How did you start up your tank... dry rock or live rock?

[biocubebrandon]

When you set up your tank did you go with dry rock or live rock, why?

Some combinations may be:

Dry rock , dry sand

Live rock, live sand

Live rock, dry sand

Dry rock, live sand

For me I always have used dry rock and dry sand. I knew it would take longer but preventing unwanted hitch hikers in my tank was worth the wait for me. I also use a bacteria startup liquid with this method. Since I usually add a lot of rock to my tanks any other tanks that I would set up I would take some rocks/sand from the established tank and then add it in combination with new dry rock to start up another tank faster.

 

[Andrew32]

I did live rock and live sand to make it cycle faster. if i had to do it again I would of done dry rock live sand. dealt with a lot of pests and still dealing with it.

 

[dball711]

Dry rock, no sand. Sand is a ticking time bomb in my opinion...

 

[Reefer-Madness]

I did dry rock with live sand. I used Carib Sea’s ocean direct live sand and their south seas base rock. I wanted to avoid all the hitchhikers that come with live rock but if I were to do it again, I’d probably do at least half live rock. My ugly stage lasted way too long and I had to struggle with hair algae and brown sand for longer than I should have. I think, in spite of some pests, most of the life you get on live rock is important for establishing biodiversity early on.

 

[ichthyoid]

Fwiw, I’ve done both in the past.
Now, I would only use dry rock for the reasons mentioned above ^.

CaribSea Special Seafloor grade for the substrate. It’s more maintenance, but I don’t care for the look of bare bottom tanks.

I also use starter bacteria, with Fritzyme being the prior choice with good results.
This time it will be Tropic Marin’s Bio Actif & Prodibio products, for diversity.