Lr-ls

[mlt]

I am switching over from a 75 gal tank to a new 125 gal tank.
I am going to use my LS/LR from old tank but need to add more
to the new tank. I was told that I can just use plain marine sand
and pourous rock and that it will turn into live rock and sand, How
long does this take? Right now I have about 50-60 lbs. rock and
25-30 live sand. How much more do I need to add.

 

[karajay]

Welcome to swf.com
How deep is your sand bed? How deep do want it in the new tank? Any aragonite-based play sand will work. I would add that first and lay yours on top.
I think about another 75-80 lbs. of rock. Might take a few months for base rock to get some good life.

 

[thomas712]

Welcome to the board.
Plane old porous rock and marine sand? Well what have you got for live sand in your 75 now?
I would always try to go with any calcium carbonate based sands and rock if at all possible. Aragonite sand and base rock that can be had for a mere 1.00 a pound or so. Do a search on base rock here and you should come up with many theads (and leads) on how to get it. I picked up 50 pounds for about 53 dollars off of e-bay.
Southdown, Yardright, or Old castle sand seem to be the sands of choice as they are araonite based. Other playsands have silica or quartz sand and is duller, brown or just unpleasing to the eye.
What kind of rock and sand do you have now?
Thomas

 

[trigger reid]

you are supposed to have one pound of rock to each gallon so you should have at least 125 pounds in your new tank or even more

 

[mlt]

Thanks for the help-I am not sure what type of LR/LS I have
right now. I ordered it off the net from ***delete***. I think it is Fuji Rock.

 

[thomas712]

MLT - Ok it sound like you have good rock, and sounds like you also have enough live rock to seed some base rock. What I would do is the search for base rock on ----, do this search every few days or so as they don't always have it for sale. You will be able to place 100 or so pounds of baserock in your 125 and place the 50-60 pounds that you have now in a little later after its cycled. This should be perfect to seed the baserock and is exactlly how I started my 90 gal. Well that and a raw cocktail shrimp.
Given time that baserock will look just as splendid as the figi that you have now. With enough lighting and good water chemistry including calcium and alkaliniy and mag you should see some coralline growth on that rock in less than 6 months.
And instead of spending 600.00 bucks on liverock at 6.00 dollars a pound you will have made your own live rock for about 100.00 or so dollars.
MLT- we also have some rules here that sometimes are not very favorable, so if you look at your above post you will see that I deleted the competition name, we do not post competitors names or links here on this site. Kinda keeps the place SPAM free and without a buch of pop up ads. There are a few exceptions but not many.
Thomas

 

[mlt]

Thank you for your help and correcting me on posting rules.
I have a bag of playsand from Home Depot but it doesn't say
what type of sand it is. Just premuim best. Do you think I
can use this? It is VERY fine and almost white in color. Also
you mentioned something about a raw coctail shrimp? Since I am using the LR/LS and the water from my 75 gal tank-will I be able to put my fish from the old tank into the new tank right away? I am still new at all this and wish I would have started with the larger tank from the start.

 

[beaslbob]

I use home depot play sand and it works just fine.
You new tank should cycle very fast by using your old stuff.
If you put the fish in right away I would not feed them for a week. And watch for a nitrItes spike. Start feeding when nitrItes get down to 0.0
I would add all the plant life you can. It would really help the new system

 

[mlt]

Thanks for the reply. What kind of plant life do I need? I
have a large Yellow Tang and a Foxface that seem to eat
everything green I place in the tank.