Seeding dry rock with live rock

[Fishmas]

Any advice on seeding dry rock with live rock?

Setting up 130 gal tank with 50 gal sump. Too keep costs down i am going to use 100lbs dry rock and once tank is running was going to "seed it" with live rock rubble through out the dry rock formation and wait.

My lfs isgoing to provide me with 10 gal of water from his coral tank system to help start it up.

How much live rock would i need to succeed in doing this?
Anything else i should add?
How long might it take to be ready for cuc?
Any other thoughts?

Thanks

 

[shifty51008]

The more lr you get to seed the base rock the faster it will be. I like to go 70% base rock and 30% lr. The only way to know when the tank is ready though is to test. I would ghost feed daily to also help build up bacteria.

I wouldnt even worry about getting water from the fish store it isnt gonna do much, all the bacteria you want is in the rock and sand, so if the store wants to help ask for a cup or 2 of sand from their tank to seed yours.

 

[scooter31707]

+1^^^

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I went with 90% base rock and 10% live rock and cured it for two months. As mentioned, a scoop or two of live sand from the lfs will really help.

 

[NJAB]

On my set up i have about 60lbs of large dry base rock and dry sand that i let sit and cure in the 75 GAL for about 3 weeks then did a 90% water change (hard to get all the water for that 100%) and let it sit for another week and tested everything when everything was at zero I then did a transfer of everything from my old system which was a 30Gal and had about 30lbs of 2yr old seeded rock and transferred all 3 fish and coral with no loses or issues. Now the point of this story and I know some might disagree but if you have dry base rock that is no longer giving anything out as far as phosphates or ammonia then transferring over live seeded established rock, it will carry over enough of that beneficial bacteria to be able to sustain life, now here's the kicker if you using live rock that has not been cured or is not from a live system then you have to cure the rock and i would add the rock the same time as the dry base rock if it is established rock then i would say about 5-10lbs of seeded rock should have enough bacteria to spread and be able to sustain a CUC as long as you feed that CUC or have algae for them to eat as well.