Live Rock Question

[youknow2025]

I was wondering what y'all buy! Currently I have 24.7lbs of live rock in my 37 gallon. I need more of course, but I don't know if I should continue buying from lfs at $5 per pound. I saw on a thread somewhere that someone purchased sea base rock or some kind of other rock online for $1.49 per pound including shipping! I am kinda leaning towards buying online what do y'all think?

 

[thominil]

$5 a pound for live rock is great IMO. I got mine for around $8 a pound. Base rock is a cheaper alternative to live rock that will become live over time. Your current live rock would seed the base rock with bacteria, algae, and whatever hitchhikers came with your live rock. Either option is fine, your money, your choice.

 

[nxb161]

It really depends on the live rock you're getting for $5/lb. If you can get it locally for that price and it looks good (i.e. coraline algae, hitchhikers..etc) then I'd splurg for that price. If its just LR w/ basic bacteria and nothing special about it, then I say go for the base rock.

 

[Salty-Fish]

It really depends on the live rock you're getting for $5/lb. If you can get it locally for that price and it looks good (i.e. coraline algae, hitchhikers..etc) then I'd splurg for that price. If its just LR w/ basic bacteria and nothing special about it, then I say go for the base rock.

I bought my 100# of live rock for $3 a pound off of CL. It was good quality rock. No hitchhickers. I like doing that because I hand picked every rock in my tank.

That is all this guy does is buy tanks, breaks them down, and sells parts. he collects live rock in 6 100 gallon tanks and sells the live rock like that.

 

[youknow2025]

If I am correct its Fiji rock or something in that sort, and I get lots of interesting hitchhikers.
Thats pretty cool, but I enjoy the excitement of hitchhikers so I think I am going to stick with my lfs. I didn't know it was that good of a buy!

 

[ryshark]

If I am correct its Fiji rock or something in that sort, and I get lots of interesting hitchhikers.
Thats pretty cool, but I enjoy the excitement of hitchhikers so I think I am going to stick with my lfs. I didn't know it was that good of a buy!

You enjoy the hitchikers until you come across isopods, various types of algae, fire worms, spider crabs, gorilla crabs etc... then you won't enjoy it as much. But really, you already have 25lbs you don't want to put any more than 20-more pounds TOPS. Its best to leave room for corals to grow and to have good flow with no dead spots. Is there a minimum of the base rock you have to buy for $1.49? If not, then I'd go with about 15lbs of a good quality porous not dense, base rock. But if you have to buy a minimum amount of base rock then the price could almost be the same as buying 15lbs of live rock.

 

[youknow2025]

Oh okay so sounds good. I only planned to do my aquarium pound per gallon. I just didn't want to spend too much money!