Question About Rocks

[Rott]

I live in South Florida and on a lake. The lake is filled with dead coral rock.
My question is can I use this kind of rock as a base rock? Ordoes it have to go through some kind of chemical process. I am new to this hobby and dont even have a tank yet. My friend is giving me his 200 gallon tank but he dosnt have anything in it. I dont want to spend $2000 on rocks to make it look nice so I am looking for more economical ways to build a base. Thanks

 

[Marc118]

Well your going to need LR, not to make it look nice but as a bio filter. I also dont want to spend $450 on 100lbs of LR, there are guides on the net on how to make and cure your own also.

 

[ryguy]

You'll be fine to use it AFTER it was cycled properly. All rock will become live with time. There is no magical living thing that makes live rock better than dead rock other than its precolonized bacterial population. The rock is used as a great form of bio-filtration because of its surface area from the inherent porosity. If you seed your tank with some LR, and add livestock very slowly, then you could get away with with using the rock you are talking about. It will however slow your setup process down quite a bit, but if cost is an issue, then go for it.

Base rock is available for fairly inexpensive too if you are worried about the curing process.

 

[Rott]

Yes i do plan on buying lr. Is there a formula for knowing how much lr i need? Like 1 pound per 1 gallon or something. Or is this just based on taste.

 

[ryguy]

well if you decide to go with 100% LR, then I recommend 1.5 Lbs per Gallon. After that is where personal taste comes into play. Depending on the porosity of the rock you chose, you may feel it doesn't take up enough space as you wanted, or it takes up almost too much space. If you plan on a sump, you can always throw any excess in there. 2 lbs per gal is recommended by many, but in my opinon, it can be too crowded if a porous rock is chosen.

Start with 1.5 and see where that gets you. If you plan on using base rock too, as was your original plan, then you still want to end up with a total weight of 1.5 to 2 lbs after mixing with some LR to seed it. The ratio of LR to DR is completely up to you and just depends on budget and patience.