Attempting to "make" live rock.....

[Fozza]

Yo

I've been tempted to "make" some live rock, by taking a plastic trashcan and filling with good looking pieces of dead base rock, and 20 lbs of Live rock. I'm hoping that the bacteria will gradually multiply and move into the base rock thus "making" additional live rock.

I'm just wondering how good this new rock would be, would the anaerobic bacterias move over? or would it just be the nitrate producing bacteria and basically be a sponge filter.

Also, how long I could expect to wait for the rock to take...(I was thinking around a year.. too short? too long? just right?)

Also, what type of additional equipment I would need to apply to the trashcan...ie. (powerheads for water movement?, lighting?, fish for some sort of bioload?)

Anyone else ever tried this? Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. Thanks ya.

 

[Fozza]

Ah forgot to add..

I also plan of doing the same thing with live sand, the same questions apply, for the sand I'd try to find a longer container so that I have more surface area, rather than having 50" of sand.


Thanks

 

[teevee]

Throw some light over it and it will be live within a few months...

Base rock in my tank without water, almost a year ago:

Live rock was added a month after filling or so.

Now - the lower pieces were base rock, the ones higher in the tank are live:

The rock these acros are on was base rock:

The rock behind this frag cage was base rock:

So you can see that base rock begins to look like live rock fairly quickly, and obviously the filtration capacity increases accordingly.

As far as the sand goes (I didn't seed my DSB):

 

[Anonymous]

The bacteria and such will move over to the new stuff, no problem. It's up to you to decide how long is enough. Some commercial LR farms wait up to 4 years I hear ... but they have a larger operation

 

[shr00m]

very nice home made l/r there!

 

[utahsaltreefer]

That's the method I used for a couple years. Worked great, I'll be starting the same process again now that I've moved. Although I didn't put it in separate containers, I just added it to the tank I had. It only took a few months to start getting corraline growth, worms, etc. I used about 50 lbs of base rock and 10 lbs of live rock from a LFS. Also the dead sand I had was soon teeming with life life sphagetti works and such.

I just ordered some rock from www.hirocks.com . It looked like some nice stuff since the LFS around here don't sell base rock and even though I could drive south a bit and collect my own, the gas would cost more that the ordered rock :x

 

[Fozza]

Thanks alot for the info, and thanks for the pictures.

I think I'll go ahead and do the LR in the trashcan, and produce some of my own LR.

I'll also get some LS going in a seperate container.

Thanks again.

 

[cdeakle]

The better light you can have on your dead rock the better and quicker youll make it live rock. What kind of lighting were you planning on using over your LR garbage can?

 

[Fozza]

I have a few spare lighting items laying around, I was going to throw them all on it.

2 - 6.5k 50/50 18 watt Tubes
2 - 10k mini compact bulbs

possibly another 6.5k 50/50 tube, if I get another starter.

Wont look pretty or anything, but doesn't have to, it'll be out in the barn for now.

 

[Fozza]

I may just try natural sunlight for the Live sand container.

 

[shr00m]

any luck? did you ever do this?

 

[sambo1]

Keep up with updates, if you don't mind. I will be attempting the same thing in a few months. I hope to try a little/no impact reef.. I've made homemade rock and am going to get some from hirocks, or equivalent and seed with crushed aquacultured live rock and some Garf grunge along with some live sand. Never know til you try. Also, my homemade rock cost 50 cents/lb to make. I can wait a little longer for it to seed at that price!

 

[sambo1]

Another question. I've read that coralline algae grows best under low to moderate blue lighting. I have a 30" deep tank, with two 72" 160 watt actinics and three 400 watt 6500K MH's. Should I only light with the VHO's while I'm attempting to seed my tank? Should I have some MH? What type of lighting/photoperiod would you recommend given my lighting set-up?

 

[Fozza]

Shroom -
No I haven't tried it yet, I have to wait till I have some funds to play with (unemployed at the moment).
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Sambo -

I was just going to try the small amount of lighting I have available, and also a different one with just natural sunlight.

You could try one with just actinics and another with halides and actinics, see which grows best.
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I've been reading www.garf.org, which tells you how to make your own rocks with aragocrete. So the technique must work. I just haven't had the cash to try my own out.

 

[J.Howard]

Sambo: I have a same set up except only 2x400wt MH. All rock I added was bleached out. I run VHO 12 hrs/day and MH 6.5hrs/day. Coralline growth is great and only approaching 2 months. Not just green, but pinks and purples too.

 

[sambo1]

Cool, thanks for the info!

 

[shr00m]

well if you do ever get around to doing it , post some updates, i have a 20 nano id like to setup and want to culture all the rock im gonna use it, but i was thinking seeding base rock.

 

[Fozza]

K, will do.

Probably wont be for a few months however. But once I get it going, I'll post pics of how it looks when I started, how it looks after a week, month etc.

 

[sambo1]

J.howard. What did you seed with?