Lace Rock

[marauders30]

Im not sure if this is the right section but it seems close enough. So i am now planning a fowlr tank and have researched many different ways to do this in terms of filtration, ease of maintenance, etc. my plan would be to use a wet dry filter with a skimmer for filtration. I am not planning on using the live rock as a way to filter biologically. the reason for this is because if i have to medicate, i figured the organisms on the live rock would be killed anyway and it would be a waste of money. i guess the same can be said about the bio balls, however, they will not cost hundreds of dollars so i am not so worried about it. i do, however, like the look of live rock in the tank more as decor than anything.

So here is my question to you guys. I would like to maybe put lace rock or some other non living rock as a base in the tank, then maybe a couple pieces of live as well over it. this saves me money and i can get the live look from it. i am thinking lace rock, but have gotten mixed info on this from researching so was wondering whether anyone has done the same thing. Also, will lace rock become live over time? And what kind of rock would you recommend for something like this if not lace rock?

 

[Kevin8888]

If your concern is about medicating, no one I know medicates their display tanks with something that toxic, they treat the fish in QT tanks.

As for killing off biofiltration so what? It grows back, personaly I would only put a few pounds of live and the rest dry/base (or for large systems DIY aragocrete) and forgo wet/dry. If your "meds" can kill live rock bio, then it will kill bioballs bio, so either way you will have to let the tank recycle, so I don't see the difference. Just use less live rock, and you can keep the costs down.

 

[marauders30]

well, i was thinking more in terms of ick. if for whatever reason ick comes around, wouldnt i have to treat the entire tank? i see what your saying in terms of the bio balls and i know i would have to recycle, but if i spend money on enough live rock to keep my tank healthy and it dies i will be pretty pissed. i guess i could create the rock like you said though. im just guessing it would take a good amount of time for enough of the rock to become live and be able to sustain the tank

 

[Kevin8888]

If done correctly the cycle wont take any longer then bioballs... but I could be wrong. This is also why everyone and I mean everyone should use a QT for a minimum of a week before adding to the display to prevent just that problem haha. I would suggest, if you are concerned about Ich, to treat every fish you get in a QT tank as if the fish had Ich, so use the meds in the Qt, and then later, you place the fish in the main display. Though remember alot of meds have copper so are not invert/coral safe (I know you said FOWL but I always through a few cleaner shrimp in).

Edit: One more thing that keeps slipping my mind for some reason, the majority of biofiltration is done by your sandbed not live rock, so as long as you seed the tank with good bio, (couple pieces of rock) then you are set bioballs are unnessisary. I recomend special or sugar size sand.

 

[FLESHY]

I think that there is really something to be said for high quality LR filtration wise. I seriously notice a difference in tanks that use it compared to tanks that dont. I would recommend LR if for nothing else just to get natural, healthy decoration for your fish. And although stuff will grow onto your base and dead rock, in my humble opinion it will never become truly the live stuff. Its the same as the difference from the high quality stuff, and the FL farmed stuff. Completely different leagues.