I have become very parinoid using live rock due to issues I have had in the past. I would rather just use plain base rock and cure it myself and let it become live rock over time. Plus its sooooooo much cheaper. What do you guys think on this auction? Is it a good price? CaribSea 50lbs Reef Base Rock Great For Aquascaping - (eBay item 260166841552 end time Oct-12-07 11:45:32 PDT) (http://cgi.ebay.com/CaribSea-50lbs-Reef-Base-Rock-Great-For-Aquascaping_W0QQitemZ260166841552QQihZ016QQcategor yZ66793QQcmdZViewItem)

If I got some plain base rock like this, is there anything I should do to it before adding it to my DT? I know there will be a some die off no matter how clean the rock is, but I want to minimize the amonia spike as much as possible. It has taken me a couple years to finally get my tank running well and keeping everything heathy and fish alive. Now that it is, I do not want to take any risks.

Base rock will not have any die off because there's nothing alive in it. There's no problem using base rock, but you'll need at leat SOME live rock in the tank with it for it to become live.

Well I have probably 100lbs of LR in the tank now, I just need more and dont want to add expensive cured rock. I'd rather add base rock and let it become live. Than put up with possible hitch hikers.

Ah, I gotcha now. I thought you were just using base rock. No problems there, I used probably 80% base rock in my nano, and it's indistiguishable from the LR I used to seed it. There still will not be any kind of cycle.

did you see the price on that? What did you think?

Yeah, not a bad price. Can't you get it cheaper at your LFS though?

I will give them a ring. There allways so darn expensive, I almost prefer the internet for everything fish related.

I hear ya! It's the shipping that will kill you on rock though.

Just called them, 2.09 a lbs at the LFS so its a pretty fair price.

$2.09 per lb. AND no shipping ... probably cheaper on ebay, but i did not click the link. lol

Tony,

On the surface that looks like a good deal. What is the shipping cost? When I looked at the EBay page I could not estimate shipping cost. That rock is petrified coral reef being mined somewhere. It has little character to it and it might be worth the little extra your LFS is charging to "hand pick" your pieces.

Just my thoughts.

Dick

i agree with Amphibious here. once you put your base rock in try a couple lbs of garfs grunge from garf.org to seed the rock. crush it up a little and seed the base rock with it.

Tony,

I agree you should be fine adding base rock with no problems. In a short time you won't be able to tell it from the LR that you already have. I also recommend MarcoRocks, (http://www.marcorocks.com/) they are a TR sponsor and their rock is beautiful.

just wanted to support this, Marc has some great stuff
make sure you check out there sponsor forum here
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/marco-rocks/

and the Official Talkingreef Review of there rock here
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/marco-rocks/3252-marco-rock-full-rubble-official-tr-product-review.html

I looked at the ebay site and I think you can get better base rock from Marc at Marco Rock. Call him, he is a sponsor here and he has a sponsor page. Great guy to deal with. And you will not find any better rock. I have had mine for just over a month and it is really coming to life!

By the way another thing to think about. That 50 lbs of base rock will be like 100 lbs of live rock weight wise.

out of curiosity..... is there a difference between base rock, and lace rock? I have heard lace rock (with an L) is volcanic rock and not really suited for a marine tank. I have noticed many stores selling base rocks and using Lace and Base interchangeably.

Any thoughts?

Base rock is dead and dried out live rock, i used Lace in my first tank with NO bad affects, but i dont know if it is volcanic or not (i was a newbie when i did that and it was BEFORE JustDavidP recruited me to this forum). i still thank him all the time for that (in my own mind), lol.

Base rock will not have any die off because there's nothing alive in it. There's no problem using base rock, but you'll need at leat SOME live rock in the tank with it for it to become live.

So it's safe to add dry rock to your already cycled tank? It wouldn't need cured first? or is curing only for home made rock? My nano could use more rock and this seems like the way to go if I could just add it to the tank.

Adding base rock to an estabished (or not establilshed, for that matter) tank is no problem. No curing needed. Just a good rinse in some RO/DI water to wash of any crud that might be stuck to it.

cool thanks for the info.

I have about 30 pounds of live rock in my 20 gal. nano. a month or so ago I bought 2 pounds of what the lfs called cured live rock to add to it. The spike it caused scared me to death. but the inhabitants of the tank made it ok and I learned a good lesson.

cool thanks for the info.

I have about 30 pounds of live rock in my 20 gal. nano. a month or so ago I bought 2 pounds of what the lfs called cured live rock to add to it. The spike it caused scared me to death. but the inhabitants of the tank made it ok and I learned a good lesson.

I'm glad that you learned this lesson with no loss of livestock and that you are sharing it! You may be helping someone else avoid a disaster.

So it's safe to add dry rock to your already cycled tank? It wouldn't need cured first? or is curing only for home made rock? My nano could use more rock and this seems like the way to go if I could just add it to the tank.

Not Safe,
At all really.Assuming the rock is porous enough t be useful it will be full of dead organic material and organisms. Once in water they will/do start to break down and will be a real problem in (if not the demise of ) an established tank.

If not fully cycling your rock at least soak for a week so that you might evaluate how much ammonia and Nitrite it is releasing.

You will be surprised:sick:!