well im trying yo cut some budget corners and have a GSP 29g tank at sg.016, im going to be gone for 5 weeks and im trying to explain water changes in a brachish tank the person taking care of my tanks. my thought was to go full marine and get the skimmer live sand ect. but live rock is spendy, and from what i have read its the sustrate that does the most. so my main question is could u buy some live culters to make my oregon lava rock come alive(im not going to have any inverts any way cause thay would be an expencive lunch for my puffer) i have 3 chunks in there now for my nitrogen cycle, but has any one done this in a full SG?
cheap live rock
- Thread starter festerfish
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Couple things. Lava rock...makes for ****ty rock. Its one of the slowest "saltwater" rocks to get "cultured".
Second...high quality LR is the basis for all of my sucess in reefing. I seriously believe that. I bought my rock off a guy, and the system has been running for 8 years. I have a berlin system (skimmer, powerheads, water changes are the only filtration) and water quality could not possibly be better. Why? Because I have real, high quality rock. I am of the opinion that even the florida farmed stuff is ****. People that I know that have had the best luck by a small ammount of high quality rock:
http://liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=393
And then fill in the rest of their tank with base rock which is much cheaper. Aquaria is not a hobby to get into if you are all about cutting corners. Sooner or later you bite the bullet on expensive stuff. Thats a fact. What you pay for is what you get...and that especially holds true in saltwater aquaria. Save some money, do it right the first time, and avoid the headaches of poor equipment later on.
Second...high quality LR is the basis for all of my sucess in reefing. I seriously believe that. I bought my rock off a guy, and the system has been running for 8 years. I have a berlin system (skimmer, powerheads, water changes are the only filtration) and water quality could not possibly be better. Why? Because I have real, high quality rock. I am of the opinion that even the florida farmed stuff is ****. People that I know that have had the best luck by a small ammount of high quality rock:
http://liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=393
And then fill in the rest of their tank with base rock which is much cheaper. Aquaria is not a hobby to get into if you are all about cutting corners. Sooner or later you bite the bullet on expensive stuff. Thats a fact. What you pay for is what you get...and that especially holds true in saltwater aquaria. Save some money, do it right the first time, and avoid the headaches of poor equipment later on.
thanks, ya i saved the link. for a 29g GSP tank how much LR should i get? do you have deep sand filtration with an anarobic bio filter that converts nitrates into nitrogen gas?
http://liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=393
And then fill in the rest of their tank with base rock which is much cheaper. Aquaria is not a hobby to get into if you are all about cutting corners. Sooner or later you bite the bullet on expensive stuff. Thats a fact. What you pay for is what you get...and that especially holds true in saltwater aquaria. Save some money, do it right the first time, and avoid the headaches of poor equipment later on.[/QUOTE]
http://liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=393
And then fill in the rest of their tank with base rock which is much cheaper. Aquaria is not a hobby to get into if you are all about cutting corners. Sooner or later you bite the bullet on expensive stuff. Thats a fact. What you pay for is what you get...and that especially holds true in saltwater aquaria. Save some money, do it right the first time, and avoid the headaches of poor equipment later on.[/QUOTE]
I would basically eyeball it. If you want a reef tank, I would go heavy 20-30# LR...At least 10-15# of wich should be high quality if you go with 30# overal in yoursetup. The rest you can get locally or FL farmed...or just use the tufa rock which I find "colonizes" (not in your lifetime will it ever become high quality LR) faster than the lava rock, which is dense...and never does.