Sillyfishies
Aquarium Advice Addict
In a reef tank is live rock really worth it? Or is base rock the way to go?
Pros and cons of both?
Pros and cons of both?
I agree with Melosus on the 80 20 rule. Truth is you're paying for shipping when it comes to live rock. I've been using "Real Reef Rock". It's man made and pigmented. Nice stuff. Very clean without any nasties, but comes with a high price tag.
Might want to check craigslist. A lot of people get out of the hobby and it is practically worthless to them so they let it go for dirt cheap. I got about 70lbs for $50 that way once.
The color and the microorganisms are the biggest benefit... but base rock can become that quickly with good quality lice rock. I just completed an order from marcorocks.com... very pleased.
I went with 100% dry rock on my rebuild. So far best decision i have made. No pests, coralline is taking to it well. I went to my LFS they gave me a few bristle worms some micro stars, ordered some pods from reefs2go.
i agree on those numbers, but some like to go all base rock, this way they have nothign to worry about with regards to pests but they will have to find other ways to seed things liek coraline algae and podsBase rock is cheaper and it will become live over time. I would do like 80% base rock and 20% live rock to seed the rest of the rock.