Can you ever have too much live rock and live sand?

[jayuws]

Hi all,

Right now I only have live sand in my 45g with a 110w cp. I'm planning on filling my tank with live rock eventually and don't plan on adding anything alive for a long time after that. Can a tank remain healthy after completing its cycle while having only ls and lr? I have 2 power heads, protein skimmer, and 110W cp which I plan to keep running. Could I actually get to a point where I need to add something dead to feed my pet rocks? Don't laugh I'm being serious.

 

[PhoenixOne]

So, is there a reason for you not putting anything in there for a really long time? I need to hear this!!!:funnypost

 

[NYreefNoob]

as long as water quality is maintained you dont need to add anything else to the tank. dont see why you wouldnt though, you could keep a tank of saltwater if you wanted. after a period of time with just lr and sand you might see things start to pop up in growth

 

[h20 freak]

Thats actually better for your tank,letting it cycle like that means your tank will be established for your first addition,Idk why the previous posters are advising against it

 

[NYreefNoob]

who advertised against it ? i ask why he would want just sand and rock

 

[PhoenixOne]

Thats actually better for your tank,letting it cycle like that means your tank will be established for your first addition,Idk why the previous posters are advising against it

I'm not advising against it. Just wondering why he/she will not be putting anything in there for a long time after the cycle. :scratch:

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

You can have too much rock and sand in a tank when you can't put any water in it

Should be fine the way you said.

 

[h20 freak]

Ny and phoenix: ok I was just a bit confused:knockedou

 

[jayuws]

I'm taking the advice of many reefers

Since I'm new at this and I can already see how addictive this hobby is, I want to learn as I go without killing anything. This includes live rock and sand. I want to make sure I have all of the chemistry and biology stuff down before diving into expensive animals.

If I can keep my pet rocks alive then I'll move on to other creatures. Trust me, I'm already fantasizing about turning my entire apartment into a huge reef. Do people have to go to a 12 step program if the shut down their tanks?

Thanks for all of the advice.

 

[NYreefNoob]

what all equiptment do you have ? powerheads sump hang on back filter or fuge ect ? general rule of thumb is really after lr and sand have been in the tank let it run for 2 months especially if new to hobby. { wont hurt longer } after a month or so do a 20% water change. what test kits do you have ? some of the things i have asked might help us out answering your questions. really no more than a 2" sandbed is needed or less. the weight of rock doesnt matter as much as the space being taken up. want to leave room for fish to swim and have a open area, as well for water movement

 

[PhoenixOne]

Since I'm new at this and I can already see how addictive this hobby is, I want to learn as I go without killing anything. This includes live rock and sand. I want to make sure I have all of the chemistry and biology stuff down before diving into expensive animals.

If I can keep my pet rocks alive then I'll move on to other creatures. Trust me, I'm already fantasizing about turning my entire apartment into a huge reef. Do people have to go to a 12 step program if the shut down their tanks?

Thanks for all of the advice.

LOL. 12 step program. You...are...funny!!!!:lol: I understand now.
(Lol...pet rocks....in a way, it's kinda true if ya think about it!)

 

[basiab]

Hi all,
Can a tank remain healthy after completing its cycle while having only ls and lr? I have 2 power heads, protein skimmer, and 110W cp which I plan to keep running. Could I actually get to a point where I need to add something dead to feed my pet rocks? Don't laugh I'm being serious.

Actually a good question.
Generally live rock and sand means it has bacteria to handle a bio load of corals/fish. It can also mean you have live critters in both. Anything live needs something to feed on to stay alive. To simply keep bacteria alive in the rock and sand you probably do not have to add anything. However the amount of bacteria will diminish over time. Bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrites needs ammonia to stay alive and reproduce. So if you have nothing producing ammonia then the bacteria dies. There probably is always some ammonia coming off live rock so some bacteria will live but when you add fish to the tank there may not be enough to handle the larger load of ammonia. So if you do feed your empty tank it will keep the bacteria count higher. This feeding will also help keep alive any other critters such as pods and worms etc.
The trick is to feed just enough to keep things going without polluting the water to where you get algae blooms. I would suggest getting some detritus eating snails to clean up the food and algae snails one you see algae starting to grow. Hermits are also a possibility but I prefer not to have them. Generally cause more trouble than good. But they are cute to watch.

 

[jayuws]

Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind when I finally get some live rock. I'm guessing the best way to check if the live rock is happy is to test ph and NO2 and add something dead if the test levels go to zero. Would that work?

 

[h20 freak]

Just throw in fish food every now and then and don't run the lights so that algae cant grow and your rocks are healthy

 

[jayuws]

thanks nyreef for your feedback,

I'm still taking in all of this info and trying not to get over my head. I wanted to start with a small tank 45g and if I can keep everything alive and happy for a while then I might think about going bigger in a couple of years. I just purchased 50# of semi-cured premium fiji lr which should arrive next week. Right now I only have about 40# of ls that has been in my tank for 2 weeks now. I'm hoping that my ls will speed up the cycle of my lr. Once I get the lr in the tank I'll start testing or should I start testing now? The only test done was sg which I've kept at 1.022. Should I even bother changing the water now?

I have 2 300gph pumps and a seaclone 100 protein skimmer. Should I use the skimmer now or just keep only the pumps on?

I really appreciate all of the feedback.

 

[h20 freak]

Try to get a better skimmer,seaclones are pretty bad.If you need a hang on skimmer,remora makes good ones. And don't run a skimmer during cycle,it defeats the purpose of cycling,a skimmer pulls out wastes before they can be consumed by bacteria.

 

[jayuws]

thanks H2O,

I'm glad you told me that about the skimmer. I'll look into geting a better one and I just turned it off, not that it's skimming anything anyway. I saw that you have a 60g and 70# of lr. I just purchased 50# for my 45g and was worried it would be too much.

 

[h20 freak]

no thats not to much at all, my cuz had a 40 and easily had like 10 lbs more then me:knockedou

 

[tommy818]

if u use live sand and use cured rock u can add fish like damsels in 24 hours

 

[Killerdrgn]

When i started my 90 i initially had approximatly 180 lbs of LR and 135lbs of LS. The cycle time was only a week, everything zeroed out almost right away. Had a nice 3" sand bed. Now that I added in other tanks i probably have over 300LBS of LR. The extra rock if you can hold them in other places gives you nice loose rocks that you can attach frags to.