Why I went with dry rock
I guess I never explained why I decided to go with dry rock in my tank.
Ultimately the decision came down to sustainability and hitchhikers. I was worried about several things I read about Florida live rock coming with a plethora of creatures that would either starve to death in my tank and turn to ammonia, or would eat everything else in the tank.
I have also continued to struggle with the appalling harvesting practices of the ornamental fish industry and so I want to support an ocean-free aquarium industry as much as possible.
With that I am reaffirming my goal to put no living creature into my tank that started life in the ocean.
And already I've failed. I did buy live sand. I thought I should have at least some naturally occurring bacteria in the tank in order to process nitrogen and phosphorous compounds. Two days later I read about Dr. Tim's, and then Red Sea Mature Kit, and then a dozen other bacterial products that would achieve this for me. If I could put the sand I bought back in the ocean I would, but I can't. So I'll have to look at it as an early failure and move on.
For what it's worth I chose Bermuda sand over a number of others because I hope that the sand harvesting practices in this hemisphere are less destructive than in other parts of the world. I don't know if I'm right, but that was my thinking when I bought it.
For live rock, I ultimately decided to go with CaribSea's LifeRock "Shapes" which offer a good balance of being non-destructive (the base rock is quarried on land), not requiring curing (they don't contain recently dead organisms and aren't made with cement), and looking mature (they are 'painted' purple instead of left naturally white).
The shapes of the rock are great. For 20 pounds of rock I got seven pieces: two had big holes in them, two were long and branchy, and three were typical rock-shape, about the size of a baseball.
In my opinion the 'painting' of these rocks looks much more natural than Project Reef Rock 2.1, and in my tank they look great. As an added benefit, the LifeRock is seeded with spores of beneficial bacteria, which should also be helping to populate my tank as it cycles.
I'm hopeful that when I get some captive bred snails they'll come with coralline algae on their shells, which can eventually populate my dry rocks (I know this takes years, but I'm in it for the long haul).
I feel a bit bad that I was so excited for Atlantic Reef Conservation's sustainable live rock, but there were just too many variables and too much risk, not to mention the costs of shipping the rock by two-day air (which was almost twice the price of the rock itself). I still respect what they're doing and I don't think the route I took was necessarily any more sustainable.
At the end of the day I need to be able to sleep at night with clear conscience about this project. And although the sand was a minor mistake, there are no large or sophisticated organisms in the live sand, just bacteria. When it comes to the larger, more complex organisms, I will stick to my guns on captive-bred or aqua-cultured, only. I don't want my small tank to seem like a "downgrade" from the real ocean for these creatures, I want it to feel like a familiar, nicely decorated version of the homes they've always known.
Ultimately the decision came down to sustainability and hitchhikers. I was worried about several things I read about Florida live rock coming with a plethora of creatures that would either starve to death in my tank and turn to ammonia, or would eat everything else in the tank.
I have also continued to struggle with the appalling harvesting practices of the ornamental fish industry and so I want to support an ocean-free aquarium industry as much as possible.
With that I am reaffirming my goal to put no living creature into my tank that started life in the ocean.
And already I've failed. I did buy live sand. I thought I should have at least some naturally occurring bacteria in the tank in order to process nitrogen and phosphorous compounds. Two days later I read about Dr. Tim's, and then Red Sea Mature Kit, and then a dozen other bacterial products that would achieve this for me. If I could put the sand I bought back in the ocean I would, but I can't. So I'll have to look at it as an early failure and move on.
For what it's worth I chose Bermuda sand over a number of others because I hope that the sand harvesting practices in this hemisphere are less destructive than in other parts of the world. I don't know if I'm right, but that was my thinking when I bought it.
For live rock, I ultimately decided to go with CaribSea's LifeRock "Shapes" which offer a good balance of being non-destructive (the base rock is quarried on land), not requiring curing (they don't contain recently dead organisms and aren't made with cement), and looking mature (they are 'painted' purple instead of left naturally white).
The shapes of the rock are great. For 20 pounds of rock I got seven pieces: two had big holes in them, two were long and branchy, and three were typical rock-shape, about the size of a baseball.
In my opinion the 'painting' of these rocks looks much more natural than Project Reef Rock 2.1, and in my tank they look great. As an added benefit, the LifeRock is seeded with spores of beneficial bacteria, which should also be helping to populate my tank as it cycles.
I'm hopeful that when I get some captive bred snails they'll come with coralline algae on their shells, which can eventually populate my dry rocks (I know this takes years, but I'm in it for the long haul).
I feel a bit bad that I was so excited for Atlantic Reef Conservation's sustainable live rock, but there were just too many variables and too much risk, not to mention the costs of shipping the rock by two-day air (which was almost twice the price of the rock itself). I still respect what they're doing and I don't think the route I took was necessarily any more sustainable.
At the end of the day I need to be able to sleep at night with clear conscience about this project. And although the sand was a minor mistake, there are no large or sophisticated organisms in the live sand, just bacteria. When it comes to the larger, more complex organisms, I will stick to my guns on captive-bred or aqua-cultured, only. I don't want my small tank to seem like a "downgrade" from the real ocean for these creatures, I want it to feel like a familiar, nicely decorated version of the homes they've always known.
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