Prepping For Saltwater..

[KhaosInc]

so I have a bad case of the 'saltwater bug' empty fish tanks, and even worse... some money to burn..

long story short, I got a deal on a 150 gallon tank.. Temporarily (read than months, the way I get to things) this will be housing my red eared sliders while I build the perfect indoor enclosed pond, but longer term I think this tank needs to be my first reef tank.

So on to questions. This will leave me with an empty 75 gallon tank, thats heavily scratched, and been repaired once. not good for a long term tank of prettys, but fine to hold water. So, heres my thought. I fill it with salt water, get 'some' live rock and sand, and then toss all my extra tufa rock, and other neat (and pourus) rock in there, add ample water movement, and 240W of light from standard 'shop' lights that I also have kicking around.. add a maintence crew at some point along the lines, and occational nutrients.. would this give me a fairly good load of live rock, and established system to jump start a 150 gallon tank and dramaticly cut down the time it will take to get to the 'fun stuff'?

 

[FLcracker94]

I'm not sure what a "tufa" rock is, but I would just stick with live rock alone. I guess you would have a good setup for the tank, just make sure you let it cycle for 4-8 weeks and it should be fine. Good luck.

I looked up tufa rock, I wouldn't go with it. You should just stick with live rock instead of other rocks, theres really allmost no telling what a rock that ISN'T naturaly in water will do to it.

 

[kkyyllee]

tufa is commonly used as base rock, but i wouldnt add any other rocks that arent normally used

 

[Betta5]

just make sure they are for aquarium marine use and are pourus

 

[STD]

I would advise against Tufa

Buy some Reef bones (Dead live rock) and use that instead

 

[SkiFletch]

I would advise against Tufa

Buy some Reef bones (Dead live rock) and use that instead

Agreed

 

[rictheredneck]

I would advise against Tufa

Buy some Reef bones (Dead live rock) and use that instead

is that what i should be looking into?
http/www.fishforums.net/Tufa-Rock-t202232.html

anyone know where to get them from in the uk? never seen them for sale you see. sorry to hi jack your thread

 

[STD]

I would advise against Tufa

Buy some Reef bones (Dead live rock) and use that instead

is that what i should be looking into?
http/www.fishforums.net/Tufa-Rock-t202232.html

anyone know where to get them from in the uk? never seen them for sale you see. sorry to hi jack your thread

Try http/clams.co.uk/erol.html#477x0&&am...K%257CcountryGB

 

[KhaosInc]

I guess I am confused then..

I was under the impression that by definition 'live' rock was rock that was 'cured' in a tank, and I've seen a dozen or more threads of people using tufa rock as a 'base' rock in their SW tank so if by adding LR to a tank with tufa rock and giving it a few months to cure while a gear up, how is it not going to be live rock when I am ready to set up my tank?

And while I'm at it... the other rock I was looking at was lava rock. Its equally porous and I have a bunch of that as well. (This is all left over from my 300 gallon African tank I bought a pallet of misc aquarium rock)

comments please?

Like I mentioned... the intention was to add rock to a tank with live rock and just add the basics to keep everything thriving so that when I was ready to set up the 150 gal. tank, I had a decent pile of rock to get started..

 

[STD]

I guess I am confused then..

I was under the impression that by definition 'live' rock was rock that was 'cured' in a tank, and I've seen a dozen or more threads of people using tufa rock as a 'base' rock in their SW tank so if by adding LR to a tank with tufa rock and giving it a few months to cure while a gear up, how is it not going to be live rock when I am ready to set up my tank?

And while I'm at it... the other rock I was looking at was lava rock. Its equally porous and I have a bunch of that as well. (This is all left over from my 300 gallon African tank I bought a pallet of misc aquarium rock)

comments please?

Like I mentioned... the intention was to add rock to a tank with live rock and just add the basics to keep everything thriving so that when I was ready to set up the 150 gal. tank, I had a decent pile of rock to get started..

Tufa is a volcanic rock and can contain all sorts of undesirable chemicals that leach back into your tank

It also tends to break down in a Marine Tank

Live Rock is calcium carbonate skeletons of long dead corals removed from a reef

see http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_rock

The main purpose of Live rock in your tank is to act as a filter

 

[KhaosInc]

Im not trying to be argumentitive... just still for the most part confused I guess.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tufa is the name for an unusual geological form of calcite rock.

Tufa is a rough, thick, rock-like calcium carbonate deposit that forms by precipitation from bodies of water with a high dissolved calcium content. Tufa is not to be confused with tuff which is volcanic.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Live rock" is rock from the ocean that has been introduced into a saltwater aquarium, which confers to the closed marine system multiple benefits desired by the salt water marine hobbyist. The name sometimes leads to misunderstandings as "live rock" is itself not actually alive, but is made simply from the calcium carbonate skeletons of long dead corals,

It seems to me that they are essentially the same make up so I am not seeing the problem.

I am not adverse to dropping $1000 on live rock if thats what it takes to set up a nice reef tank (what can I say, I'm single with a decent jobs and no kids), but if I can plan a few months in advance, I'd rather spend that money on all the fancy equipment on the sump to make it look like the inside of the space shuttle (paraphrazing from some reef webpage I was reading.)

Like I said, not looking to argue, only to understand..

 

[andywg]

Khaos Inc has it correct.

The LR is simply a calcium carbonate based set of media for desired bacteria to colonise. Put it with other porous rocks and they will be colonised as well.

Tufa rock can be used, or you can do DIY live rock made from cement and crushed pyster shells (a favourite of mine to use as base rock). So long as the rock becomes somewhat porous (so as to allow anoxi zones to develop) but not overly so (lava rock may be too porous and not actually develop low oxygen areas) it should be fine.

There would be nothing wrong with using half tufa rock(or DIY live rock) and half live rock and letting the bacteria seed the LR.

I have one nano tank running which exists almost entirely on DIY LR from cement and crushed oyster shell.

 

[STD]

Im not trying to be argumentitive... just still for the most part confused I guess.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tufa is the name for an unusual geological form of calcite rock.

Tufa is a rough, thick, rock-like calcium carbonate deposit that forms by precipitation from bodies of water with a high dissolved calcium content. Tufa is not to be confused with tuff which is volcanic.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Live rock" is rock from the ocean that has been introduced into a saltwater aquarium, which confers to the closed marine system multiple benefits desired by the salt water marine hobbyist. The name sometimes leads to misunderstandings as "live rock" is itself not actually alive, but is made simply from the calcium carbonate skeletons of long dead corals,

It seems to me that they are essentially the same make up so I am not seeing the problem.

I am not adverse to dropping $1000 on live rock if thats what it takes to set up a nice reef tank (what can I say, I'm single with a decent jobs and no kids), but if I can plan a few months in advance, I'd rather spend that money on all the fancy equipment on the sump to make it look like the inside of the space shuttle (paraphrazing from some reef webpage I was reading.)

Like I said, not looking to argue, only to understand..

I totally understand where your coming from

I have had several discussions in the past on Marine only forums about the use of Tufa in Marine tanks - the consensus was don't use it

When I started I had a lot of Tufa in my tank but I removed it ages ago

Personally I'd go for a mixture of Reef Bones and live rock but at the end of the day it's your decision