" )

Michele

 

[Chac]

Be careful what types of rock you add to the tank as you could end up with problems in later years with rocks releasing nitrates back into the tank

There have been some posts recently on here regarding Lava & Ocean Rock - may be worth doing a search for them

 

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, make sure its true baserock

You COULD use natural sunlight, but in the winter in GB the sun is nowhere near powerful enough to do it IMO. A pendant halide is really the easiest and most economical method.