I am setting up a new 75 gallon tank, and have a question about the live rock. I have about 95lbs of dried out live rock, and over the last couple weeks have been cleaning it up. I am going to get some actual live rock to seed it, but am not sure what the required amount is. I read that sometimes it can take up to 6 months to a year to revive dead live rock, and would like to speed that up more. I worry about putting eventually putting fish and coral in the tank if there is only a couple pounds of live rock. So if I am planning on using at least 80+ pounds of the dried out stuff, how much live rock would be recommended to keep everything working right and seed it correctly.
How much live rock
- Thread starter sprky86
- Start date
poksal
Well? .. I AM trying
Well, you have figured it out.. it is all about time and budget. You have lots of dry rock.. so add what you can stand. In the end it was time.. and you have plenty of that on your hands in this hobby. If you keep the fish population down you can start with about 10 pounds of LR give or take a few. The thing is you can't add fish often any way so you may as well take your time with the rock seed too. Adding fish is enough to cause an new mini cycle.. it takes time for a reef tank to mature... so settle in for the long haul.
Assuming you are wanting to set up a reef tank....
If you have a friend with a reef and can get him or her to let you leave a sponge in their sump for a few days and then be building the aquascape and add the LR, you can speed up the cycle a bit by getting that sponge in a bucket and pouring the water from the bucket and squeezing the sponge into your tank.. this is not a common method but can boost the process according to some old timers. And several on here recommend adding a table shrimp from the food store to your tank to kick a cycle into action...... then test every day to see when it cycles.
AFTER it cycles you can add one or two hearty fish.. clowns are popular for this job... but it is not healthy for a fish until you complete the cycle process. Be ready to understand that is about it for fish for a while.. then adding slowly and picking them carefully.
With a reef tank it is more than about the fish.. there are many life forms to add that do not contribute to the "bio load" like fish do. .. lots of really cool creatures...wink..
The forum members on here will have you in GREAT shape within 6 months. I'm proof.
Do you have a skimmer?
Do you have a sump?
Is your tank drilled?
A picture or pictures of your gear will give the forum members a head start giving you a head start!
Assuming you are wanting to set up a reef tank....
If you have a friend with a reef and can get him or her to let you leave a sponge in their sump for a few days and then be building the aquascape and add the LR, you can speed up the cycle a bit by getting that sponge in a bucket and pouring the water from the bucket and squeezing the sponge into your tank.. this is not a common method but can boost the process according to some old timers. And several on here recommend adding a table shrimp from the food store to your tank to kick a cycle into action...... then test every day to see when it cycles.
AFTER it cycles you can add one or two hearty fish.. clowns are popular for this job... but it is not healthy for a fish until you complete the cycle process. Be ready to understand that is about it for fish for a while.. then adding slowly and picking them carefully.
With a reef tank it is more than about the fish.. there are many life forms to add that do not contribute to the "bio load" like fish do. .. lots of really cool creatures...wink..
The forum members on here will have you in GREAT shape within 6 months. I'm proof.
Do you have a skimmer?
Do you have a sump?
Is your tank drilled?
A picture or pictures of your gear will give the forum members a head start giving you a head start!
Last edited:
BL1
.............
It doesn't really take that long for live rock to seed dry rock. Usually a few months and you'll have trouble telling which was the dry rock. General rule of thumb for most people is 1-2 pounds of rock per gallon. But this of course isn't always the case, some put more others put less.
kbuser92
Breeder
+1 Bryan. Theres two things about seeding, though. To become completely seeded, youre looking at a few months. To become completely mature can take many months to years to happen. It doesnt all have to be mature rock to do the job, though. As stated, just seed with a few good chunks and let her go. As you add more fish and time, itll happen on its own.
Northstar24
The Tang Herder
When i started up my tank, I used a ratio of 1 pound of live rock for each 10 pounds of dry rock. This cycled pretty quickly for me. It will take quite while for the coraline to spread from the live rock to the dry rock, but the bacteria for supporting the ammonia cycle shouldn't take more than a few weeks
