Beginner help for Saltwater aquarium

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thincat said:
Okay, you will need ~1-2lbs of LR for each gallon of water. ie if you have a 30 gallon tank you will need about 30 to 60 lbs of LR. Now LR is expensive so I would buy 10 lbs of LR and 30-40lbs of "Base Rock" (Dried or dead LR or DIY rock).
The best way to know what's going on in your tank is to test your water parameters, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate along with SG (salinity) and temp.
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Ok thank you. MY LR has cost me about 6 bucks a pound. How much is base rock usually if there is a general price. And what if i dont have the funds to buy it all at once. How do i know how many fish are safe to put in there. Should i just buy a nice chunk of rock every time i get a fish. If you need 30-60 Pounds of live rock what would be the point in only buying ten pounds LR and the rest base rock. What does the base rock due? does it act as a filter also. I apologize for so many questions.
 
Base rock is made of the same material as your LR except it is dried out and has no marine or bacteria life on it. It normally sells for less then 1/2 the price of Cured LR. In time (a matter of weeks) the bacteria will populate the base rock and it will become LR at that point. My Tank is made up almost 90% of DIY rock. There is a thread in the DIY section of this site with a good view of how to make your own DIY Rock.
 
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thank you. That should help my wallet a little bit. I remember reading on how to cure LR. Now you are saying you can cure it by just putting it in my tank this sounds a lot easier thank you
 
No, No you can't just put LR directly into a cycled tank. you can add fully cured LR or rinsed out base rock but not uncured LR which would either go into a new tank setup or cured in a seperate container.
 
thincat said:
No, No you can't just put LR directly into a cycled tank. you can add fully cured LR or rinsed out base rock but not uncured LR which would either go into a new tank setup or cured in a seperate container.
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Ok sorry i think i give up lol i am so lost. I dont get what base rock is. i thought it was uncured lr but guess not who knows. I am really overwhelmed by everything involved with fish keeping :confused:
 
ComMizz said:
Oh no don't be sorry its not you its me. Just between the whole cycling thing and now this i am so lost. I will figure it out eventually just hope my fish wont die.
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Maybe a quick explanation of how things stay balanced will help?
1-Ammonia is created from decaying organics.
2-Bacteria exist that eat this ammonia and poops out nitrites
3-Other bacteria exist that eat the nitrites and poop out nitrates
4-Still other bacteria exist that eat nitrates and poop out nitrogen gas

Anything within the marine ecosystem will become populated by bacteria that do all of the above. (Mine #4, those are a bit different and more rare)

All live rocks are, are objects that have a lot more surface area than others for holding the #1-3 bacteria. If you buy rocks that are dry, then none of those bacteria can be alive as they need water and food (ammonia, and nitrites) to live. If you buy rocks that are from a running system such as the ocean, then they are going to be populated. The bacteria will wind up on everything in the tank including rocks that were dry when added.

When you are cycling your tank, all you are doing is waiting for (and providing) the right conditions such that #1-3 bacteria can form to process anything that decays. (Poop, uneaten food, dead animals, ect).

So when mr fishy poops, he doesnt sleep in it. ;-) At the end of all this pooping (fish and the #1-3 ) you are left with nitrates. Eventually some bacteria will form to to turn the nitrates into a gas. (Some here are so elite that they do this efficiently :))

Now that you see how live anything processes your fish poop...

Base rock is usually dry rocks (no life, needs a bacteria source) but can also be trashy live rocks that people tend to bury in the sandbed and use as a foundation for their super spiffy rocks to sit upon.

Live rock:
1-Uncured: full of decaying whatnot
2-Cured: NO decaying whatnot.

Cured rock can become uncured if you leave it out of water or starve it of ammonia and nitrites.

The ideal route is buying all cured rock as it will be 100% ready for a fish. Poor people have to buy uncured rock and wait for it to become cured before adding fish. :)

People like me that live in places like trashcans cant even buy uncured. We buy dry rocks. :jump:
We bum some bacteria off someone via a small live rock or some sand from their tank and grab a snickers.

TO sum it all up...
Cured rock: No time to wait
Uncured rock: Got to wait for stuff to die off
Dry rock: Grab a snickers

Matt
 
Now I'm confused!!!!
img_1128902_0_71a88d80ed35d234b99949c9ed7de041.gif
 
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