Weld Dr

I'm setting up a 110 gallon and have nothing in it so far. I'm completly new to saltwater and I was wondering if it is a good or bad idea to get live rock and sand from many different sources. The goal is to get the most diversity in little creatures ect

Also, would it be a good idea to speed up the cycling process by adding the lava rock from my freshwater tank? I know that lava rock can leach minerals but it has been in the freshwater tank for several years


I've merged your two posts.
Thanks.
Ken

kloseo

the lava rocks wont work as the different salinity requirements for anything in freshwater would not survive saltwater the live rocks and sand i would think would be fine from different sources if you are talking about purchasing from stores, i would be careful and make sure it is not from any tank that has a history of disease or problems

charzar-g

Well I've only ever bought my live rock from one LFS, and they always get it from fiji, so thats what I have in my tank.. I've never thought of mixing differnt rocks from different oceans... It may be a good idea, but it may not.... I'm not sure, it depends on the hitch hikers you get I suppose.
And You shouldn't add lava rock to saltwater tank

Betafish305ca

i don't have any advice, but what exactly is 'live rock'

Oil_Fan

In saltwater tanks, the primary source of biological filtration is live rock. Basically it's literally rock from the ocean. Usually it's very porous for the good expensive stuff. You can also have 'base rock' which is usually man made but will become live as bacteria grows on the rock.

In FW tanks, I believe that is usually done by sponge filters and such. In the SW world, we use live rock and live sand.

That explain it?