New to Saltwater and Live Rock Questions

[MURedhawk]

Hi all
New to saltwater and setting up 65g plumbed tank with 26-28g refugium, Mag 7, 2 mp10s, Aquaticlife lighting 4 bulb. I have other gear already as well. I am going to use live sand but I have some questions on using rock. I can get cured live rock locally at LFS, some Tonga and some Figi, but it does not have coraline growth. I love the look of the Pukani on BRS. Could I cycle the tank with some dry pukani say 25 lbs and also get about 40 lbs live from LFS? Or would you get live rock that has potential for some critters that is uncured on line and cycle it in display with a mix of dry Pukani and live from LFS? How much of each would you get? I want to create a fish with live reef and some corals but not go coral only?
Thank you for input and super excited to start the aqua scape and cycle. Kids are excited as well.
JV

 

[MrX]

Welcome to the site.

In my experience/opinion there's no need to buy lots of live rock (unless you're impatient and just want coraline covered stuff to start with).

I started with 90% dry rock and dry sand... then I bought a couple pounds of live rock from the LFS and 2-3 members here were kind enough to kick start me with a cup of sand from each of their tanks. This provided me a nice bio-diversity and was cheaper than buying all 'live' stuff.

 

[frank180reef]

Welcome to BRS
I agree with Mr X, dry rock and sand and seed it, save money aren risk of unwanted hitch hikers

 

[Owen386]

Agree with the above.
I started with 50 lbs of live rock as I did not find this wonderful site yet. But For my next tank I will use all dry rock and my current live rock.(cause obviously I will be going bigger)
Save the money and buy dry rock and Seed with a few pieces of LR just get from a trusted source as to lessen the chance of bad hitch hikers.

 

[stingythingy45]

:w

Save some money and just seed dry rock with live rock like the other members suggested.

 

[MURedhawk]

Thank you all for the prompt feedback. Much appreciated! This is a great resource web site.
JV

 

[ahmer1781]

I agree, i am just setting up my 90 gallon, bought 100 lbs of dry rock, added 40 lbs of live rock from a BRS member and now i'm being patient

You'll save a ton of money, i like buying live rock from BRS members because you get such a good deal and the quality of the rock with the critters, random corals is much better than any LFS IMO