Amount of live rock

[blalaw87]

Good Evening,

I am getting my new Red Sea 425XL delivered and picking it up on Friday. I am looking at using live rock right now instead of dry rock. My question though is how much live rock. Should I just start with a couple pieces to seed the tank with bacteria and use dry rock for the rest or just do all live rock if I can?

Also I have read in some places that it can be harder to aquascape with live rock than dry rock instead of the dry stuff since it is alive. I was think about maybe 80 lbs of live rock and then fill in the rest like islands and such with so dry rock pieces where I think it might be needed.

Thanks!

 

[Azedenkae]

Good Evening,

I am getting my new Red Sea 425XL delivered and picking it up on Friday. I am looking at using live rock right now instead of dry rock. My question though is how much live rock. Should I just start with a couple pieces to seed the tank with bacteria and use dry rock for the rest or just do all live rock if I can?

If you can do all live rock and prefer it, then yeah all live rock. But a few pieces of live rock + the rest dry rock works too, either/or.

Also I have read in some places that it can be harder to aquascape with live rock than dry rock instead of the dry stuff since it is alive.

I am not sure about this. Rock is rock, you can stack them however you want. Unless it is about gluing the rocks together, then I guess sometimes people argue it is harder to glue live rock because they may not get the surface but stuff on the live rock, and/or they don't want live rock out of the water. Or maybe they see something living on a piece of live rock and want to keep it alive. Sure. But overall aquascaping is the same.

I was think about maybe 80 lbs of live rock and then fill in the rest like islands and such with so dry rock pieces where I think it might be needed.

Yeah that works.

 

[mdb_talon]

I do think it is harder to aquascape live rock because of the gluing and because you are a lot more rushed....cant do a piece or two and then think on it for a day and stuff like that.

Having said that in my opinion it is more than worth it for a little extra planning and work.