Live Rock- How Much?

drew00c

drew00c

Reefing newb
Hey Everyone, my first post:bounce:!

I am in the process of starting up my first marine tank. For starters I am going to go fish only until i have the budget it afford proper lighting for corals. I was wondering how much live rock I should use in a fish only tank. The Tank is 20 gallons. A was dealing with a sales associate who told me i should have 20 pounds of rock in the tank, this seemed a bit excessive to me. Mind you ive never kept marine. Any info would be great!
 
1-2 lbs per gallon is the area to shoot for. I personally have 23 lbs of live rock in my 12 gallon nano

It works as a natural filter.


I would say get 30-35 lbs of live rock but it depends on how empty you want your tank to be also


How long is your tank and what filtration do you have also?
 
I thought the same thing when I was stocking my 46g about 6 weeks back. But I took everyones advice and bought 50lbs of it for 300bones. Glad I did, it just fills it nicely, I can't imagine any less
 
Tank is 24 inches long, im using a good ole Ehiem Classic. So i guess more live rock is better then less. Thanks for the info.
 
Don't quote me on this cause I'm a total newb....but if you are going fish only for a while, maybe you can save yourself a few bucks by getting some live rock and some base rock. The live will seed the base over time
 
thats an idea, can anyone confirm this method. Oh yeah, how much should i be paying (fairly) the three stores i went into today. 6.99/lb 10/lb and 14.99/lb. Is there a difference in quality, or are stores trying to ream customers?
 
Oh yeah, thats a great way to go. Find some cheap base rock for 3$ a pound and then buy some premium stuff and set it on top of it, eventually it will all be good live rock! Thats what I did with 4 big chunks of base rock and its working out great so far.
 
Anywhere from $6 to $14 per pound is common. I would aim for 2 lbs per gallon. The more rock you have, the more natural filtration you will have. Which means less work for you.
 
Buy live rock from local reefers who are getting out of the hobby. You can buy PREMIUM live rock for like $3/lb. Thats what I did. I bought 17 pounds for $3/lb and it jumpstarted my tank really fast.

Try Craigslist.
toronto craigslist > for sale / wanted: search for "aquarium"

I have 61/lbs in my 30g tank. It's PACKED, but I like it that way. I'm mostly interested in the invertebrates--not the fish. So, I paid very special attnetion to what KIND of fish I bought and I only bought 3.

The diamond watchman goby because it doesn't swim around a helluva lot and it serves a specific function--cleaning and sifting the sand. This is very important because my entire tank floor is covered with rocks and I have a deep sand bed (DSB) There is NO WAY for me to get in there and clean the sand, so thats why I bought the sand sifting goby.

The ocellarous clown doesn't need a lot of room and doesn't swim around much. But it adds some nice color to the tank. It may eventuallt host in a hammer coral or larger fuzzy mushrom.

The 6-line wrasse is the perfect fish for a tank that's stuffed with rocks. It swims in and out of the crevices all day long. Thats their natural behavior. So, it fits my tank nicely.

I'd go about 1--1.5 pounds per gallon of water if you want some swimming room for fishes. Keep in mind, your VERY limited on what kind and how many fish you can keep in a 20g tank.

If your goal is only 1 fish or maybe 2 smaller fish--then stuff that sucker with 35-40 pounds of rock and don't plan on having any much space on the sand bed.
 
drew00c said:
thats an idea, can anyone confirm this method. Oh yeah, how much should i be paying (fairly) the three stores i went into today. 6.99/lb 10/lb and 14.99/lb. Is there a difference in quality, or are stores trying to ream customers?
Click to expand...


Yeah,you can go with a little live rock and mostly base(dry) rocks.Wow,$15 is way to much.Here dry is $1.50-$2 a lb and live rock $7.99 a lb.I say 1/4 live and the rest dry will work.Remember,the more live rock the faster the cycle will go.
 
Big pieces that are light. When I got mine, they were kind of getting to the bottom of the barrel so to speak, thats why I got a better price. I was picking out all these pieces I thought looked real cool, then the guys told me I needed larger stuff. They started helping me dig around and find the "diamonds". After I started placing the stuff I realized how unstable 50 1lb pieces would have been piled up on top of each other......
 
When I look for live rock,I look for odd shapes,lots of holes and at least some decent coralline coverage.Round boulder shape rocks are hard to decorate with.
 
I didn't notice you were from Toronto. Check out Wheres the Reef in Mississauga. Thats where I got my rock. Talk to Ryan and he'll give you a good deal.

Other than that there is 72lbs of it in the classifieds here in Sudbury, 5.00 a lb or deal for the whole thing....I could use another 10 or so, although I wouldn't know where to put it
 
Dont forget to sniff the rock too.
You want to make sure it smells fresh and not like a rotten chunk of fish.
 

Similar threads

F
New to marine.
Replies
2
Views
1K
kbuser92
kbuser92
Mike
We're Back!
Replies
0
Views
626
Mike
Mike
Sashimi
75G LPS 2.0
Replies
2
Views
2K
Sashimi
Sashimi
M
Novice needing advice!!
Replies
0
Views
1K
montgrl99
M
Sashimi
75 gallon LPS 2.0 suggestions
Replies
0
Views
2K
Sashimi
Sashimi
Back
Top