creating rock

[parrotchute]

Um, possibly a stupid question:
My LFS sells base rock (it looks almost concretish) - if I put it with my live rock, will the base rock eventually "become" live rock as things grow on it? Is that a cheap way to slowly increase the biological filtering capability of the tank?

Thanks again!

 

[yote]

The only stupid question,is the one thats not asked.
But your right.Base rock will eventually become live rock and its a lot cheaper than trying to buy all live rock.

 

[parrotchute]

Thanks yote, going to buy some more today!
-Alex

 

[bobby]

+1

Base is a cheap way to get live rock. I started out with probably around 30LB base and only 10 LB live.

You only need one piece of live to seed, but the more the better. If that makes sense. It saved me a bunch that way, because here live is 5.00 a LB and base is 1.50 LB

 

[Altohombre]

This time around I started with all live rock and it was super expensive. Next time around when I get a bigger tank I am gonna use base rock for the parts that get covered by the sand and then live rock on top. It will all be the same thing in the end. Just pick the sturdiest rocks and ones that look somewhat porous.

 

[RyanG]

Parrot, if it has been made by the LFS just make sure that it has been cured. When people make DIY Rock they use rock salt to make the rock poreous and it has to be soaked in freshwater until the salt dissolves. Then its good to go.

 

[parrotchute]

ok, will do!
Alex

 

[Keaton]

Hi Alex, another thing to consider is buying some bleached or "dead" base rock. I bought 50lbs. of dead austrailian spaghetti rock and decided to seed it with 25lbs. of LR from my LFS. It came out perfect and was much more cost effective than buying 75lbs. of LR.

 

[parrotchute]

Haven't seen much "dead" base rock, but I'll keep an eye out. I've been buying a little bit here and there of base rock - probably have about 10 lbs more before I start running out of rock real estate!

 

[yote]

You'll be surprised at just how many pounds of rock you can get in a tank.

 

[Keaton]

Check out Marcorocks.com they have dry base rock for as little as $.99 a lb. Thats where i got mine, nice stuff.

 

[parrotchute]

cool link, bookmarked!

 

[chuckw]

Good info

 

[CHOMPERS]

Here's two threads on how to make really cheap but very nice base rock/ LR:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=807988&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144526

 

[Teixeira29]

Yes base rock is cheaper than live rock but i would suggest getting some base rock then putting live rock on top of it and it will turn into live rock just make sure you cure it first!!!Good Luck

 

[lilyicu]

I have a question, I heard that you can use lava rock as the base, can you use brown lava rock?

 

[parrotchute]

it's my understanding that lava rock has a lot of heavy metals in it and might not be the best....

 

[dustin_P74]

its best to avoid lava rock, it is loaded with heavy metals

 

[parrotchute]

You can find a lot of base rock at the LFS for cheap, and after about 1-2 months in the tank next to live rock, it looks exactly the same...

 

[lilyicu]

I called my LFS today and they said that they have honeycomb rock for $1.50/lb. Does that sound OK?