Live rock vs Dry Rock vs Holey Rock??

[IntrinsicReef]

I do want to make the differentiation between "live rock" and "real ocean live rock". There is a world of difference...

What is the difference? I haven't ordered live rock in 15+ years

 

[ZzyzxRiver]

Just a newbie here and I’m sure ocean live rock is awesome in terms of getting a tank full of diversity on the quick, but one thing for me about starting with dry rock is that I am going to feel SO SATISFIED one day when it is dark and crusty and teeming with life that I nurtered/managed not to kill.

 

[schooncw]

This is an excellent writeup, outlining the benefits of 'real" live rock. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/mastering-the-basics-reefing-101.922535/

 

[IntrinsicReef]

This is an excellent writeup, outlining the benefits of 'real" live rock. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/mastering-the-basics-reefing-101.922535/

Sonny is a great guy and has a maintenance recipe very similar to my own. My point is, if I take that maintenance recipe and apply it to a tank with live rock or dry rock, the corals and fish will thrive similarly. I think it is more his maintenance algorithm he has tuned over the years than any particular physical components of the system. I would bet if you gave him a tank with dry rock and completely different equipment than he is used to, he would come up with similar results.

 

[jabberwock]

What is the difference? I haven't ordered live rock in 15+ years

The difference is in the macro and micro diversity that you get with "real ocean live rock". This will include some undesirable hitch hikers, but the good far out weighs the bad in my experience. I started with marco dry rock. I was all afraid of hitchhikers, and got them anyway. Plus, it was a GHA farm...

18 months ago, I restarted with TBS ocean live rock, and I have been blown away with the results. I am still farming algae, but it is the good kind. Macro algae that I trim back once a month and trade with my LFS for water or credit.

 

[IntrinsicReef]

I am a huge fan of macro algae as well. I have seen it outcompete nuisance algae in the display and can't understand why some people say it won't. Systems with aggressively growing macro algae run clean and are easy to maintain( you still need herbivores in the display, but it slows nuisance algae growth.) I will die on that hill.
Again though, I'm not sure the linchpin is live rock. I can add one or two handfuls of macro algae to a refugium( these will introduce much of the desirable fauna with it), and I am able to get similar results while minimizing the risk of unwanted additions. I am not against live rock and am glad you had great results. I just don't find it as critical as I have heard many people say it is.