how to stack live rock?

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KMyers18

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Sep 21, 2004
Messages
331
Location
central florida
Im setting up a 20gal. reef this weekend and i have never delt with LR before. I have 125gal. SW tank that i have had for about 10 months but there is no LR in it only FAKE coral and LR. I have seen a lot of very pretty reef tanks that look so well laid out and full do these people put the stuff in there like that or do those tanks just grow that way over time.
 
Not 100% on your question.... LR dose not grow corals do.... So I will answer that I have bought small corals and over time they have grown to fill in the open areas of my tank. Some people with $$$ buy big corals right away and fill in areas of there tanks. Most people I know buy medium to small corals and over time they will grow. If your tank takes off you may be fragging and selling some of your corals in a year of two. Right now my Kenya Tree corals help pay for lights, food and other corals because they produce so fast. I'm trading with a LFS for stuff I need.
 
I guess my real question was how much LR do you put in a tank and some of the corals at my LFS are allready on LR so do you just stack it how ever it will stay??
 
Since your starting fresh, you should sit down and literally draw out your aquascape IMHO. This will give you an idea of how you want the tank to look style-wise (Will there be fish? Most reef fish like lots of nooks and crannies to hide in..) Once you have that, you can determine whats best as far as large, small, med pieces etc. For ex you may not be able to see from mypics, but my galaxea coral sits on top of a cool little LR bridge. Do you want the left and right sides to flange? 1 straight line of rock? Theres really no wrong or right about what size or shape (Just keep it off the glass ; ) ) Keep in mind you can buy a couple large chucks of LR and take a hammer/chisle to them and 'customize' them however you want..Kind of an advanced skill, but too many folks go looking for the 'perfect' piece, when all they had to do was knock a chunk off of what they already had. As for coral, most I have seen come on a pretty small piece of rock or have thier own base (calcium discharged by the coral). In any case, you should consider this in building your aquascape and leave a little shelf here and there. If you know what you want already, then you should have a pretty good idea of what to leave open where. (some corals need to placed higher up for lighting some down low some in direct current, some in very little current, etc.) Worse comes to worse, once you place it, its not too overly uncomfortable to simply...re-arrange it ; ) remember, its your tank, git-r-done the way you like..
GL
 
best practice is to buy live rocks from your local fish store. and only buy a couple pieces at a time. from experience, buying from online is a bad idea since not all pieces fit together.

when you buy from a lfs, you get exactly what you want. and be picky about it.
 
Something that helped me picture what I want in my head.... going through the user picture galleries here. There is a section for full tank shots.
 
actually if you order from liverocks.com adn tell Mike that you've got a new tank with no LR already in it, he picks the right sizes and shapes of pieces to help you build a good rock pile.
 
Ruffly how many pounds do you want to put in a 20 high? You reef guys know all that stuff. Im going to be using a hang on fillter and there will only be 2 small fish. I will have a 24'' JBJ light with 130watts. And 30lbs of live sand. Does all this sound good so far ????? ( sorry no real clue ) :)
 
To confuse you even more, I had the opposite experience as piggybank2005. I started with LR from my LFS, but then realized how much better quality the LR was when I bought online. Also, the LR was much cheaper online, too. I guess it all depends on your LFS. I bet if you email LR.com and draw what you want, they'll probably get it as close as they can for you.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. :D
 
I am in the same dilemma now too. I just picked up 30lbs of Fiji at lunch time ran home put it in the tank and tried a quick design but didnt have the time. I really need to get at least 50lbs more but I really want to get out of here (work) and get home to mess with it. Man I didnt think it would be so addicting. I feel like a crackhead or something.....
 
be friends with your lfs man!

i am sure you can get good stuff from buying rocks online. hellz, in fact, lfs buy rocks online themselves and then resell them.

but nothing beats picking out the rocks you need and ONLY the ones you need.
 
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