Live rock and sand

[KDDG]

We are ready to start adding live rock and sand to our 300. We have been out of the hobby for a while and we are having trouble deciding how much we need.

I am curious if you large tank folks would share how many pounds per gallon of rock you added and how many pounds per gallon of sand you added? Please add any other insight you feel was important to your selection.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Nanook]

I would go with the 1lb per gallon rule as it is pretty close to perfect. Some people prefer more rock and some prefer less rock, individual preference really.

As for sand, do you want to do a DSB? If so, you are looking at a 4" DSB that is capable of denitrification and you would need approximately 500-600lbs of sand depending on the dimensions of your tank. If you are going with a shallow sand bed (SSB), then you will only want about 1 inch of sand in the bottom of the tank.

 

[Ed Reef]

Used the RC calculator to see how much sand you need to buy once you decided on how deep/ type of sand used, etc

 

[KDDG]

I did not realize there was a calculator on RC. We plan to run a SSB and I prefer a little less rock. I want an open scape and I want to leave plenty of room for the SPS to grow. Thanks. This really helped. We decided to go with a slightly over 1 lb per gallon for rock and if we then feel we need more, we can always add.