Spreading Live Rock?

[shnabbles]

How fast does live rock Spread?
Im planning on doing 50/50 LS and Reg Sand..
But to keep costs down I was wondering how Fast LR spreads?
And does it spread up or down?
I was thinking if i bought 1 nice peice of LR and maybe put it at the top or bottom of a stack of Dead Rock how long would it take to turn the dead rock live?

 

[big911dog]

Depends on the size of the rock. Be careful on WHAT ur adding tho. Some rock has minerals in it u dont want.
Where it spreads is everywhere at once. remember the rock is submerged, so all parts are exposed. the bacteria will go into all the nooks and crannys at the same time.
if ur referring to the coralline algae, u'll probably see it on the side of the rock that gets the best water flow.

 

[meadbhb]

Hiya,
I've got coraline growth after three months. I have a 37 gallon, and added 25 lbs lr and 40 lbs of base rock. I now have light green (not algea), pink and purple coraline growing on the base rock. OH, yeah, LR is on top of the BR.
Meadbhb

 

[birdy]

Just to clear things up:
Live rock does not grow or spread. The coralline algae that grows on LR spreads to other rocks (baserock or LR), the beneficial bacteria will colonize on baserock, and the critters that come on LR will reproduce and colonize the tank.
As far as the Ratio of LR/baserock, at least get 20 or 30lbs of LR to seed the baserock. Within a month the baserock should have enough bacteria colonized on it to be a useful biological filtration. It will take several months though for it to look the same as LR.

 

[shnabbles]

So 20/30 pounds for a 55 gallon tank? How much in base rock should i get? Are their any rocks to look out for as far as not to get?

 

[birdy]

For a 55gallon tank I would recommend 30lbs LR and 40-50 lbs of baserock.
LR recommendations- really any of them are good, a lot of people like FL aquacultured rock, but beware of nasty hitchikers (really in any LR, you want to check for mantis shrimp).
As far as baserock recomendation. Do an internest search for Hirocks. Also you can use Lace rock and something called Texas honeycomb.