1 Pound Per Gallon, Live Sand

[doox00]

I am about to setup a marine tank (fish only). I have a 75 gallon tank(about to have rather, tomorrow I will be picking it up more than likely) and will be using a sump and hopefully a refugium as well. I have been reading you should get 1 pound of live sand per gallon of water. When first setting up the tank/cycling it is it okay or does it work to just get lets say 10 lb of live sand to seed the rest, and after X amount of time all of your sand will be live sand? If this is so, how long approximately does it take to have enough live sand? I am still new to all of this, just been reading around on the internet on setting up a marine tank. still have a ton to learn.

thanks,
Shawn

*decided to hold off on the 75 and get a 90 overflow all-glass tank instead, just got some plans to build my own stand/hood so going to do this as well.

 

[Mr Miagi]

I wouldnt worry about Live Sand. Its recomended you get 1 pound of Live ROCK for 1 gallon of water. Do you have it confussed?

If you buy crushed arogonite or marble, and add Live rock onto it, the Live rock will eventually seed the sand anyway. To fully seed the sand it could take a month, or two, but the live rock will start your cycle and provide biological filtration in the meantime anyway. Worth the savings ($$$) though.

Miagi

 

[doox00]

I wouldnt worry about Live Sand. Its recomended you get 1 pound of Live ROCK for 1 gallon of water. Do you have it confussed?

If you buy crushed arogonite or marble, and add Live rock onto it, the Live rock will eventually seed the sand anyway. To fully seed the sand it could take a month, or two, but the live rock will start your cycle and provide biological filtration in the meantime anyway. Worth the savings ($$$) though.

Miagi

I see, I thought either needed live rock or live sand. So will the live rock seed the other rock? If I purchase 10 pounds of live rock will it seed the rest?

 

[fraservet]

Live rock will seed other rock over a period of months.
However - unless the other rock is similar in structure to live rock (very porous, lots of little tunnels for bacteria etc. to live in), it will not provide anything like the quality of proper live rock in terms of biological filtration even after it is seeded.
It is possible to get rock which fulfils these criteria and which is much cheaper than liver rock.
The next problem is that if the LR is the main form of filtration in the tank, you will be severely limited in stocking the tank until the whole lot is seeded. This means leaving the tank empty for several months while it seeds, or possibly only having a couple of very small fish while the filter matures.

If you are using live rock just to provide appearance, then yes the coralline algae etc. should slowly spread to other rock in the tank, and the various pods will also spread.
In this case, you must have some other form of filtration for the tank - e.g. large external filter/trickle filter etc.

 

[doox00]

Live rock will seed other rock over a period of months.
However - unless the other rock is similar in structure to live rock (very porous, lots of little tunnels for bacteria etc. to live in), it will not provide anything like the quality of proper live rock in terms of biological filtration even after it is seeded.
It is possible to get rock which fulfils these criteria and which is much cheaper than liver rock.
The next problem is that if the LR is the main form of filtration in the tank, you will be severely limited in stocking the tank until the whole lot is seeded. This means leaving the tank empty for several months while it seeds, or possibly only having a couple of very small fish while the filter matures.

If you are using live rock just to provide appearance, then yes the coralline algae etc. should slowly spread to other rock in the tank, and the various pods will also spread.
In this case, you must have some other form of filtration for the tank - e.g. large external filter/trickle filter etc.

I would prefer the live rock to be my filtration system.. like I said i am new and still learning all this, but what could I use in conjunction with the 10 or so pounds of live rock until it seeds the rest? I will have the tank and sump, what would I have to have in the sump or add in addition to make this work? I would rather not spend hundreds of dollars on 70-90 pounds of live rock and just create my own over time.

 

[Aquascaper]

If you buy good quality Live Rock this will seed other rock and sand/substrate well enough. If you choose to only buy a small quantity of Live Rock and make up the rest with reef bones, etc. then you will have to stock very carefully and very slowly so the biological filtration has time to catch up and grow.
Your sump will be the key to help you through the months of waiting till the Live Rock seeds the rest, a good set up will help filter your water and possibly allow you to stock a little quicker.

At the end of the day there's just no alternative to good quality mature Live Rock

 

[Navarre]

Liverock is my only form of filtration. I currently have about half the quantity neded for a tank of my size (220 UK gallons) I currently have 5 tangs, 1 butterfly, 2 clowns, 1 wrasse, 2 chromis and a goby. The tank is not highly stocked but as you can see its by no means empty either. I have 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrite and 0 Nitrate. The liverock is well matured of course and of high quality. I do even have 2 large pieces of man made liverock in there. It was placed in there fresh almost 1 year ago ( i think aquascaper saw them when he came to view my 100 gallon system) I would defy anyone to see the difference between the 2 types of rock now.

IF you want unseeded rock then be sure it will eventually be as good as matured liverock. Ocean rock or other types of rock that are not porous simply wont work.

 

[Aquascaper]

I remeber them

Nice big chunks of rock they are too. The advantage of making your own Live rock is that you can create any shape you like, shapes that are usually hard to come by in the LFS (and usually pricey too). It also allows you to make huge bits of rock, sizes that most LFS wouldn't be able to get hold of due to the shipping costs, etc.

 

[Navarre]

Thats right! Something i am seriously considering as it will cost far less and i cna make th esize and shapes i want.. Its just the setting up and of course the curing period that takes so long... Perhaps with the summer months ahead i might invest in this.. come the autumn it will be ready for seeding.

 

[Aquascaper]

I still have 'The Manual' for making it all mate if you need it

If I had your tank I would have had a huge batch done by now...............you don't need a garden anyway

 

[doox00]

could you link me pictures of some rock that would be of the right type to be used with live rock that would eventually become live rock itself.

thanks again for the help all

 

[Aquascaper]

'Reef Bones' or dead coral chunks are the best alternative to Live rock as this is just Live Rock/Coral that has died. The more porous the rock the better it will seed and become a good filter. There is a pinned topic that I did somewhere on this forum (or it may be on another fourm I can't remember ) ) that gives the basic types of rock used in marine tanks. Use the search function and you should find it.

 

[Navarre]

I would seriously consider reefbones as it is old liverock that is simply dried out.. its about half the price of the living stuff.