how much live rock and live sand?

[sushicat]

how much would be good for a 34 nano cube? im just wondering
thanks
sushicat

[Ocellaris]

Matters how much open area you want. Many say 1 pound per gallon for most kinds of rock, others say 1.5 lbs per gallon. How deep do you want your sand? Some people believe in deep sand beds...like if you want to keep jaw fish and other critters that dig in the sand.

[sushicat]

im thinking off getting a RSM maybe 1.5 inch sand bed?

[cocoa_pleco]

i go 1lb of sand per gallon of water and 2-4lbs/g of live rock

[sushicat]

the package comes with argonite sand, so 2lbs of rock per gallon that will work out to $537 worth of LR =O

[cocoa_pleco]

the package comes with argonite sand, so 2lbs of rock per gallon that will work out to $537 worth of LR =O

for cheap live rock, people tearing down reefs will often post local ads selling LR for $3/lb

[sushicat]

indeed but it seems most people dont have marine aquariums around here.i've looked on every classified site,maybe i should join that aquarium society

[Ocellaris]

werd on the cheap live rock. Keep an eye out on craigslist, ebay if people are selling their entire tank email them about some live rock, or find reef clubs in your area.

I bought 40 lbs for sixty bucks with about 5 gallons of sand.

Then just today I picked up some fish, some shrimp, 2 magnum 350's, 1200 gph overflow and about 5 lbs of live rock to help my tank all for 150 bucks.

[sushicat]

where do you live ocellaris?

[Ocellaris]

Muscatine, Iowa

[sushicat]

i live in frigid cold winnipeg manitoba of canada lol everything is expensive here a ocellaris clownfish is 19.99

[Ocellaris]

That's not too bad for an ocellaris. It's when you get to the black and white ones or the tear drop ones where they get to the 40+ for each one.

[sushicat]

but they charge ridcoulous prices for lr 6.99 for 50lbs and over

[Ocellaris]

I have a huge US map on my bedroom wall, I'm going to need to get a canadian one to help me figure out where all these places are at you guys are talking about.

How is it I never hear of Nova Scotia or the other eastern provinces when I hear about Canada? It's always B.C. or Ontario. Sometimes Yukan (sp) or Saskatuon(sp), but I feel like an ignorant american when I don't know the general area of my neighbors to the north.

[sushicat]

many americans dont know about canada sadly but manitoba is inbetween saskatchewan and ontario and winnipeg is the capital of the province and its about a 4 hour drive to ND

[Halelorf]

It doesn't all have to be liverock. You can get dry base rock for very cheap (sometimes less than $1/lb). Got like 3/4 of your rock dry and get cured liverock for the rest and it will seed the dry rock and in a few weeks become liverock.

[sushicat]

good idea so i could buy 3/4 dry and 1/4 lr and wait about a month before any livestock goes in?

[Ocellaris]

I'll give you a little info about the live rock I ordered from Pet Solutions.

I ordered 45lbs of premium. Came 5 days instead of two. Cured in a tank for two months and only got this brown algae all over it. I mixed with with rock from an established tank about a month ago. Doesn't have the algae anymore (I added some blue legged hermit crabs to the tank) but doesn't have any other growth yet and it's been a total of 3 months.

You may add fish after it cures in a short while, but will take a lot longer for growth to happen on those pieces.

[sushicat]

ya im thinking of buying an established tank heres link to pic [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[Ocellaris]

Coco should be able to tell you how good deal that is. I wish I could, but I don't know what's in their and the conversion to canadian dollars.

[sushicat]

ya ty anyways i already pmed him ;)

[cocoa_pleco]

US and Canadian dollars are close. personally, i think that tank isnt worth 1.4k. not enough expensive corals or anything to make it that much

[Ocellaris]

I didn't think it was a good deal, but I didn't want to come out and say it and then totally be wrong with what was inside.

The Red Sea system itself goes for a little less than 800. I heard it does have everything but salt to maintain a great tank. I thought about getting one, but I wanted a bigger tank than the 55 I had.

[sushicat]

I'm probally end up making my own setup

[Tigerbarb]

Try floridaliverock.com
There, you can get 80 lbs of LR for $160.

[cocoa_pleco]

if you do go with florida rock, check it over for bad hitchhikers, florida rock has alot of them

[sushicat]

ya thats what i heard too i was gonna go with fiji (ive heard good things about it), what kind of hitchhiker are you refering too? nudimbranches?

[cocoa_pleco]

fireworms and other nasty stuff is known to be on florida rock. i like fiji and jakarta. tonga branch is good too but it is now banned

[sushicat]

=O omg i didnt know that all the lr at my lfs are fijian lol