Live rock vs. dry rock?

[aleximler]

What are you all's opinion on dry rock and live rock? Benefits of both and downsides to both?


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[Sniperhank]

After a cycle, all rock is live.

 

[54seaweed]

dry rock has no bb present until its cycled than it becomes live
also with dry rock you get no unwanted hitchhikers as there are none
4/6 week wait time before you add stock

live rock has bb present making it faster to cycle or even have no cycle
live rock usually has hitchhikers both good and bad
faster wait time usually less than a week

 

[richie6]

After a cycle, all rock is live.

So true. Our LFS sells live rock for $6.98 and dry rock for $5.98. Mine as well spend the extra dollar.

 

[Beej1254]

I prefer dry. It's cheaper all around and you don't have to worry about the what ifs of bad hitchhikers. And once it's cured it's then live rock. To me it has many more benefits then live aside from not being able to use it to seed a tank and get it going. I only bought 1 piece of live rock from my LFS about the size of a baseball and it was full of pests I didn't want.

Also my couple LFS sell live rock in ranges of $6-$10/lbs and dry is usually around $3-$5. Of course it all depends on the type of rock.


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[carey]

I must have over 500lbs of live rock now. I only purchased about 40lbs of "live" all the rest came from dry rock cycling into "live" rock. lol

I got a good amount of my dry rock from reefcleaners.org and some from reef-rocks.net which was the cheapest at like 1.75 a lb