FocusReefing

Just a podcaster from Queens
Location
Queens
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Ok this may be a dumb question to you guys but Im new to reefing. And Im in the process of building my first marine tank. I have a 72g glass bowfront. I plan on going with easy begginer friendly fish & I want to go with some hardy live coral/anemones. My question is how important is it to use live rock? Im aware of its biological filtration features, but what I want to know is... is it a must have or just a benefit? Right now I have a few dead coral rocks I was planning on using. I am gonna be using a 30g trickle filter with bioballs. Would this be enough or do i need live rock? And if I need live rock, do i have to go with 1lb per gallon? Any advise on this I can get would help alot. I wanna provide the best environment possible. But I dont wanna get raped either!
Thanks in advance.
 

18oreefer

+270
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Franklin NJ
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First off if your looking to go the cheep way out go fresh water. You have to know that getting into this hobby you are going to spend more money than you want if the hobby grows on you. With that said, after you are bitten by the reef bug it gets easier to spend. Since your going fish only with maby a couple of corals you should b ok with dead rock. It will take sometime but you can seed the dead rock with live rock or you can use what dead rock you have as base rock if you eventualy plan on going full reef. The benefit of the live rock is in the anerobic and aerobic bacteria that do the work of the nitrafication process. You can get away with the bio balls untill u start stocking corals with fish. 1 to 2 lbs of live rock per gallon is the rule of thumb. If your planing to do a reef and you want to "provide the best environment possible" than live rock is your best bet is to bite the monatary bullet and buy some. If your not looking to get raped i suggest you look on here for someone breaking down a tank or on craigs list. Here and there you can find it for 3 to 5 dollars. Good Luck.
 

FocusReefing

Just a podcaster from Queens
Location
Queens
Rating - 100%
17   0   0
Thanks for the advice, Dont get me wrong I dont want to take the cheap way out by any means. I just wasnt sure if live rock is as worth the investment as people trying to sell it, have lead me to believe. I have also been told that the bioballs & live rock dont mix. To be more specific, I was told that the bioballs & live rock will compete for the bio load, ending with the bioballs winning & live rock dying. Is this true? Should I loose the bioballs if I go with the "rule of thumb" amount of live rock?
 

skene

Winter. Time for Flakes..
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Queens
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1. You can never have too much live rock. It is not a benefit, think of it more being a necessity. Why wouldn't you want to have filtration in the tank?
2. For corals and anemones, hopefully you do your homework on what you plan on getting and what their needs are in terms of feeding and lighting. Especially more true lighting and how established a tank is.
3. Bioballs and live rock both do the same thing, however with bioballs albeit some bacteria will grow onto it, it will not allow for any additional growth, so your filtration becomes very limited to what the bacteria established onto the bioballs can consume.
This leads to higher nitrates, because the inability to convert nitrates with higher bioloads. Also detritus (crap) becomes trapped between the segments of the bioballs and do not get broken down, so this builds up nitrates as well into the system.

hope what I typed isn't too confusing. I'm tired and not thinking entirely straight.
 

basiab

Advanced Reefer
Location
secret
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You mentioned coral/anemones. Leave the anemones out for a while. After your tank is mature do some reading on them and decide if they will fit with what you want/have. Live rock will not go dead unless you keep it out of water. And you don't have to worry about competition relating to the bio load, the more you have to handle it the better. You real problem will be keeping nuisance algae out. Bio balls work but can also cause problems. Read up on it.
 

18oreefer

+270
Location
Franklin NJ
Rating - 100%
11   0   0
1. You can never have too much live rock. It is not a benefit, think of it more being a necessity. Why wouldn't you want to have filtration in the tank?
2. For corals and anemones, hopefully you do your homework on what you plan on getting and what their needs are in terms of feeding and lighting. Especially more true lighting and how established a tank is.
3. Bioballs and live rock both do the same thing, however with bioballs albeit some bacteria will grow onto it, it will not allow for any additional growth, so your filtration becomes very limited to what the bacteria established onto the bioballs can consume.
This leads to higher nitrates, because the inability to convert nitrates with higher bioloads. Also detritus (crap) becomes trapped between the segments of the bioballs and do not get broken down, so this builds up nitrates as well into the system.

hope what I typed isn't too confusing. I'm tired and not thinking entirely straight.

bio balls will not process any nitrates because they do not provide an anerobic environment for the correct bacteria to live. live rock on the other hand does deep within the rock. that is why if you break a pice of live rock you smell a sulfur like smell. that smell is coming from the anerobic bacteria. the reason for removing the bio balls is because it processes the amonia too fast which will lead to rising nitrates. where as rock has all of the necessary bacteria to take amonia and process it all the way to nitrogen gas. amonia to nitrite nitrite to nitrate is all done areobicly (can be done with bio balls or rock). nitrate to nitrogen gas is done anerobicly (can be done with rock a deep sand bead or a denitrating system that cultivates anerobic bacteria).
 

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