ordering more rock from RC..

its base rock.. and yeah ill just add it with my LR that i have in my tank already.
Base rock is much cheaper than LR.. at my lfs its sold at 3 dollars per pound.
RC is about 2.75 per pound

 

my LFS sells LR from $5 to $7 a lb. so this is real cheap for me. is it like the LR like what im trying to say is will stuff attach and grow from it? this will shave me a lot of money.

 

yea it will eventually turn to live rock. i wish i would have gotten all base rock. live and learn i guess.

 

Hi Saltynub

base rock is rock that is sold dry - its been out of water for a long period of time/ probably treated in some way (bleached and soaked) so that when you buy it there is no life on it at all

live rock is rock that is sold wet, and needs to be kept wet, so that the life on it is preserved

now live rock , has bacteria living in it and you can also get some nice surprises with it, things like baby corals, macro algaes , fan worms, pods, sponges, bristle worms, bristle stars etc that in addition to the bacteria are good things to have in your tank

but there are also some unpleasant surpises at times and you can get things like Aiptasia, Majano, Hair algae, bryopsis, Pistol shrimps, mantis shrimps, gorilla crabs etc - various things that wont be welcome in your reef tank

with dry base rock you dont get any hitchhikers - but you dont get any bacteria either or nice coralline purple

the good news is that both of these things will develop on your base rock, but it takes time especially in the case of coralline (bacteria starts colonising it pretty quickly as long as you have something generating waste in order to give bacteria food and thus a chance to increase its population

so a good technique when setting up a reef tank is to use dry base rock
and then cherry pick a few pieces of live rock - that way you get the best of both worlds in that you have a source for bacteria and coralline and also reduce the risk of introducing pests

Steve

 

gosh good explanation.. could not have possibly said it better;D K+

 

Yes thank you steve that is exactly want i needed to know. i am glad i found this post so i dont go blowing hundreds of dollars on all LR. i have about 20+ lbs of LR now so i will just get 50 more of base and should be set. i will start a new build thread to keep you guys posted.
and again thank you