Help With Live Rock

[jackm]

OK firstly i have read some of the questions about LR which there seem to be quite a lot but this one is different, so please dont ignore it Smile

I am setting up a new marine tank, all i want to know is as i dont have a lot of money and plan on putting live rock into my tank every few weeks or so, starting with just a bit of LR but gradually increasing, obviously keeping the amount of fish i keep during the build up time to a bare minimum, i understand that this will be hard as there wont be much bacteria in the tank at the beginning so should i use a filter with a carbon sponge and the normal bacteria sponges with a freshwater tank, but reduce the amount of sponges as i put more LR in. Or is there any way of doing this build up technique?
also what is the bare minimum amount of live rock to put into a 125 liter/33 US gallon tank, again considering i will not have a lot fish in the tank i also plan on using a small layer of live sand 1-2" i know it isnt enough but it cant help. Smile
TIA
jack

 

[maestro]

OK firstly i have read some of the questions about LR which there seem to be quite a lot but this one is different, so please dont ignore it Smile

I am setting up a new marine tank, all i want to know is as i dont have a lot of money and plan on putting live rock into my tank every few weeks or so, starting with just a bit of LR but gradually increasing, obviously keeping the amount of fish i keep during the build up time to a bare minimum, i understand that this will be hard as there wont be much bacteria in the tank at the beginning so should i use a filter with a carbon sponge and the normal bacteria sponges with a freshwater tank, but reduce the amount of sponges as i put more LR in. Or is there any way of doing this build up technique?
also what is the bare minimum amount of live rock to put into a 125 liter/33 US gallon tank, again considering i will not have a lot fish in the tank i also plan on using a small layer of live sand 1-2" i know it isnt enough but it cant help. Smile
TIA
jack

Id start with atleast 5 kg of live rock,and the live sand and just have one or 2 fish, dont add any more fish untill youve built upto 10kgs which imo is the minimum amount then you could add another couple of fish.

make 100% sure that you always add cured liverock to an existign tank or youll have a complete wipeout.

If you cant afford 5kgs then ditch the live sand and just buy normal marine sand and allow a longer period of time before you add your first fish because it will get seeded by the liverock, id allow 1 month

 

[jackm]

[/quote]

Id start with atleast 5 kg of live rock,and the live sand and just have one or 2 fish, dont add any more fish untill youve built upto 10kgs which imo is the minimum amount then you could add another couple of fish.

make 100% sure that you always add cured liverock to an existign tank or youll have a complete wipeout.

If you cant afford 5kgs then ditch the live sand and just buy normal marine sand and allow a longer period of time before you add your first fish because it will get seeded by the liverock, id allow 1 month
[/quote]


Thanks
although i dont fully understand, whe you say 'If you cant afford 5kgs then ditch the live sand and just buy normal marine sand and allow a longer period of time before you add your first fish because it will get seeded by the liverock, id allow 1 month' Do you mean buy about 10kg straight off with normal marine sand, leave it for a month and then start adding fish? Also when you say seeded do you mean as in i have bought the 10kg of LR wait another month, is this so the bacteria can accumiate with the conditions? finaly when you say ' 10kgs which imo is the minimum amount then you could add another couple of fish.' is this without a filter altogether, even without the carbon and phosphate filter media??
Thanks so much for the help
jack

 

[maestro]

Sorry ill try simplify

If you can afford to buy 5 kgs of live rock and live sand then great, thats what id start of with and stock likely.

If you cant afford both then buy 5 kgs of live rock and normal sand, the bacteria in the rock will transfer over to the sand over a period of time making it livesand.

I wouldnt really suggest starting of with less that 5 kgs of liverock.


By the way is this going to be a fish only tank or are you having corals aswell?

You want to run phosphate remover from the beginning anyway, carbon aswell would help if your not running a skimmer.

I really not a fan of using other type of bioligical filtration, live rock is simple the best, everything else is 2nd best and should be avioded if at all possible