How Much Live Rock to seed Base Rock?

[Augster]

Setting up a 100g tank so I'm looking at 100 pounds total of rock.

I'm going with dry "live rock" (Pukani) so what ratio should I get of true "live rock" to seed the dry base rock? FYI, I will have a deep sand bed of some sort of "live sand" CarribSea/Nature's Ocean.

Also, I'm looking for "colorful" coralline algae (reds, blues, greens); is there any recommended LR that consistently has these color qualities I'm looking for?

[bnumair]

all you need is to seed the tank with cured live rock even 10-20 lbs will work.

[Fish Biscuit]

+1 ^^^ also the sand is not "live" until you place LR in the tank

Check the online sponsors for LR, mine came from Premium Aquatics & it was covered w/ pink & purple coraline. I have green & a little orange coraline now but it will take time for everything to be covered.

[coralsnaked]

I suggest in a 100 gal tank that 100 total lb of rock is not enough for a reef tank holding corals. Minimum equals 1.5 lbs rock per gal of water Thats net total water. I assume you have an additional 50 gal sump so your talking 150 gals and the rock will displace about 25 gals so you are looking at 125 gals of water needing more like 180 - 190 lbs of rock. I would seed at a ratio of 10 /1 or total 20 lb of fully cured rock to 160 lb of base rock. As far as the type or color of coraline algea you want look for that type of seed rock. You want purple get purple, you want white (my favorite) get white or green if you can find it. But if you get one little peice of purple in there, it will take over in the long run.

[cloak]

all you need is to seed the tank with cured live rock even 10-20 lbs will work.

+1.

Hopefully it's "good" live rock. The beneficial bacteria will develop over time reguardless, but the critters you want willl either hitchhike in on some of live rock or you'll have to purchase them at places such as www.ipsf.com

[Augster]

All good advice; didn't even think that there is "white" coralline algae and always assumed tanks with white rock was just simply dead rock. I certainly wouldn't mind having all white coralline algae-if it can be had without being overrun by other colors.

Since my LFS's don't seem to have the colorful algae I'm looking for (they all look... grey; one shop had deep dark purple), I'm inquiring on others experiences on the type of rock they got, colors and where they got them.

FYI, my sump will be a custom 45g (36x18x16) but typically will only hold just below 33 gals with its 13" tall baffles.

And yes, I do realize that the bagged wet "live sand" is not really live; I just mentioned it so that responders would know the substrate environment that the rock will be placed in. :-)

[Augster]

...mine came from Premium Aquatics & it was covered w/ pink & purple coraline. I have green & a little orange coraline now but it will take time for everything to be covered.

What type of LR did you get?

I just checked Premium Aquatics and it appears the only LR they have is Bali ALOR Live Rock, both cured and uncured...

[serion]

I used 15lbs of Fiji rock from a LFS to seed 50lbs of dry base rock from reefrocks.net. So far so good.

[Croniss]

Not to high jack but Im curious if instead of going the route of 1.5 lbs lr per gallon could you compensate buy adding large amounts of searches matrix to the Refugium or sump area? So for example a 100g tank with 50lbs lr and a 20g sump with matrix in it. Isn't the lr just providing surface area for beneficial bacteria just like the matrix. I understand it doesn't come with copepods or awesome hitch hikers but some (like myself) prefer the less crowded look that comes with minimal lr

[jamesbaur13]

Setting up a 100g tank so I'm looking at 100 pounds total of rock.

I'm going with dry "live rock" (Pukani)

100lbs of pukani is WAY too much for a 100g. I'd go with 1/2 that... 50lbs. It's dry, so there's no water weight and it's extremely porous.

Be sure to cure that rock. The one drawback to pukani is it has a lot of dead matter and releases phosphate. Be prepared to set up a kiddy pool with circulation and make water changes using RO/DI.

I let mine bake in 90 degree heat (it was july) in the garage for a month while I did my plumbing and built my light.

[tkeracer619]

You want rock with a lot of good life on it. 10-15lbs is fine. I agree that 100lbs of Pukani is too much. I would get 75lb so you have some options then either toss the extra in the sump or sell it as cured pukani. This stuff is crazy porous.

This thread shows curing Pukani
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2145395

[Augster]

100lbs of pukani is WAY too much for a 100g.

I understand now what you are saying in that Pukani is a very light rock so it doesn't necessarily follow LR weight recommendations and will adjust accordingly.

I am definitely going to cure all the rock (together). Didn't really notice a large number of experienced aquarists also baking their rocks; not averse to it, but it seems its not a procedure many follow.

[jamesbaur13]

I understand now what you are saying in that Pukani is a very light rock so it doesn't necessarily follow LR weight recommendations and will adjust accordingly.

I am definitely going to cure all the rock (together). Didn't really notice a large number of experienced aquarists also baking their rocks; not averse to it, but it seems its not a procedure many follow.

I'm just suggesting what i did in my particular instance. You dont need 90 degree heat to cure pukani... it was just a hot summer. not sure if it helped accelerate the process, or not. I would think it would help, but i'm not and expert on that sort of stuff.

My point was just to make sure you don't add it immediately to a tank... it'll cause problems.

[SaltyWenStirred]

I agree with jamesbaur13.

I have a 38g tank. I ordered 25 lbs. of Macro pre-cured dry rock. I was going to go for the Pukani too, but went with this instead. I'm very pleased.

Anyway, I also got 10 lbs. of prime cut dry rock. So I have 35 lbs. of rock. I bought 4 lbs of live rock last night and added it, plus 1/2 dry sand and 1/2 live sand to go on top of the dry sand.

I had to take one large rock out. There just isn't room for all the rock. I would not get 1.5 of rock per gallon if you are using dry rock. I think you'll have more than you can use.

I attached a couple of pictures. The tank is not clear because I've been moving rocks around again. I rinsed my dry sand last night and it helped a lot. The water was clear this morning.

Also, I have a few other live pieces in the back that you can't see and are no bigger than the palm of my hand.

[SaltyWenStirred]

Sorry about the pics. Trying again:

http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad236/WhiteDane/Rock3.jpg

http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad236/WhiteDane/Rock1.jpg

[Augster]

Thanks for sharing your experience!

I'm certainly going to downsize the amount of dry rock to order...

[Thunder3]

Agree!