How much live rock for 125 gallon aquarium.

karaim

I am setting up a reef tank. I am getting either a 125 or 150 gallon.

How much live rock do I need?

Approximately how much does live rock cost?

I also heard some people use dead rock. What is this? Is this a viable alternative? What else can I use?

Sorry, I am new to this.

Oh and 1 more question. Do I have to cure the live rock myself or can I buy it cured? If I have to cure it, how long does it take?

Quaddity

The general recommendation is 1 to 1.5 lbs per gallon. Live rock starts at about $3 a lb if you get a good deal up to $10 or more a lb. You can find deals on Craigslist too where people are dismantling a big salt tank and get it for cheaper.

Dead rock is dried out live rock or other suitable rock like Tufa that you can put into the aquarium with some live rock and it will become "live" after some time. I don't know what a good combination of live vs dead rock would be for a 125 gallon. Other people will chime in and let you know how much base "dead" rock you should use with some live rock to seed it with.

You can buy rock uncured, paritally cured, or cured. Uncured/partially you'll have to cure it even cured will have a die off and need some curing if you have it shipped to you.
There's a ton of articles about curing here's one:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/liv...curelrinaq.htm

karaim

Thanks for the reply.

I am thinking of using about half live rock and half dead rock. I have read that one shouldn't put in all the rock at once into an aquarium, but rather do it in stages. Should I buy all the rock at once and put it in the aquarium, or should I buy half and than another half a few weeks later, or a third, then a third and then another third???

What about live sand? Can I put in live in live sand and rock together?

onefish2fish

half and half is a decent ratio on live and dead rock, its going to take a few months for the "dead rock" to seed itself with life
as long as there are no fish/inverts in your tank, you can add all of the live rock at once. the reason people do alittle here alittle there is because even cured live rock will have some die off and when its put into your tank it makes your tank cycle.. if you already have a fish only tank thats cycled, you want to be careful because your tank will cycle all over again killing its inhabitants.
i personally would put down a layer of eggcrate tile-ing ( the white plastic squares for lighting fixtures sold in sheets at Home Depot for around $10/sheet ) to help distribute out all of the weight of the rock and more importantly cushion the rocks incase there is an accidental avalanche, i would then fill the tank with a R/O water already mixed w/ salt ( in a day or 2 atleast advance ) and make sure your salt content is good to support your new rock. all sorts of things are living on those rocks and you dont want to kill off alot of it due to a high or low salt concentration. i would then get my rock and using a bucket of salt water scrub it with a clean brush ( the live stuff i would just do a light brush and the base rock id give a decent scrub ) after that i would do my rock formation in my tank how i please then add live sand in around the rock to help secure it into place (i personally would do atleast 1lb live sand per 1 gallon of water) then let your tank sit.
i strongly suggest not rushing anything and doing as much as research as you can possibly handle, it will only save you many headaches and "wallet-aches" - goodluck

Pasfur

vtguy09 -

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