Live Rock Alternatives?

[Brilly91]

Been thinking about alternatives to live rock as fed up with one of my tanks which has become full of nasties and would like to give one of the alternatives a go.
 
Now i know of two alternatives and only one really tickles my fancy...
 
1 - Aquaroche  - This really grabs my atttention as it comes in a variety of shapes and styles and can be really effective. Ive seen a lot of possitives and the odd negative about it. My main concern is ive read a few people complain about algae issues?
 
Is this a real issue? surely a decent clean up crew would do a good enough job at keeping it algae free?
 
2 - Real Reef - Oddly named considering its not real rock lol This one is an option but im not so keen on, its nearly twice as much as standard liverock and comes in all the boring, normal shapes live rock does. Ive seen alot more mixed reviews about it also.
 
Does anyone have any experience with either of these? Are they worthwhile alternatives or am i better of starting with some fresh liverock?

 

[Donya]

Live rock in the typical sense is usually the easiest way to go, but, as you mention, it is not totally safe. It happened to me as well - had to tear down a 20gal tank because of one rock I didn't quarantine that brought in a triple whammy of a polyclad flatworms, coral-eating fireworms, and a bunch of Oenone fulgida. It is a gamble, although those cases are rather rare when you get good quality rock. That worm bomb I got was one bad instance out of many tanks I've set up with live rock. I don't have experience with either of the two things you've listed, but there are definitely sources of rock that are bacteria-only due to being cultured in a specific way. I have bought rock like that on occasion and it works well when dealt with properly. They are really expensive, but if you get a bunch of your own dry rock, you can also cure your own that way and ensure zero bad things. Real Reef might be like this going from a quick glance on their site, since it sounds like they specifically don't do the colonization method that leads to an abundance of critters. Their pictures suggest it has beneficial worms at least, but other rock I've seen cured to avoid hitchhikers has only showed coralline, so I'm a bit skeptical about that aspect of the rocks.
 
The downside to having NO live rock in the traditional sense is that you will have zero or nearly zero good things and can end up with an incomplete ecosystem as a result. Things that might be taken for granted with regular live rock, like detritus buildup, can be a bigger worry with more sterile rock. Larger CUC animals of the type you buy at a store will not necessarily be able to sort that out for you. A total lack of critters is useful in fragile systems like seahorse nurseries that receive a lot of special care anyway, but is often a pain in more general/typical systems where things like worms and Amphipods/Isopods/etc. play a pretty critical role in maintaining the rock and sand bed.
 
One way to add diversity to otherwise bacteria-only rock that I have done is to quarantine a small chunk of regular live rock for a while. Rocks from tanks with big angry predators can also good candidates for this, since the bulk of bigger things will be killed, but little things that are desirable are often ignored due to their size. For example, I have a tank with a big nasty crab in it and have used that tank to "de-worm" rocks for use in other systems. So, if you know someone or have a store nearby with such a tank, you could see if they would let you have a small bit of rubble from it to give you a microfauna seed for your setup.

 

[Brilly91]

Just to give this a bit of an update i ended up purchasing aquaroche, so will give my views on it as it matures and progresses in my nano reef.

 

[Brilly91]

Been a few weeks now and so far so good with the aquaroche, i used atm colony when setting up the tank and ive kept a close eye on params ever since.
 
All params have stayed stable and the aquaroche seems to be doing fine, its even starting to go purple.
 
The rock itself ive found is very porous which is obviously good when it comes to filtration purposes.
 
My girlfriend has started putting her hand in the tank now aswell as shes assured theres no nasties lurking which is a nice possitive also.