Dry rock

[mathewkofalk]

If I add these dry reef rocks that like brs sells to my established system will it cause a cycle in the system. As in will iy kill my fish and corals. My thought is its dry rock not even harvested from the ocean so it won't have any organics right? I know it will still cure and get live with bacteria but couldn't I do that in my sump?

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[jahmic]

In short, yes it will likely cause a small cycle. How noticeable or how bad will depend on the amount you add vs the system size...but even stock rock harvested on land is going to have organics.

A muriatic acid dip may help... but you would be better of curing the rock in a separate bin first.

 

[sethsolomon]

Soak the dry rock in ro water for 2 weeks should take care of 90% of it.

 

[mathewkofalk]

Yeah I figured once we any thing in that rock will start to rot a lil just wondered how bad . Thanks for the info.

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[CRW Reef]

Couple good articles on Dry Rock issues

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2122032

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2049855

 

[fc_reefer]

My thought is to put the rock in 5 gallon buckets of saltwater and a circulation pump with some Seachem Stability for a week or two. That should also help it shed some of the gunk in the rocks.

 

[jda123]

Beyond this, it will take years for the dry rock to get established with the bacteria and micro fauna necessary to be beneficial to your reef tank. Order some real live rock and cure it. If you get enough, it won't be as expensive as you think. Even if it is 50% more, it is worth it. If you buy it by the box, then a local shop should be able to match or beat the online prices from DFS which is about $2-3 a pound shipped. In the end, it will probably be cheaper to buy the live rock by the time that you deal with the organics and phosphates in the dead rock.

 

[mathewkofalk]

Years?

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[gajake]

I've had two orders of rock from BRS. The fiirst was in water toi cure for 3 weeks and at that point therte was no change in chemistry so I used the rock with no problems. The second has been in water with circulation for 3 weeks now and the nitrates are off the chart. Did a water change, added some bacteria and iI'll let it go for another week and check. Take the time to cure it and save a lot of problems later. BTW, With the first batch I added a few pieces of nice live rock from the LFS and it seeded the dry rock quickly.

 

[mathewkofalk]

Yeah I have roughly 160 pounds in my system now my plab is add some of the brs rock or the marine depot stuff.

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[Fitz19d]

BRS rock from what I read comes with plenty of stuff on it.

Just because it's dry doesn't mean it hasn't seen the water/ocean. Think you may be thinking more manmade rock or something.

If ordering dry rock you could just do an acid bath yourself. Ideally you'd have a drum and then cook them a month or two to make sure they cycle and arn't leeching off crazy amounts of phos/nitrate. In a good sized system unless the rock is pretty gnarly you can get away with adding a small amount of rock over time. (Say an average sized chunk or two/month if I had to guess but no numbers that I know of.)

 

[jda123]

Yes. Years... as in two or more. It takes about a year for most tanks to fully cycle anyway (all the way to Nitrate and Phosphate control, not just Ammonia and Nitrite) and it takes even longer for bacteria and microfauna to establish enough in the core of the rocks and also consume the bacteria that is now dead that used to be alive when they were in the ocean. Without this, you can fight nitrate and phosphate issues for a long time.

You might be able to coat the outside in coralline in 6 months, or so, but the biggest value of the rock is on the inside.

You can get real fiji rock for about $3 a pound shipped if you know what you are doing, so how much cheaper can dry rock be? I imagine that a local store could get pretty close to this if you paid in advance picked up a few boxes off of the van from the airport.

If you are in this for the long haul, then get some good rock. It matters. Marshall Island used to be the best, but it is REALLY hard to get anymore. The stuff from Vanuatu is pretty good. So is tonga. Fiji is a good rock for the money. The dry rock, or stuff from the Keys is pretty dense and you will need a LOT more to do the same thing and take up the same room that good rock will do and tank - I have a basketball sized piece of Marshall Island that weighs 8 pounds (at 8.99 a pound) whereas the same sized piece of Keys rock weighs 32 pounds (at $5-6 a pound). In the long run, good rock is cheaper than cheap rock.

I have no used any Real Reef rock, so I have no idea how good it is with denitrificiation and phosphate exchange, or how it compares with cost-to-weight ratio. I need to try it out. I do think that the purple color is quite horrible.