How much live to make some dead come alive?!

[stonepran]

Welp, Gonna try turning about 20-30lbs of dead rock I have leftover from a previous tank into live.. I've got my bucket ready, air pump and stone, and just fiquring out how much live rock I need to seed this bucket.. any suggestions?
Thanks!!

 

[nm reef]

All it takes is a source of bacteria and time.....if you cure the "dead rock" with any amount of "live rock" it'll work. The more LR you use the quicker I'd think. But if you are wanting coraline to take over the "dead rock" then you'll need to reconsider your set-up....that would take circulation/lights...and proper calcium/alkalinity levels...and possibly more time.

 

[stonepran]

I'd like to just get the rock to a point where I could insert it into my tank, and then allow it grow further once its inside.. Guess I gota fiqure out what the point is, to allow it in :/

 

[nm reef]

That would be easy enough...just cure it in a seperate container same as you would newly purchased un-cured LR. Covered in water with some mild circulation and possibly low levels of lighting. Check the nitrite cycle and same as cycling a tank when ammonia/nitrite go to zero and nitrates level off then you could add it to your established system. I'd hesitate to add any LR than wasn't at the least partially cured. You could get away with small amounts of partially cured LR in a well established/mature system...but on a newly cycled system you may initiate a mini-cycle.