Live Rock Comparison.

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elan

Guest
I would like to thank all the people on this board for all the help and guidance they have given me. I would like to share my experience wiht live rock when setting up my tank and making it through the beginning cycle.
The next two threads contain pictures of my live rock right after the water has cycled with a description on what IMO the rocks conditions were before and after the cycle.
The tank was set up in the middle of february. initially, crushed coral, some decorative coral, and nothing else. once the salinity was right, i put in some damsels for cycling. at this point, i started putting in live rock.
At first i put in florida aquacultured 20lbs and some fiji 20 lbs and 60 lbs of dead base rock.
the aquacultured was steaming with life such as sponges, plants, and covered with coralline algae.
the fiji was completely encrusted with coralline and had some amazing shapes. many holes and crevasses i am sure some creature would want to call their home.
around the end of february, at the end of reading a lot of posts on this board (many thanks to all that have given me priceless advice, and answers to my beginner questions) and reading the conscientious marine aquarist by fenner on their advice, i changed a lot of stuff around. I took out all the rock and put them on damp towels on a table out in the open for several hours while i took out all the crushed coral and replaced it with play sand and live sand, with a 80/20 ratio.
I then put back all the rocks and took the damsels back to my LFS (out of 8, 6 survived). at this point, my readings were as follows.
(NH3/NH4)) Ammonia 0
(NO3) Nitrate 110
(Ca) Calcium 440
(PO4) phosphate 0
(Fe) Iron 0
(NO2) Nitrite 2.5
(KH) Carbonate 110
(GH) General Hardness 600+
pH 8.2
Salinity 1.024
I put in some snails and crabs to take care of my algae bloom.
about a week later, i put in about 50 lbs of hatian live rock. this rock had much less life than the others mentioned above, but some amazing shapes. i was able to get some large flat pieces what were incredible for building up my reef wall. there were some great pieces i was able to combine together and build ledges and caves.
in the middle of march, i added 40 lbs of fiji, and 45 lbs of hatian.
by the end of march, my readings are as follows.
(NH3/NH4)) Ammonia 0.1
(NO3) Nitrate 15
(PO4) phosphate 0
(NO2) Nitrite 0
pH 8.2
Salinity 1.023
I just added in 7 blue chromis and 2 clowns. I plan on leaving this till the end of next month in order to let the tank season up before starting to add corals.
 
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elan

Guest
a) florida aquacultured, this rock stood up very well for cycling. most of the choraline is still abundant, and the sponges made it with out any signs of struggle but for the fact they did not grow any. Its only been a couple of months, and i dont know too much about sponges in order to base this opinion, many of the plants it came with died off either from mishandling during organization of the rocks, being out of water for probably a total of 3 hours in my house, or the algae growth bloom blocking the light.
b) fiji. much of the fiji remained in tacked except for a few pieces obtained during the initial setup of the tank. much of its coralline turned white but in the last week or so stopped. although the white is still there.
c)the hatian rock, although obtained later in the cycle process held up as if nothing died, albeit, not much was living on it from visual inspection.
 
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elan

Guest
from what i have learned, and what i would do different, would be to start out with a deep sand bed from the start. introduce the haitian rock as the base rock and leave it put for a month. after a few weeks of cycling, i would introduce alot of fiji rock for a real nice look, and then some florida aquacultured with some real nice growth on them.
any opinions on this??
hope someone learns something :)
 
E

elan

Guest
thanks logan,
it didnt take too much time to number them. i used a sony digital camera and turned on the flash for all the shots. I used adobe photoshop to number them, and used the auto level feature to try and portray the actual coloring as naturally as possible.
It actually took more time to type everything down.
 
E

elan

Guest
lol plum!!
mighty,
I am actually not sure what i want to add at this point. havent done enough research on corals to see what i can keep, and what i should wait on. in about 3 weeks, if my tank keeps stable, i plan on getting an anemone for the clown fish. after that, i really like the xenia. i hear those are pretty easy to keep.
 
michaeltx

michaeltx

Moderator
I would personally wait on the anemone the longer you let your tank mature the better. anemones arent as easy as some would say. some have good luck with and others dont. but I would wait until 6-8 month mark atleast before adding one. they are a wanderful looking addition but are affected by swings in the tank while its getting more stbilized. IMO
looks great though. I was about to order some rocj now I have to go and look some more. LOL
Mike
 
E

elan

Guest
i would like to change my opinion on the florida aquacultured rock.
after some time, and alot of questions to people, a couple of unwanted hitchhickers came in on the rock.
1) aptasia (although the pepermant shimp worked good)
2) mantis shrimp (i think) this shrimp has been killing my scarlet crabs and i am now trying to get the shrimp out before he starts going for my fish and other shrimp.
due to this, i am never going to get florida aquacultured again. unless i can figure out a way to screen the rocks before i put them into a tank.
 
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