how much rock required to seed a tank

[Johney01]

I have 180 gallon tank with 50 gallon sump,
I presently have 170 pounds of dead rock so I need to seed it with some live stuff. My question is should I get 65 pounds of good live rock for about 400 bucks. Or can I get away with
15 pounds, for allot less money. Think 15 pounds would be enough to seed the tank with enough various life forms?

 

[james007wjs]

It will take longer for the rock to seed with only 15 lbs of live rock. The 65 lbs of live rock will be fine to seed the dead rock. Won't take as much time.

 

[Johney01]

I am not so much concerned with the time thing, doesent everything in this hobby require patience. My biggest concern is the diversity of life. How much of a different will there be between the 15 or the 65 pound option.

 

[wvdiscus]

I'm not sure the amount of weight in regards to live rock will determine how much of a diversity you will see. I had 66 lbs of baserock in a 55 and seeded it with about 10-15 lbs of live rock from a local fish store. That was back in Nov, and it's still not taken over yet, but I wasn't in a hurry. If you aren't in a hurry either and want to go with 15-20 lbs of a good, high quality LR, then I think the base rock will eventually have a good diversity to it. It will just take longer to achieve. I know a lot of people on here have had good luck with TBS live rock. I'm sure it's just an opion, but I would think 10lbs of high quality LR with a lot of live on it is better than 50 lbs of low quality LR. I could be wrong though.

 

[Johney01]

slight snag with the 15 pound option is that I am unsure the quality. Local fish stores here only dabble in the live rock so you have to be careful. My dead rock has looked better then some of the live stuff I saw at one store.

 

[NCreefwannabe]

LOL yeah ive seen better base rock than my local stores live. I would still say get more than 15#'s live for 170 dead. I understand patience but its going to take forever. Also having a nice dsb ready would help also, like some sand from a few peoples tanks to help kickstart that sucker.

 

[Paintbug]

the best option in my opinion is to get some LR online. you can get 45lbs boxes for $120 or less shipped to your door. 15lbs to seed 170lbs is going to take a while to seed the rock with the bacteria, even longer for the coralline to really show up.

 

[Johney01]

ohh man 45 pounds for 120 bucks, I can only dream of such prices. I pay 4.50 a pound plus 50 bucks shipping

 

[The Reefer91]

you can usually get deals online. here is some cheap rock

http://www.oceanproaquatics.com/shop/product_info.php/products_id/2128

for coralline growth, you can scrape coralline algae so it's spread into the water column

 

[murph1083]

do you normally put the live rock directly in the tank or can you put it in a fuge when seeding?

 

[Paintbug]

you need to put it in the display tank.