to detrivore or not to detrivore

[royce]

I've got 80 lb southdown, 20 lbs Nature's Ocean LS, ~50 lbs LR from this site. Should I splurge and spend $100 on a detrivore kit? I know that I would if $$ were no object, but my husband is already reeling over the $200 I spent on the rock! I have already begged a small bag of gunk from the bottom of the LR curing tank at my lfs and I'm going to try for more today.

 

[diatom]

Royce~
You can try to get a cup of sand from others in your community. That will really help....the detrivore kit can be added any time but if you add it before you have fish and give it time to multiply you'll be better off. I've had my new tank set up for 3 months and there still aren't any fish in it.
HTH,
D~

 

[royce]

With all of my many friends, none of them reef! they do all play volleyball, but that's not important right now. I'll have to post a message in our on-line classifieds

 

[burnnspy]

Any good LR is a detrivore kit.
BurnNSpy

 

[beth]

Burn, will LR that is shipped from online [like SWF.com] still have anything alive on it besides the coraline and bacteria? I received my order from SWF within 24hrs of shipment. I did see some dead crabs, but wondered if I would actually get the sand detrivores?

 

[diatom]

There are some questions as to whether LR rock inhabitants will migrate to the and in any relevant numbers. I know I don't find many of my bristleworms leaving their rocks for the sand.
Even if they do...the more variety of life you get for your sand the better off you'll be.

 

[royce]

Good question, Beth. I just added 45 lbs of rock from this site, but beause I wasn't sure of the detrivore's survival, I picked up a hunk of pretty fresh Florida aquaculture (didn't have that bad smell, ether). My tank is still cycling so I don't think I'm endangering anything. Burn, how did the move to RI go?

 

[burnnspy]

When I setup my 29gal reef I used Nature's Ocean LS and CaribSea Seaflor reef sand.
Added LR and now I have all kinds of stuff in my gravel making tunnels. I also have numerous types of feather duster and tube worms, sponges, scallops, micro-brittle stars and other creatures I have been unable to identify growing throughout the tank, rocks, pumps, skimmer and on the glass. I believe LR has more then enough survivors that are initally too small to see.
The move to RI went smooth and everything survived. The tank looks different know, I was unable to stack the LR as it was before so I will post new pics of the current setup on my website soon.
BurnNSpy
[ December 14, 2001: Message edited by: BurnNSpy ]