How much live rock needed to seed 60 pounds of dry rock and other questions

[piao liang yu]

new setup, how much live rock to spread to my dry rock?
A friend of mine got a 55 gallon that has old dry rock (the previous owner said it has sat for two years) There is 60 pounds according to what was told (i have not seen it) How much live rock should he buy to go with it to start the curing process for the dry rock? For instance, if he only got five pounds of live rock to go with the 60 pounds of dry rock how long will it take to all be viable?

Also, If he got a pair of clown fish, could he just have the anemones on just the live rock or does all the rock have to be live before he adds corals? one more thing, he plans to get a quad t5ho light. i assume that is good enough for most corals? one more thing, what should he do with the dry rock to prepare it for the tank? since it has been sitting for two years are there any precautions he needs to address?

 

[piao liang yu]

i have also posted this in the getting started forum. Neither place has received any replies/responses. Here or there. what forum do I need to ask these questions to get answers?

 

[JustinKBreen]

Live rock means there is life on it... You would be fine with just 5 pounds of live rock. Over time it will all be "live." You still need to cycle the tank so over that time the live rock will seed the dry rock. I forget the ratio, but in my tank I had more dry than live rock and it is thriving. Nems require stable conditions and should wait 8-12 months and get past those initial diatom bloom problems. Otherwise nems dont care, theyll set uo residency where they want

 

[Bectan01]

+1 on waiting to add an anemone. They need established tanks that have stable water parameters. I believe a 4 bulb t5 is not enough (that was my personal experience before I upgraded to LEDs) also just be aware that clownfish do not need an anemone although the symbiotic relationship is pretty awesome. Do plenty of research also as to what type of clowns host different types of nems. A lot of people buy nems and the clowns never go near them, particularly tank bred clowns. If this tank is going to be a reef then aim for 1-2 pounds per gallon of rock and it doesn't really matter if its live or not (live can make a cycle faster) but all rock will become live over time