Question about seeding dead rock.
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Topic: Question about seeding dead rock.
Posted By: Reefboy4life
Subject: Question about seeding dead rock.
Date Posted: March 03 2010 at 10:02pm
I am going to try to seed some dead rock with some live rock in a 30 gallon bin but i was wondering what kind of lighting i will need? ------------- 90 gallon mixed reef |
Replies:
Posted By: sterling18
Date Posted: March 03 2010 at 10:32pm
| No lighting required in my opinion, just a heater to assist in the growth of bacteria and possible pods. |
Posted By: xlr8r
Date Posted: March 04 2010 at 12:15am
| No intention of hijacking the thread, but how long does it take to get dead to be live if you went with a 50/50 ratio in a new tank? |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: March 04 2010 at 12:27pm
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With all due respect to the way things used to be done, lighting is a very important part of reef life. Keeping rock in the dark kills off the very organisms that we want to thrive in our tanks; the organisms which live to maintain the reef in good working order.
Why do it in a tub? If you have a tank already up and running, simply place the bare rock in that tank and let the existing biological filtration handle the resulting pollution from the dead rock. Depending on the amount and quality of the dead rock, and the amount and quality of the LR, the process could take less than a week. Keeping lights on with some macroalgae to absorb the pollution will prevent the organism killing high N levels so typical in the old way of "cycling" a tank.
 Keeping the lights on 24/7 will handle extreme cases.
 If you already understand the idea of seeding bare rock with LR then please don't stop there. Realizing that algae is the basis of all life on this planet, why would we allow it to die by keeping LR in the dark? I mean, what is the life on LR if not partly the algae that grows on it which eats the pollution(N compounds) caused by the living bacteria decomposing the organic matter. LR is also live because of the little bugs growing in and on it that eat the algae and in turn become food for larger organisms in our "little part of the ocean"?
This thread attempts to explain the idea further: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 - http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Matthew
Date Posted: March 04 2010 at 3:40pm
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It really depends on what you consider "live rock" - decide that first. Light is essential for coraline algae and it's sure nice to look at. Is a pink rock what you want?
Are you just looking for anaerobic bacteria in the crevices for reducing nitrate? -no light required
Have you arrived when tube worms are growing on the rock??
Add rock to your main tank with any amount of live rock and you are well on your way by any definition.
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