How much LR to start cycle?

[superherogirl]

How much live rock should I use to start the cycle?

This will be for a 46 gallon bow front...I plan to have a 2 - 3 inch live sand substrate.

The only planned filtration so far is a protein skimmer and a hob filter (in addition to the live sand and the 40 pounds of live rock).

 

[lando]

If you plan on using the LR for biological filtration you should have 1.5 - 2 lbs per gal. Eighty pounds would be good to start. However, I only started with 20 lbs in a 40 gal to get things going. I slowly added the rest a little at a time from the cured stock at the LFS until I was up to where I needed to be. But if you can afford it, go for all of the LR at the begineing of cycling your tank. great deals on-line. That is the way I would have gone had I know about all of the opportunities on-line

 

[superherogirl]

i've gotten mixed reviews from articles i've read. I have plans for 50 lbs of LR. This will give me about a pound and a quarter for every gallon of water. Plus it will save me some $$$ if i order it online...50 lbs is the smallest and cheapest bulk order in which they'll pay for shipping. And hearing some people say to add it in small quantities to a new tank would kind of defeat the purpose of ordering the 50 lbs at the same time.

 

[fishfreek]

If you have the money go ahead and order all the rock at once. Use this rock to cycle the tank. Getting more rock at a later date will cause you to have to cure the rock seperate from your tank.