liverock -vs- deadrock

daniel27407

daniel27407

Member
:confused: ok im new to saltwater but ive had fish for years and im switching over a 45 high cichlid tank to saltwater. Im doing my research but I don't get live rock especialy now that I saw a post on here that someone had dead rock they were turning into live rock. To my understanding live rock just means a rock w/organisms living on it. Is this correct any help taken gladly:confused:
 
acez28

acez28

Member
Yes liverock has living things on them....dead rocks are dry and nothing is alive on them. You can turn dead rock live by seeding it with other live rock. I did that in my tank. I used about 30-40lbs of LR and then the rest is base rock(dead rock) but after about 3-4 months most of the rock has turned into LR. They have lost thier white coloring and turn darker. But the you get more with the LR....on one piece of LR i have there are 20-30 small clear anemonies with white tips or something on it (not Aptasia tho). Also i have one piece with feather dusters or fan worms on it. I have a big piece of LR with about 5 peanut worms in it. I got 2 snails on i dont know which rocks but the appear every once in a while and then dissappear. Plus the LR gives a more natural look and feel for the fish and they have something to graze on. If i had the money at the time i would have bought all LR but i didnt so i used some base rock.
 
daniel27407

daniel27407

Member
well i have about 30-40 lbs. of rock which was in the tank w/my cichlids. If I plan to do a nice coral tank and cover most of the back of the tank how much live rock would you say I need (im guessing just go by site of the pieces I pick) and is there anything I need to do for weight of so much rock and aragonite...
 
ackermsb

ackermsb

Member
The general rule of thumb is 1lb - 1.5lbs of live rock per gallon for a reef tank however there are people like myself who like the fishes to have lots of swimming room and have a lot less rock than that.
Any good really porous holey base rock will do for "dead rock". It is usually pretty cheap and can be picked up at your LFS
 
acez28

acez28

Member
i dunno really. Like i said i purchased what i could with my money. I am planning on doing a reef tank later on this summer and in it will be going all LR....i am gonna save more money for it.
in the pic i am attaching you can see the base rock...the rock without the purple algae on it versus the LR. But you can aslo see that the base rock is getting color to it. That was after like 2 months. They are darker now....
 
daniel27407

daniel27407

Member
nice pic ace....
??????????will coral attach to dead rock if you anchor it to it??????or do I have the wrong idea about adding coral
 
acez28

acez28

Member
That you will have to wait for someone else to answer....right now i have a FOWLR so i dont know much about corals. I assume they will attach where they will get the most light and the most food. But i could be wrong. My feather dusters attached to the dead rock and the hermits were on it most of the time eating the diatoms.....but not sure about the corals.
 
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