[richardemerson]

I have a 260l tank containing 6 chromis, 2 yellow tail damsels, 2 jaffa clowns, 1 yellow butterfly, 1 cleaner shrimp and 3 blue legged giant hermits. It has been up and running since January and everything is ok (touch wood). My question is should I have Live rock and do I need it ifso how much?

[DEWAYNE]

My Personal Opinion For A Tank That Size, I Would Put Atleast 100lbs Of Live Rock, But Don't Add This All At One Time. The Natural Filter In The Reef Is Live Rock, This Will Benefit Your Tank, But Adding Too Much At One Time I Would Advise Against It. I Just Orderd 50lbs For My 110g, I Heard About This Place From Someone On This Site. The Rock They Sell Is Figi Live Rock, It Has Already Been Cured, And The Rock Is Hand Selected For Good Color And Quality. The Live Rock Will Also Give Your Fish Their Own Territory, And Hiding Places.............the Web Site Is..... Oceanproaqutics.com

[Reef Success]

Richard,

If you have had your tank setup and running for any length of time you will not need to add live rock as your parameters have mostlikely stabilized. If you want to change your aquascape you can add live rock.

Adding live rock at this point would have to be done slowly especially if you order it over the internet. The reason for this is that although the live rock is cured when ordered it is shipped without water and will experience a slight die off when you receive it. Now in a new tank being setup this die off isn't really noticeable b/c of the few days needed to cycle. But on a tank that's up and running you do not want to add any unneeded stress to your fish.

[wreckdiver]

I just setup my 90 Gallon bowfront 4 weeks ago and got Premium Pucani Live rock from my LFS but, it had just arrived as i got to the store so it was fresh off the plane from Walt Smiths facilities and let me tell you. It was cured before shipping but due to the die off from shipping and the fact that all they pack live rock in is wet newspaper, I have pretty much had to go through an entire cure while cycling my tank. The first week was horrendous, just about had to wear a gas mask in the house (and the rock did not smell at all when unpacking it and loading it in the tank) from the die off and re-curing. The ammonia in my tank was off the scales for 2 1/2 weeks then it finally dropped the third week. Now I am waiting for my Nitrates to drop. So with all of that said, if you are going to add live rock to your established tank, either get it from you LFS and make sure it is FULLY cured or only add 1 or 2 pieces at a time and monitor your water parameters very closely because you more than likely will experience another ammonia spike and a Nitrite/Nitrate spike. Adding a piece or too at a time should not cause a big enough spike to be dangerous, but it might be enough to stress your fish so be careful.

[tyoung]

You can always buy the lr and cure it yourself. Uncured rock is often cheaper than cured. you will need some clean rubbermaid trashcans, powerhead, and plenty of fresh saltwater. You can cure it in a garage to cut down on the smell. You let it sit in the saltwater to cure out, doing 40-50% water changes, scrubbing the rock to remove the die off and moveing the pieces around. You also need to get as much of the sediment out of the garbage cans as you can. After this has been done and your lr has cured, you can super saturate your rock to drive out any unwanted inverts that may be hideing in the rock. You need to find a good book on the subject and read it, this will answer many questions you may have. Hope this helps a little.