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Kevin 
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Joined: September 12 2002
Location: Pleasant Grove
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 Topic: Propegating Live Rock, is it Possible?
Posted: October 05 2002 at 11:59am |
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I am new to this and I have heard a few things about how you can propegate live rock. I have heard that you can buy a small amount of live rock and put it in a tank, then put in some reef rock with it that is not live, and after a while the reef rock will get the same bacteria and things growing on it and it is then essentially live rock. I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience doing this? Was it successful? How long does it take for the other rock to become live rock? Can you only use reef rock or are there other types of rock you can use?
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Adam Blundell
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Joined: June 24 2002
Location: Davis County
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Posted: October 05 2002 at 3:08pm |
Kevin,
Everyone I know of is mixing live rock with non live rock. It is incredibly common. Most recommend using aragonite base rock for lets say around 50% of your rock, then putting in with it 50% live rock. Yes it will grow over. Nothing beats 100% live rock, but the cost is such that many use aragonite base rock. However, live rock is available right now for dirt cheap prices in the buy sell trade area of this web site. Look there for some deals.
Adam
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Firefish
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Joined: September 13 2002
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Posted: October 05 2002 at 8:05pm |
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My friend Mike Johnson out in Tooele goes searching around for lots of things in the mountains in his area and he brought to me a piece of rock that had to be from the sea when Utah was covered in it. With the rock he found other things that could only be found in the ocean. Fossils of sea creatures that I have never seen. The rock he brought to me was cleaned very well and put in my tank. That was 6 monthes ago and it has coraline algae growing on it now. I wish I could tell you where he got it but he says there is lots more out there. It is very porous and homes lots of critters in my tank now. One of these days I intend to go search for some more.
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Marcus
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Joined: August 28 2002
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Posted: October 08 2002 at 4:02pm |
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Kevin, I don't know if I agree to use the word "propogate" with live rock. I believe live rock to be one of those things that you do NOT try to get around. I do not have any rock in my tank that I did not buy as live rock. Live is so detremental to the biological balance of your tank that I don't cut that corner. As for collecting aragonite, well, my time is worth more than the money I would save from digging in the mountains to collect aragonite. If you have the time to collect it, then by all means, go for it. Keep in mind though, that it is NOT live rock. It is mearly calcium that organisms have left behind. It will add calcium to your tank, but it will not add any biological benefits to your tank. Other people have had great success with collecting aragonite and that's great! I live in the valley and don't want to take the time to drive all the way out there and dig around for a couple hours to find the stuff. You have been asking a lot of questions on these message boards about how to keep the costs down. I want you to know that there are a billion different ways to set up a tank. My way is not gospel. I am not trying to discredit anyone elses opinion. Everything that you heard from me is just the way that I do it. Good luck!
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Jared B
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Joined: October 04 2002
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Posted: October 09 2002 at 11:03am |
Kevin, here is an article that I found about making your own live rock and sand:http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/6279/RaiseCementRock.html
Altohough I have not tried it personally, I have talked to a few people who use about 1/2 live 1/2 fabricated (but live also) in their tanks. It seems that the key is to place some fabricated rock in with purchaced live rock and over the period of months or so, the same good algae will pass over to the other rock. Water parameters must be maintained during the cycling period, as well as good circulation, etc...
Keep in mind that if you are going to make your own, then you will have to wait a considerable amount of time until introducing some inhabitants.
Hope this is what you are looking for. Jared.
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KeoDog
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Joined: September 18 2002
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Posted: October 09 2002 at 2:29pm |
If you're looking for some really good dry base rock for cheap go to www.hirocks.com. The same company also sells it on ebay for slightly cheaper. I purchased 50 lbs for $25 plus approx $15 shipping. There is no need to buy live rock. All rock and sand will become live eventually. You can add fish just as fast with base because the bacteria which makes it live adjust to the bioload. To get your coralines growing get a little live rock to seed it with and scrub it and leave your skimmer off. Coraline grows best under actintic light so just run them alone for a couple of weeks if you can. Another thing you can do is get some garf grunge at www.garf.org to seed it with. With the grunge you get many different kinds of coraline.
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Kevin Kunz (Sandy, UT)
300g reef
"A trade by which one gains and the other loses is a fraud." Ayn Rand
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Jake Pehrson
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Joined: June 13 2002
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Posted: October 09 2002 at 2:45pm |
Although I do agree with KeoDog that this rock will become "live" after adding some corals to introduce coralline and other organisms, without live rock you are limiting the biological distinctiveness in your tank. Stability comes from this biological distinctiveness (and many other factors that I am not going to mention).
My recommendation: If you are going to use live rock substitutes still use some live rock (I would say at least 30-50%).
Again this is just my opinion.
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Adam Blundell
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Joined: June 24 2002
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Posted: October 09 2002 at 3:26pm |
I've got to disagree with KeoDog on this one. I'm a huge fan of live rock, and I don't think you can ever have too much. The problem is only cost, so buy as much as you can afford. From there, if you must use aragonite, then do it. I think 50% live rock is as low as I would personally go in my tanks.
and as Jake said, this is just my $.02
Adam
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Jake Pehrson
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Posted: October 09 2002 at 3:32pm |
Just to clarify, I don't use live rock substitutes or recommend using them, but if you do......refer to my suggestion above.
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