First Post

[jim_green_]

Hello. First post here. Been reading for a while.. Just getting back into the hobby.. been gone for years..
Just got my 75 gallon filtering for the time. Picking up the LR over the weekend.
Question is, do i soak it in cold water or just put it in the tank ?

 

[jdragunas]

you can just put the LR right in the tank. Actually, soaking it in cold water could kill the living things on the rock.
Welcome to the boards!!!

 

[jim_green_]

are there more 'good' things that come along with the LR compared to 'bad'
a friend of mine suggested that i soak the LR in cold water to make sure i kill everything, cuz he had a hitch hiker that was killing his fish.. dont quite remember what he had..

 

[pfitz44]

Welcome!!!
If you want to kill everything on the rock.. go ahead!! but that would kinda defeat the purpose of buyimng LR, right???
I got ~30 lbs in mine... no bad hichikers!!! all my fish love it too.... it will be fine... worst comes to worst, you can always trap a bad hitchhicker!!!
~Fitzy

 

[jdragunas]

yes, there are such thing as bad hitchikers, but if you're worried about that, don't waste your $$$ on live rock. The point of live rock is that it's live... if you kill everything on it, then it's pointless. You can get base rock (dry dead rock) for much cheaper. But LR is much better for your tank. It has many many more good qualities than bad (and the chances of getting a bad hitchiker aren't that high).
Your friend probably had a mantis shrimp. Those can wreck havock in a tank, but can also be caught and removed...

 

[jim_green_]

roughly how much LR am i looking at picking up for a 75 gallon tank ? 30 lbs ?

 

[jdragunas]

they say it's good to have about 1-2x's your water volume in LR... so IMO, 75-150lbs would be good, but you don't necessarily NEED that much, if you have a good filter!

 

[milomlo]

You can also do 1/2 live rock and 1/2 base rock. I have a 29 gal tank and I have 15 lbs lr and 15lbs base rock.
That will save you a little money

 

[jdragunas]

 

[peter1215]

if you put 1-2x's your eater vlomue in LR , wouldnt that leave hardly no psace for larger fish to swim. I also have a new 75g and I'm reluctant to put so much rock becuase i like the larger fish such as angels and tangs .

 

[unleashed]

a gal of water weighs 8 lbs but that does not mean a rock of 8 lbs will take up the same volume of space.the density of a rock will vary the desity of water will not. its measured by cubic inches not just the weight.

 

[jdragunas]

ok, for an example i'll attach a pic of my tank. I have a 55g tank with roughly 90lbs of LR... doesn't look overcrowded with LR does it?
now, mind you, this is just a general rule of thumb. It can really vary. For example, say you have two pieces of LR. One is really porous, and the other isn't. the porous rock will weigh less, so it will take less weight of porous rock to fill up a tank. Maybe 60 lbs of really porous rock will fill up what 90lbs of unporous rock will.