Seeding Rock

[RayAllen]

Hey guys im in the works at trying to make a deal with a guy up in Dallas on 150lbs of Dry rock I believe is mostly fiji.

If the deal goes through I will pick up next weekend and I want to start seeding this rock to turn it live.

My question do you think its best to put it all in a couple of barrels with saltwater and a some liverock to seed. Or just wait and set the tank up with it and seed it then. Its going in a 180g FOWLR setup and it will sit without fish for at least 3weeks or so before anyfish are in it anyways.

i wont be setting the tank up for at least another month probably so I can get everything else I need and give the tank,stand,canopy a facelift.

What do you think, what would you do.

[Europhyllia]

I used mostly dry rock and it was easiest for me to just set the tank up with the dry rock plus some live rock.
Here are some pictures:
http://maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56597&highlight=evolution

(my husband was so disappointed when the nice 'clean' rocks started to get all dirty! lol)

[RayAllen]

yea I think that is what Im going to do. This will also allow me to build my rock structures without have to worrie about the rock being out of the water to long because its already (dead).

Plan on using silcone and old plastic hanger peices to create some neat structures instead of just stacking them in place.

[kkiel02]

I know that prof has alot up in austin for fairly cheap. ($1.50 lb i want to say) nice shapes and sizes. I used all live to start my 65 but went 50/50 live/dead with the 180. Now you cant tell the difference between the two.

[phippsj]

You might want to let the dry rock 'cook' as well... ie, just put it in some saltwater with a powerhead. I bought a bunch of Marco dry rock (fiji) and had a good hair algae bloom initially. Others who have bought it and cooked it never went through the hair algae outbreak. It did not last long though, so I guess in the end it really did not matter.

[swjim]

If you already have the barrels and some extra power heads I would go ahead and start it in the barrels with a very small amount of live rock. This will give it the kick start with seeding but it will also give the rock a head start with cooking off the old nutrients that are left from whenever the rock was dried out. It should reduce the amount of time you have to look at algae blooms when you get the tank going. Whenever you're ready to do your aquascaping, you can just remove the rock from the barrels, drill it, place it, etc and as long as you don't leave it dry for too long of a period you should still come out ahead. JMO

^^ sorry phippsj, I didn't see your response when I was typing this. I should have just quoted you with a +1. :)