I was going to get the sand and water for my new set up yesterday when it occured to me that I don't REALLY know what I'm doing. lol So I chickened out. I've looked up several resources and I keep finding conflicting information. Could someone clear up a little nit for me what the process of setting up a new tank with DRY rock is? It's a new FOWLR set up and the rock is dry rock. I *MAY* throw in a few pieces of that nice LR from the LFS but not sure yet. I know I've had a lot of questions lately, I'm sorry! I'm scared to jump in! lol
you can mix dry rock and live rock put the dry rock down as your base at bottom of tank and put your live rock on top and it will all cycle at the same time and adventionaley the dry rock will get coral algea and be come live rock too i have some live rock for sale if interested pm me
Hey Cindy I'm actually supposed to be giving you guys a call here in a little bit about getting some of y'alls LR (been talking to Kevin) I've just been putting it off because I'm a scardy cat! lol
amanning - you can't really go wrong with starting up and cycling - using any combination of LR &/or Dry - don't be scared. The only thing to be scardy cat about would be hurrying the cycle & adding fish (livestock) to early before the cycle completes. You will do fine !
Get the 3 API test kits also to keep an eye on things, very important on a new setup even for the first 6 months or so. Ammon.,nitrite,nitrate. As for LR verses BR, the more cured LR you can add the less the cycle and the stronger the good guys well be after the cycle. It basically boils down to the expense. If cash is no big deal add all LR, if it is a big deal add a combo of both as to what you can afford, as Cindy said the BR well become colonized, it just takes longer.
You could check out GARF "Grunge." www.garf.org They have all the info ofcourse. You could place it in the back behind your rock work. It does a very nice job of seeding your sandbed and base rock. I bought some and place in my refugium. I like it so much I will buy more very soon. Could be nice way to conserve money for the critters you will want to buy in a few months. The "grunge" is seeded with different color corilline algae as well as sponge, pods, and little tiny starfish.
I have setup tanks with 150lbs. dry rock before and only used 2 Nice pieces of live rock. Now would be the perfect time to aquascape your tank with the dry rock mainly because you can take your time and don't have to worry about live rock drying out. And you could change it easily if don't like it until you find what your looking for and then add the saltwater and a few pieces of live rock and then wait for it to cycle. It will take longer to cycle this way but the end result is the same.
