Culturing lace rock

[Fballvera22]

Being a college student and wanting to get into saltwater tanks. I am trying to find cheaper ways of doing thins, and buying 35 lbs of live rock at $5.99 per lbs isnt going to work. So i was going to buy some dry lacew rock off the shelf and culture that.

If i take a 10 gallon tank, place a 90 gallon per hour filter and a powerhead for water movement. Then take a couple lbs of live rock and place it on top of some dry rock and let it "become live", would i need any thing else other than the filter and powerhead? Would it work?

 

[S.Reef]

You might have a few problems. To start lace rock usually has high amounts of phosphates and iron. Both of these leech into the water and trigger nuisance algaes. Lace rock also displaces a lot of water. With this being said I have a few pieces in my reef tank. All of them are covered with Coralline algae. Culturing rock can take many years. My advice is to get high quality lace rock. Put a peice in a bucket and test for phosphates after a few days. If none are detected you can use it. It wont necessarily be "cultured" but will have algaes and some critters growing on it.

 

[Fballvera22]

is there another type of rock that i can get that is ike live rock, that maybe isn't "live" but is the same density and has the same properties.

 

[1979camaro]

maybe texas holey rock would be a better choice?

they sale general "base" rock which is considerably cheaper, that is what i would go for personally

 

[Fballvera22]

ok thanks

 

[dbacksrat]

yeah you would probably be out of college before you had enough live rock...try robbing banks instead

 

[Velvet AciD]

What about volcanic rock? The dark maroon stuff? That would look pretty awesome if it didn't mess with water qualities.

 

[wayne]

It absolutely sucks in saltwater - all the metal silicate minerals are unstable in water and rot out. Lots of metals and lots of silicate are leached.
Some people seem to do well with it, but a lot of times I've seen some horrible algal problems. You can try it, but it's not going in my tank.
bAse or texas holey. You'll get the bacteria quite quickly and coralline eventually but never all the biodiversity.

 

[1979camaro]

as ive thought about it, i think generally you are getting started in the wrong direction. this is an expensive aspect of the hobby over all and if you arent prepared to drop at least a grand on your tank it just isnt gonna happen...you will get frustrated by all the problems you are having and quit (or so it seems to me)

 

[aresgod]

agreed, when everything is all said and done i will have spent over 1200$ do do my 40 gallon Sw reef, so not a hobby for those that want to avoid the massive upfront cost
Brahm

 

[S.Reef]

Yup...lots of money. I should of just saved up and bought a 500 gallon acrylic tank with all the money I've put into the hobby.