About to start my 55gal tank

Hi, I have a 55gal tank and just received my 100lbs order of dry fiji rock from marco rocks. I want to know, do I have to clean/soak the rock in some type of solution before I put it into the empty tank? I also have I think 40-80lbs of live sand that I bought from my lfs. I have read things about seeding my base rock and that is what I plan on doing, but I just want to make sure that I get the initial set up correct so I can cycle the right way. I am in no rush to put corals in that why I bought all of that dry fiji rock, but I just want to make sure that the dry rock will get seeded right. Let me know what I should do and thanks in advance for any help, it's truly appreiciated.

 

I would just rinse it off and throw the rock in. Also the live sand will seed the rock and it will become "live" over time.

 

HOLY CRAP! 100 lbs of marco rock in a 55. wowzers. When you stack your rock, make sure you have it semi open so the water can easilly flow through it. I think you'll have about half of your rock left over when you are done stacking.

 

Thanks for the tips on the rock. I guess I will be either setting up another tank or selling the rock. Froc3 said that the live sand will seed the rock, but does that include the algae growth (that purple stuff, coraline)?

 

Thats the way I started.. All dry rock, but 1 piece of live rock.. that was almost solid with purple coraline ... It takes a while, but now all my rock looks like it's been in my tank years.. Your water will more then likely be low in cal.
after your tank has cycled, and you are going good..
You may want to check it and bring it up to 440 ..
Purple coraline, is an hard algae that loves Cal. to grow, spread..
It's spreading to all my rocks..
Adding a raw shrimp or 2 will help with the cycle.. It did for me..

Welcome to 3 Reef .. !!!!

Good Luck, Larry

I also used base sand, with 15 lb. live sand on top.. my tank is around a 55 gal, with 3 inches or a little more of sand ...

 

I have a few pounds less than 100 in my 55. I used near half and half live rock/base rock to start. It's been about 5 months. I definitely have 'the purple stuff' spreading on the base rock - but it's still mostly just base rock. You can easily pick it out in my pics

Make sure when you're placing it that you're placing the rock on the bottom, not on the sand (don't want things burrowing underneath and causing a collapse or anything).

 

Here is how I am going to set my rock up. Any comments? Is it good, bad, should I change anything around? I measured everything twice and it will fit in perfectly. Should I place the rock in the tank before I do anything?

 

No responses?

 

Looks good, are you going to secure the rocks with something so you don't get a topple over?

 

I put them in the tank and they seem pretty secure. I put pressure on them and they didn't move anywhere. As of now I put the rock in the tank, bought 4 pounds of Live rock to seed the base rock, had my LFS bring me 60 gal of saltwater to fill up the tank and the 2 filters (Marineland emperor 400's) and 2 power heads (Hydor Koralia 4's) are running. The water is pretty cloudy, but from what I have read from the site, the sand will be floating in the water for a few days before it settles down to the bottom. Any suggestions at this stage would be very helpfull.