dead rocks become...

[Terryz_]

hi... i not sure i see it here or other forums... that if you place dead rocks with live rocks the beneficial bacteria will colonize the dead rock and make it a live rock... is tat true... coz feel tat 80kg of live rock tooo ex for me liao... perhap getting 20kg of dead rocks...

[Cookiemunster]

Hi,

yes its true you can grow live rocks from dead ones. But not when you just started your tank. You need the rocks to cycle your tank. It takes a few months once your tank is already matured and stable before the dead rocks will start to colonize.

Since bacteria is invisible to our eyes, a good indication would be coralline algae or some kind of algae growth.

Its not a good idea to cycle your tank with too little live rocks as you need it to kick start the process and to act as the main filtration in your tank.

However as you mentioned, 60kg of live rock is more than sufficient (assuming 4 or 5ft tank). The rest you can just buy dead rocks and slowly cultivate them.

My own 4ft I use only 50kg of live rock. So far have not added any dead rocks yet.

Oh yeah and dead rocks don't become live so fast. It takes months and provided your tank is stable and water conditions are good. Filtration method also plays a part cos if you are using wet dry trickle method filters, most bacteria will colonise that area instead of the rocks.

[Terryz_]

so it is true... thkz...