Starting a 75gal sw tank

[Devo56]

I'm going to start my 75 gal sw tank this weekend I have been reading and reading and reading seems like for ever now, but how much live rock should I use to start the tank and how much sand? Thank you

 

[carey]

I'd say 75lbs of sand and between 75 and 110lbs of rock. You can get mostly base rock and just a portion of LR to save on costs.

 

[tjm80]

Depends on how much sand you want. I've got about a 80-90 lbs or so of live sand in my tank.

As far as LR goes are you wanting to use it to cycle your tank? Again, just what I did - but I have about 90-100 lbs of rock in my tank. About half of it was purchased as cured LR and the rest was base rock. Base rock is about half the price at worst, sometimes it's cheaper than that even. But the general rule of thumb for a reef tank is 1.5-2 lbs per gallon of rock.

 

[Devo56]

Ok thank you

 

[thominil]

It really depends on how deep of a sand bed, typically people use 1-1.5 inches deep from what I have seen, which would put you in the 80-100lb. range. As for rock, it depends on how dense the rock is. If you go by 1.5-2lbs. per gallon with figi rock, your tank will be full of rock with no swimming room. As Carey said, use base rock to save money. Texas holey rock is a good base, tjm's rule of thumb would work perfectly for this stuff because it's dense. Just use 5-10lbs. of actual live rock to help seed the base rock with algae and hitch hikers, be sure to inspect it for aiptasia and planaria before it goes into the tank though. Hope this helps. Welcome to AA!