How essential live rock is in ATS system ? I am thinking of setting new 160G tank. Live rock is extremelly expensive where I live because of transportations cost. What do you think ?
What proportion I should use pound per galon (or kg per litre) . For scapping I am thinking to partially use nonlive rock .
In my opinion the amount is not too important for an ATS driven system.
It's for grafting purpose, and the plus with the ATS is that you actually keep the living things alive so they can reproduce..
I'm planning to do my scape out of "death rock" only, and add just 2 or 3 stones of (fresh)live-rock..
My thoughts exactly.
Just wanted more opinions, not being much experienced myself.
You normally want 1 to 1.5 lbs of rock per gallon. I like and want the growth that occurs on live rock so I have never had a tank without it. Many people work up to the proper amount they need by adding a little at a time. If running an ATS it takes care of the nutrients so if your screen and growth was enough you should be ok. My newest 10G SW only has 4 fist size pieces of rock and an ATS and its doing just fine. It never even had a real cycle. The nutrients in it are always zero-ish. Its got a huge population of assorted pods, a few stars, feather dusters, and is growing Coraline all over that just popped out of the rock.
150G. Reef/Mix
125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
75G. 20+ Africans
40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
10G. SW Fish/Reef.
10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.
If it is just the price, then kerry was right on: use dead/manufactured rock, seeded with just a few pieces of live. Or not...even "dead rock" becomes alive by the bb that grows in the tank. There are plenty of videos online which show you how to make your own rock as well, using portland cement, sand, shells or whatever.
Dead will will indeed colonize bacteria that make the rock an ammonia (and maybe even a nitrate) filter, but unfortunately it will never be what we want with true live from the ocean. Real live rock is "live" because of the animals living inside it. Millions of things from microscopic microbes, sponges, to full size worms. Most of the "life" dies off during the shipping (especially the sponges), which is why there is a cycle when you put new live rock in, but some things do survive and grow. See this yellow encrusting sponge which started growing out of a rock after 2 years... You can't buy them, or even move them from tank-to-tank, because the change is water flow will alter the food supply particles (not too mention the air) will kill it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6sCDUA-tAA
SM-- That is so cool, and that's what got me into saltwater in the first place. Two years!? Who'd of thunk? I seeded my 50 gal with 15 lbs uncured, and found life spreading to even the dead rocks I had in there--little hair-like spaghetti worms coming of rocks that had been dug out of the ground in Cape Coral, FL.
In the six weeks I've run the scrubber, I've also noticed more life as well, since the Nitrates are coming down.
Biodiversity rocks. (pun intended)
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