How to grow live rock organisms

[NoahLikesFish]

Alright so in my tank I’m going to be using dive direct submerged LR, how do I make the least die off and let the populaturn of my organisms grow. I will have a 75-110g filter a heater then 2 t5HO bulbs

 

[elorablue]

Love you man!

 

[NoahLikesFish]

will I need anything else to grow the hitchhikers. I want to have a lot of inverts macros and things covered on my Lr before I add fish

 

[NoahLikesFish]

I will get baking soda and a bag of crushed coral for calcium and magnesium and I will get like a Xenia as a indicator coral, I’m going to add a bit of fish probably (mabye bass) so I don’t just get a explosion of stuff in my tank.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

I’m gonna mabye buy a ro unit just to make life easier for water changes so I can do 30% wc daily for 1st week then I will do 30% every other day in the other day I dose prime and every day I will dose phyto

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Will this work to start the tank up? I am debating wether to do 45 or 25 lbs of Lr. I’d get more stuff if I did 45 lb and more filtration and biodiversity and hiding places for all the fish like gobies and blennies I want to get

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Crushed coral won't help you unless the pH gets very low. How big is the tank? Cure the live rock in a bucket or a few buckets so your water changes are not killer. Should only take a few days and most don't even worry about die off.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

20 long. I want to preserve as much life as possible

 

[NoahLikesFish]

A 20 long would be easiee to do wc on imo and I can observe it. I’m gonna get one of the cheap ro units and I could do a 6g wc every day for 1 week then the next week every other day so like 70g and then have 130 to use and if I did a 50% wc every month 25% every 2 weeks thay would last me several Months before I change the filter

 

[happyhourhero]

If it’s direct and shipped submerged, you won’t see much die off.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

25 lbs should be plenty. Getting it shipped wet is key

 

[NoahLikesFish]

My hope is by that time my tank will be established enoguh to not require all too frequent water changes

 

[NoahLikesFish]

25 lbs should be plenty. Getting it shipped wet is key

Would 45 be better though? I want to make like a rocky bed in my tank covered in random stuff

 

[NoahLikesFish]

I’m probably going to just get a ammonia and nitrate and ph test because I don’t think I will need to do too much measuring of like calcium alk and mag because I can tell from looking at my critters If I need more

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Should I use the water the LR comes with to match parameters in the gulf?

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Im getting the salty bottom south seas dive direct lr special which comes airline

 

[NoahLikesFish]

It’s south seas and was put There in the 90s I think

 

[NashobaTek]

Would 45 be better though? I want to make like a rocky bed in my tank covered in random stuff

Honestly it's going to depend on the size of the rocks, 45 pounds of large rocks is different from 45 pounds of little rocks.

 

[happyhourhero]

Here’s 1 rock shy of a 17 pound box in a 20 long I just got yesterday.

 

[LRT]

The amount of die off you end up with will depend on how long rock is out of water. Your total cycle time will also depend on this.
If your going direct ocean to tank i wouldn't expect much if any cycle and die off.
The kind and intensity of lighting will depend on what is on rock and what intensity will be needed to keep that particular life alive.