reef building the fundamentals

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I did it that way when I set up my current tank, but it required making a special arrangement with (the now closed) Red Coral. Rather than having the rock ordered especially for me, I just asked to purchase an entire box worth from his next order, and the night it arrived I picked it up before it was unboxed. I can imagine that if you're ordering the rock just for that person it might be harder to arrange, but in that case he was ordering it anyway and if I had flaked off for some reason it still would have been sold.

I know not everyone can do that every time, but the beauty with dry rock is that you can cycle it perfectly fine without having anything to seed it with, the bacteria you need will proliferate eventually, so you can take your time tracking down the perfect pieces of live rock to 'seed' the critters and algaes you can't otherwise buy. In any case, I don't think I'd ever set up a tank without most of the rock being dry natural rock of some sort again.

I do agree with you that people could buy the whole box when landing and I am sure that most store front shouldn't have an issue with doing so...I just simply think not many folks will do so...or can you imagine a customer comes in for their box and only wanting to pick through all the rock when the store owner is unpacking 10 coral rock and fish boxes at 9 pm or midnight...

[Doug]

Eli, do you think FijiCrete would stick to glass. I was wondering if I could do my front overflow glass with it, instead of rock.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I would get specifically only live rock, not man made.

Me too. No dry rock for me; man-made nor natural. Man-made rock looks terrible. Natural dried rock usually needs to be leeched of massive nutrient load, and it takes a long, long time for anaerobic bacteria to establish. These two issues tend to cause persistent cyano and hair algae growth in the first year or two of using dry rock.

I've had my fair share of "nasties" come in on a load of fresh live rock, but I haven't had any trouble eradicating those pests.

You're right those Eli (?), it can certainly be tough to find a consistent supplier of good quality, FRESH live rock. Too many LFS dump a crap load of fresh live rock into a vat and let it bathe in 3+ ppm ammonia for weeks. No wonder there is no life left on it.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Originally Posted by Doug

Eli, do you think FijiCrete would stick to glass. I was wondering if I could do my front overflow glass with it, instead of rock.

Not too sure,I think if the glass is scuffed up a bit fijicrete should adhere...I will give it a try tomorrow and let you know