jmmiller. There are many schools of thought but i would highly recomment at least 1 lb per gallon. 75 - 100 lbs would be great for you.
LR is such a great natural filter and it doesn't produce the nitrates like bio-balls and other methods tend to. If you get your
LR from the right place, you can add it all at one time, but I would recommend doing good size water change, 15% or so, about 2 days after placing the
lr in the tank. For example, if you order from
www.liverocks.com, their rocks is shipped so quickly and packaged so well, that you can put it direcly in your tank and your fish will be fine. Just do the water change 2 days after and check your ammonia levels for a week or so, if they go up a little (which i doubt) another water change should take care of it. You may even wish to get your
LR at a
LFS, this is ok, but be SURE it was fully cured (make sure you trust the
LFS's answer).
If you get you
LR from somewhere else, you will likely need to "cure" it for about 2 weeks before you put it in your tank.
IMO, go with liverocks.com, call and talk to Mike, tell him exacly what size pieces you are looking for and he'll get you setup.
Let me know if you have any other ?'s.
Jim
