Live rock or dry rock

[carnation972]

Hello, Starting a seahorse tank only. I have a Biocube 32. Right now I have about 10-12lbs of fiji live branch, and need to add more live rock. I just really don't know the best way to go? I heard live cause their is stuff that the seahorse can munch on. Then I hear dry cause of bad hitchhikers. I don't plan on adding seahorses for at least a good 3 months or so...

[nutbar29]

I use only live rock and yes bad hitchhiker are always possible but since you have 3 months you can remove anything that comes in that you don't want. IMO


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[rayjay]

I prefer starting completely sterile and using dry rock.
Yes you can get problems with live rock, and, you can get pod forms that will reproduce, and seahorses will eat them, but the pod life is quickly decimated by the relentless hunting of the seahorses and not worth using if that is what you are after. JMO

[ThRoewer]

Live rock is pretty much the only thing I would use. Evil hitchhikers are possible, but the benefits generally outweigh the risks ​by a large margin.
To prevent pods being wiped out (decimation is just reduction by a tenth), I would strongly recommend a refugium, especially on any tank with primarily pod eating fish.
The most important critters you want to get into your system are tropical reef mysis. They can often be found in the sumps of LFS systems.

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[rayjay]

(decimation is just reduction by a tenth)
I don't know where you get that figure from. In my early years of seahorses I had one 90g established (over a decade) tank with more than 100 pounds of live rock, full of mysids and multiple pod forms. Four H. reidi wiped that out in a matter of a few weeks. In fact, until the mysids/pods were pretty well gone they wouldn't even eat any food I put in the tank.
In my early fourty gallon tanks it was even faster with just a pair of seahorses in each tank.
Before I put seahorses in the 90 (it was supposed to be a temporary measure at the time) I used to pull mysids and pods out to feed four 40g seahorse tanks. After, there weren't enough to try to catch any more.