how many pounds of live rock should i buy?
by Aquaboy on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 | 2 Comments
im getting a 24 gallon nano cube in a month or so and i was wondering how much live rock i should get? i don’t want it to be covered with live rock but i want enough to put a few corals on. and if u could direct me to a site where i can get good live rock from it would be greatly appreciated! im not really interested in damsel or clowns so if u could also give me some good fish ideas that will also be greatly appreciated! last question does the aquarium make a lot of noise or does it depend on what kind of filtration system you have?
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noise depends on filration system. damsels and clowns are best for beginners. i have an engineer goby but a 24 is too small as he’ll probably get to about 12 inches. i absolutely love my coral beauty angel and i think one would be fine in a 24g but angels pick at corals sometimes. i have 12 pounds (3 pieces) of live rock in my 36g. you should have atleast 8 lbs i’d say.
Purchasing liverock depends entirely on you. Several reef keepers do not like to purchase liverock for several reasons.
They fear bringing in potentially disastrous hitchhikers (whelks, parasites, isopods, stomapods, nuisance algaes, aiptasia, majano anemones, nudibranchs, and one unfortunate/fortunate member of Reef Central depending on your view point found an octopus!). There is always a question when you bring in liverock as to what could be lurking deep in those nooks and crannies.
There is also an ethical debate. See, there are several “liverock farms” where chunks of dead coral base that is no longer attached to the reef are either collected, or dropped into the water in beds to accumulate the micro and macro fauna that makes liverock live. However, there has also been a fear among reef keepers that taking this liverock is a detriment to the reef. Opinions vary.
As per ordering liverock, liverock is shipped dry, often wrapped in damp newspaper. While the humidity of the shipping box and the wet paper will keep most bacteria and small critters alive, sponges and more delicate species generally do not fair well traveling this way. In fact, it is often recommended that you NEVER allow sponges to be exposed to the air, they can be that delicate. What this means is that no matter how well they pack your rock and no matter how well they ship….. stuff is going to die over the few hours journey from vendor to you. It’s going to rot when it hits your tank, which will cause an ammonia spike and a cycling like situation. Some reefkeepers do not purchase or order liverock to avoid this. Personally, I just buy liverock in person when I chose to, so I can take a big whiff of the rock (*rock with decaying matter on it smells like an estuary at lowtide, while rock that is well cycled and mature will smell like saltwater and nothing else)
I, personally, have my own reason for not buying liverock online and only buying it in person aside from that. If you buy online, there are rarely eye-it-and-buy-it options. Meaning the rock you get will depend on the person packing your boxes. You may end up with absolutely fabulous or absolutely dismal pieces (*boulders and other round rocks without any intriguing shapes are dismal, IMHO)
After that, there is a question of price! Liverock can be quite expensive.
So, depending on your taste, you can do a few things.
1.) You can buy all liverock. If you do this, I would recommend liveaquaria.com or saltwaterfish.com buy shop around. These two sites just have a fairly good standing among the private market as being fairly reliable for speed and quality.
2.) Purchase only a small portion of actual liverock and a portion of baserock. Most reef shops sell baserock for a much, much, much lower price than liverock. Exposed to liverock for an ample period of time, it will eventually pick up the same micro and macro fauna that make it live. I like this option, personally. But, then again, the most reasonably priced yet best quality reef store in my area sells liverock for about $7.99 to $12.99 a pound (depending on type) and all baserock for $3.99 a pound.
3.) Buy all base rock. Find a good friend who already has a well established tank in excellent health with no sign of any unsavory hitchhikers such as aiptasia or majano anemones, et. all, particularly one with a sump. Ask very nicely if you can put a couple of your pieces of base rock in their tank, sump, or refugium (*depending on what the best fit is) and allow your liverock to soak up the micro and macrofauna there.
As per estimates and rules of thumb, there is a reef going estimate that you should have 1lb of liverock for every 1 gallon of water. However, if you do the math and then see just how little liverock that really is, you’d be surprised. Liverock is quite heavy, even weighed dry. I picked up a few small pieces of baserock the other day and was astonished to find it weighed a little over 3 lbs! If you really want coral, you’re going to need room and substrate for it to grow and expand, especially the more popular “beginners” corals such as zoanthids, star polyps, mushrooms and rics, etc. So, beyond your initial estimate, add as much as you want to create the aquascape you want, bearing in mind to leave ample room between corals so they can grow and spread without the threat of rival corals sending out toxins, sweeper tentacles, mesenterial filaments (acontia) or acrorhagi.