Dead Corals instead of liverock?

[360º]

i have a bunch of dead corals laying around

i wanted to start a 15 gallon salt water tank and i was wondering if i could use those dried up corals instead of liverock?

 

[the_fish_man]

Yep you certainly can live rock is just dead corals that has decayed some and got coraline algae so ya just make sure to dole down any sharp parts

 

[360º]

so when i put the dried corals in, how long before it becomes "live"

 

[the_fish_man]

Well usaaly most people consider it live when it has coraline algae

 

[360º]

lol ok well how do i get coraline algae on it?

sorry im a noob.

cuz i currently have a bunch of it in my cichlid tank and its covered with green algae

 

[the_fish_man]

Well truly just put it in a sw tank as long as you have no live sock in it the algae will die off in saltwater and then start growing coraline might take a month or two but hey no expense lr lol

 

[360º]

cool, thanks for the advice.

i probably have about 150 pounds of dried coral..... that i bought for 100 bucks

 

[the_fish_man]

Nice you should make a build thread

 

[iDream]

uhm, "live" means they have beneficial bacteria, coralline has nothing to do with it, though it does look nice.

if you want to add it to a SW tank, take it out and let it dry for a while, then you could use it to start up a SW tank

 

[the_fish_man]

Oh well my bad gues never trust the lfs advice they said live meant coraline. Well listen to corey as i got my live coraline algae advice from a lfs well some

 

[360º]

so how can i get the coral to become "live" rock?

what if i get a couple pounds of already cured live rock, would it seed the dried coral and pretty much cycle it in a week or so?

 

[iDream]

yeah that would definitely work, you could even just put in the dry rock by itself and go from there, but that works very well too!

how big of a tank are you going for?

 

[360º]

since this is my first time doing salt water, im gonna try it out in a 15 gallon long tank. just FOWLR for now.

gonna run 2 aquaclear 30 and one with the surface skimming attachment.

aragonite base

 

[iDream]

sounds like you're off to a great start, with a tank that size you wont need much live rock to see the coral skeletons, which is good for your wallet. you really should make a build thread when it all starts!

 

[cmor1701d]

How to cycle your tank with out the use of fish

Read that article. That's how you make your dried coral turn into LIVE ROCK. It just needs a source of ammonia and the bacteria will come.

As for Coralline algae you can add a small piece of LR that has coralline on it to seed the tank.

 

[360º]

lol ok scratch the last idea.

bought an already established 55 gallon saltwater tank with 60 pounds of live rock