Live Rock Vs. Dry Base Rock

Man, I've done this time & time again. Some of the guys on here have been hittin' the sauce a little early today (lol) ;D
I had live rock, about 50# in a 55g Rubbermaid with a light & heater. The rubbermaid had about 3" of sand at the bottom. In my 90g I put down about 3 or so inches of regular aragonite sand. Topped that sand off with the sand in the rubbermaid (good rinse with water-change water).
I then put down the dry base rock that I soaked in water for a coupla weeks, then sprayed off with a garden hose. On top of that, I sculpted with some of the LR & dry rock for a total of about 100 or so Lbs.
I took parameters and let it sit a coupla days. Then tossed in about 6 cubes of frozen food. That was March 19th.
Within 4 wks, all parameters were zeroed out except nitrate. I turned on the lights, MH 5hrs, PC 6 hrs. I threw in snails & cerinths. Gave a little pinch of flakes once a week.
At the end of the first week of May, I started adding coral. 2 or 3 at a time....wait 5 or so days and add more, etc. GHA this past week but hasn't returned (yet).
Turning on skimmer this week. Gradual increase in photoperiod....blah!blah! blah!
Never tried MarcoRocks but everyone seems to swear by his service. I've used BRS & they are very good also. You should really give John from ReefCleaners dibs on your CUC. He's excellent & one of our sponsors.

 

I think you may have been hittin the sauce a bit late, bud. ;D

 

Hic!

 

Question for Marlinman.

I know this is an old thread, but I have a question for marlinman Post #8.

I see 15 fish in your tank. How big is the tank? Don't you have ammonia there? I would love to have so many fish. As of now I have 1 fish per 10 gallons max.

 

If you look at his signature he has a 210 gallon. but 1 per 10 gallons isn't the best rule it would be better to go by how many inches the fish are. 10 gobies are different than 10 tangs for an example.

 

Live

I was not sure if the picture shows the 210G tank. The clowns looked somehow big for 210. That's why I asked.

 

There are a few considerations that go into determining inches of fish per tank dimensions. If the fish require swimming room, like tangs--you have to consider that first. If the fish are of the light bioload variety (firefish, some smaller wrasses), then you can go much heavier if you have a sump that adds, say, twice the volume.

So for example, a 20 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump might accomodate twice the "accepted" bioload of fish--IF the fish are light bioload contributors. But a 55 gallon tank, even with a 120G sump (wildly ridiculous example for illustrative sake) can't house any more heavy bioload than the same tank with no sump, if heavy bioload fish are in the mix.

HTH.

 

(new forum guy) I just recently set up a 50 gallon reef with all dry 'reef rocks'

I'll be happy to post progress, pics, etc. if anybody is still interested, or following this thread........I am doing a transfer (very slowly) from a 36g Solana cube.........seeded the new dry sand recently from the Solana cube about 8 days ago.......slowly ramping up the halide/vho lighting.........dpg