Culturing Live Rock

[Work_Puppy]

Quick Question:

When it comes time to buy my live rock and get it in the tank, one of the things I have been chewing on is the base rocks... why waste money on a rock that will be mostly covered with sand, and to take it further, if i can 'dilute' the live rock with some type of other rock and culture it into LR, then so much the better right?

What has caught my eye is south texas honeycomb rock.. I have used this in a chichlid tank before after curing in fresh water for a week or two (not even sure that was neccessary) but have any of you used it in a reef tank? Was it a success?

Thanks.

[ratboy]

I have used texas holey rock (caliche(sp?) limestone) in my 55 reef for many years now. It is totally corealine covered and has many softcorals, sponges and tube worms growing on it. In fact I started my first tank 10 yrs ago w/ this same piece of limestone seeded w/ store bought live rock. I think it is a great way to start out for less money and have a tank that doesnt look empty. I have a picture of my 55 reef in my album if you want to see what it looks like (the main structure is 90% holey rock). I also have pics of the base rock that I am culturing and currently have for sale @ 1.75/#. This is dry hawaiian reef rock that has been cultured for ~ 6 weeks now.

[Work_Puppy]

did you require any culturing time in this, and by that I mean, letting it sit in water for leeching purposes or anything...

Thanks I really appreciate the rapid response.

[Hammer]

I think that pretty much defeats the purpose of having live rock. Filtration.
Although it works great for creating a base structure, you are not getting hte filtration you would by using live rock. Of course you can get the plain looking stuff for this part, pay less, and still get the filtration you want/need.

[witecap4u]

I have some lace rock from my old cichlid tank, that im going to clean, and use as base rock. It comes in some nice flat pieces that will make great shelves also. Has anyone used this stuff? I dont want to leach something into the water that I dont want. It is also very porous like live rock, so I think it will work great.

cs

[ratboy]

The rock came in and had to be rinsed off (it had sat on land for the last 20 years) several times. After this it was placed into large holding systems that had been started from 4 of our existing,established tanks. Live rock from our systems was added as well to seed the new rock with bacteria and inverts. So yes so far it has cultured for 6 weeks. This rock has been used by several people as a portion of their biofilter and a few people as their sole bio filtration. I agree w/ Ed that you cant expect to use holey limestone alone as your biofiltration but more as a base to add established LR to. Also it does take a longer than ocean rock to color up.

[ratboy]

I guess you were asking about the limestone! :oops:
Its been a long time but I did wash it very well. I remember moss and stuff floating out for a while after it was in the tank but it never hurt my first fish in the tank. I didnt bleach it either. This was back in the day so I didnt know better to really be concerned with polutants being introduced.

[Work_Puppy]

Yeah,

It was never my intention to use it as anything other than base rock, and a 'here and there' application for hiding places. I still plan on buying at least 70 some odd pounds of fiji and tonga...

I figure uncultured is best since I am starting the tank, and it will be 3 months from the point I start it to when the fish arrive. (money) in that time, I expect any limestone would be heavily seeded with the bacteria and organisms that make rock 'live'.

Also, on the uncultured, am I right in thinking I get more tag along organisms with uncultured rock?

And I have read about rock that is shipped in water and not newspaper from the moment of collection, so that sponges and what not remain intact, do you guys have any sources on this type of rock? I expect it is probably incredibly expensive, but just one rock would seed your tank.

[MaximaPower]

ratboy: i'm interested in some base rock. where u located?

[ratboy]

I am in S. Austin (William Cannon & Hwy 290 W). Greg is in N. Austin (Lakeline Mall area).

[Tim Marvin]

I am in Cedar Park.