Mark I seem to be chatting a lot to you today......
I do not think folks should be telling newbies, or anyone, that you just have to start out with 100% Live Rock and all Live Sand. Many newbies are on tight budgets setting up a system. There are other ways to do it for far less money, especially with a large tank where many, many hundreds of dollars are involve in rocks. Other start up items are just or as important or maybe more so.
Yes when I started out I used well rinsed dry Aragonite and 100% live rock..(I can still remember the wife saying "You spent how much on a bunch of ^*@!%^ g rocks".)....... Well even with that, the tank has worked out pretty well over the years now.........
BUT a friend decided to dive back in to Reefing after many years of absence..... Money was a bit tight for her at the time, so I suggested 90% base rock and a few smaller pieces of Live Rock to help in seeding the system. Again she used all dry Aragonite for substrate........( I much prefer its buffering abilities to live sand)......
Well now years have passed by, and to look at her Reef, there is no lack of biodiversity of any kind.........All the stuff that should be purple is purple and she keeps Scooters and other harder critters too that need the stuff that lives in the substrate. I don't think there is room to ad another coral, everything is covered with something.......
After a while even, dry Aragonite becomes just as alive as any Live Sand, also with a little time all of that base rock turns into live rock too....... It just takes a bit more patience, which should be a prerequisite for this obsession many of us have.....Some just do not have quite enough of that.......
If someone has too much money to spend or a lack of patience, than yes all live rock is the way to go.....Warren
