Biodiversity

[ahud]

Hello,

Tank info:
40 breeder
20long sump

I am almost finished cycling, but I used 30-40 pounds of dry rock and 10 pounds of cured rock from my LFS. I did not get much life on the rock because my LFS was almost sold out and I really only wanted the cured rock to kick start my cycle

My question is how should I go about getting some biodiversity in my tank? Would you just order a small amount of live rock from an online source? Are there any cheaper methods?

[seapug]

Time is the best way, but you can also see if the LFS (or another local hobbyist) will sell you a few scoops of sand from one of their healthy, established tanks or just wait until they get some new live rock in. I'd avoid mailorder, because transit time is the enemy of biodiversity when it comes to live rock.

You'll also find that many of the corals you buy will come with a multitude of micro and macro crustacean hitchhikers that will proliferate throughout the tank. As long as the system remains mostly fishless, the bugs will flourish. You also might consider some microbe dosing for some biodiversity at the microscopic level. There's a lot of recent evidence suggesting bacterial diversity being as important as microfauna diversity.

[whorulz1147]

Premium Aquatics sells live rock bottom crude and rubble pretty cheap. It's like concentrated biodiversity...

[cloak]

You'll also find that many of the corals you buy will come with a multitude of micro and macro crustacean hitchhikers that will proliferate throughout the tank. As long as the system remains mostly fishless, the bugs will flourish.

+1.

Keep a close eye though. It's real easy to import some of the bad hitchikers if your not paying attention. (Flatworms, aptasia, majanos, hydroids, sundial snails, nudibranchs, etc)

[Agu]

Premium Aquatics sells live rock bottom crude and rubble pretty cheap. It's like concentrated biodiversity...

Or just ask your LFS for a couple of scoops of the crud on the bottom of their rock curing tanks.

That may or may not work though. I've seen LFS's dump sand and crushed coral in their rock tanks and sell it as live the next day. If it doesn't look ugly and crappy don't buy it.