Live rock

steelermags · Jan 23, 2012

New to the hobby and just purchased a 125 gallon reef tank. I fired up the sump with skimmer and have the system running well. Interested to get feedback on where, what, and how much live rock I should consider purchasing. Any thoughts and suggested would be appreciated as I am a ROOKIE in this for sure.

Thanks!

tigger · Jan 23, 2012

I am new too, but I have always been told rule of thumb is a lb. for every gal. Hope this might help.

steelermags · Jan 23, 2012

Thansk! What type of live rock do you have and where did you purchase it?

WhisperinLoudly · Jan 23, 2012

check with your local fish shop, if they sell marine fish they prpbably sell live rock

strange33w · Jan 23, 2012

I have gotton some from live aquaria and saltwaterfish.com before. Also premium aquatics sells it online and there is a few others. I usually get the bulk of mine online and then get some nicer pieces from the LFS.

Mufasa31 · Jan 23, 2012

amount of live rock you need varies by type of rock (generally 1 to 1.5 lbs per gallon)
you can use a combination of live rock and dry rock to save some money. I have purchased dry rock from Bulk Reef Supply and Marco Rocks.

Raggamuffin · Jan 24, 2012

I don't know how many times I have said this, I don't get tired of telling new folks this either

the LBS. per GAL. rule is bubkis, complete and utter garbage. Personal examples that I have done in my tanks so feel 100% justified in stating is that it depends one what kind of rock, wet? dry? who sold it?

I have gotten rock from many sources over the years, Liveaquaria and premiumaquatics tend to be good solid sources for rock, you can expect 1-2 lbs per gallon from those guys on most of thier stuff. tampabaysaltwater I had no problem fitting 50lbs into a 20gal tank and have never seen more alive rock in my life. BRS pukani dry rock, I bought 30 lbs of that for a 40g tank and it FILLED edge to edge, top to bottom a 40g tank... I ended up useing 1/2 of it and still have a bit much rock for a 40.

In short it depends on what type of aquascape you want and what type you get and from who before we can give you a real answer since only you can decide that.