Tip of the Day – 1/18/2011

Dried live rock is a great way to prevent unwanted pests and algae from getting into your new aquarium. However, it comes with some serious drawbacks. For one, the live rock is devoid of any life, including desirable algae and invertebrates. This means no coralline algae, no Stomatella snails, nothing. Using this rock also means right out of the gate you have little to no bacteria so you’ll need to find a way to add bacteria and start your aquarium’s cycle. To solve these issues, you can seed the tank with established live rock from an existing aquarium. The dry rock will get some algae and bacteria from the seed rock.