Is it truly humane & possible to maintain SW w/out LR?

Z

Zeb

Ingredients: 90% water
Feb 6, 2002
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Bozeman, MT
I've been around on other forums, talking to local reef geeks, and reading books....and of course, noone says the same thing.

....but I've noticed I get a good amount of flames on some forums, but not others.

The topic I get flamed for is keeping a SW FO tank without the help of LR....

Specifically, I've been asking if my proposed setup would be apporopriate. ( That would be a 30 gallon tank, actinic light, aragonite substrate, Hagen Biolife internel wet/dry filter, Hagen Power head, tufa rock & dead corals, and maybe a skimmer. )

As you can see, it's a very simple setup....but this is my first time with SW, and my only goal is to properly care for the fish themselves. ( And easy fish at that....such as damsels, percula clowns, firefish. )

Anyways..... some of the points that came up were feeding. I was told that without LR I could never truly support them. ( I had said I would feed a mix of flake, brine, chopped fish, etc. )

I was also told that without LR, and especially without a skimmer, algae would go out of control within a few months.

Is any of that true?

Then I was blamed for trying to simulate a "petco" style tank, that could only support fish for a short time.

Any of your insight is appreciated....
 
Of course a tank can be run without live rock. The use of live rock is not new, but it is a recent development, and people were keeping SW tanks a long time prior to it's introduction to the hobby.

For feeding, clowns, damsels and fire fish will be fine with regular feeding of a good, varied foods. There are some fish that require algae and such, but you can even provide those without live rock.

What you do get with live rock: a variety of life. A great media for nitrification bacteria to thrive. Natural hiding places for shy fish.

Of these, the hiding places for fish is probably the most important. Reef fish are sued to being able to duck away and hide. Deprived of this, they will be stressed, behave un-naturally, and have suppressed immune function.

I won't flame anyone who chooses not to use live rock, but I'd like to make sure they understand the benefits of using LR, both in terms of maintenance and the impacts on the fish. You can provide comparable structures for hiding, and additional media for bacteria, but why bother when you can get all of the benefits with just live rock?
 
Agree with Oriongirl. You can set up a tank without live rock, but LR makes things SO MUCH EASIER! Fish are much happier with it in the tank, they dart in and out, and sleep in the crevices. Plus, some fish (triggers, wrasses, etc) will reareange the LR to suit their taste. Plus, with live rock, you get hitchhikers like macroaglaes, feather dusters, and worms that make life better for everyone. My live rock imported some corraline algae which has been great. I also got a few tube worms, and some feather dusters which my hermits promptly attached to their shells as camoflague. Live rock might be relatively expensive, but think of it this way, it is a one time cost with nearly unlimited use and benefits.
 
I'm new to this (s/w) but, from all of the research and, of course, my personal preference, I won't be using LR and, as OrionGirl said (and I agree), it's not necessary.

I have dead corals (huge, intricate pieces; some dead, some artificial) in the tank which give plenty of hiding places. A 4" DSB (caribean aragonite) which will be my method to achieve the goal of nitrate reduction. My w/d (with bioballs) will be my bio filter (ammonia and nitrites) along with my Ocean Clear canister for added mechanical filtration.

I did go with a protein skimmer since I will have a FO predator tank.


I'd say, take the "negatively" tuned advice with a grain of salt (IE: listen to it, absorb what you want, but have the internal ignore filter ready to go :p ). You're always going to run across individuals that know the BEST way of doing it, and if you're way is not same, then your way is the wrong way. :rolleyes:

Good luck with your tank. :)
 
Oh man, did I post this in a FW forum? My bad...I didn't even know.

OK....so far I've found that RO is pretty much a must. So if I have to have RO, then I should probably just get LR.

What are the disadvantages of LR? Not being able to medicate fish?

Would a skimmer be less important with LR?

Does LR " propagate" into dead sand, making live sand?

Would pieces of LR reproduce organisms that would spread and colonize pieces of dead rock?


Thanks for your help...
 
There aren't really many disadvantages to live rock. The potential for a unwanted hitch hikers like mantis shrimp...And medicating the main tank isn't usually advisable anyway. Copper would be the only thing that you really wouldn't want to use, due to it's effects on invertebrates. A quarantine tank will prevent the need for most medicating either way.

Skimmers and live rock serve different purposes. Live rock provides an area for bacteria, skimmers remove protiens from the water column.

The critters and bacteria from live rock will spread onto anything else in the tank--sand, rock, etc. Getting rock from multiple sources or adding detrivore kits will help increase the variety of life in there, but it can all come from the rock. Just slower that way.
 
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