How much sand/rock to order

blueridgereef

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I'm ordering supplies to set up a 15 gallon Waterbox peninsula...I was in the hobby 10 years ago, and back then, it was live sand and live rock, at 1lb/per gallon each.

I'm getting Marco rocks dry rock and CaribSea Aragonite dry, how many lb of each should I be shooting for?

 

BlennyTime

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I’d say the rock is an aesthetic choice, the more the better obviously for system stability. 1 lb per gallon is still a good general target.

For sand, it depends whether you want to go with a deep sand bed or not. Deep is usually 3-4 inches while shallow is around 1. You’d then multiply that by the dimensions of your tank to get the number of cubic inches required. There are people who are happy both ways (or with no sand bed at all).
 

James_O

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I think I got 20lb of live sand and approximately 30lb of live rock.

20lb of sand gave me around 1.5 inches and 30lb of rock have me a decent scape. However, I wish I would have got more of both.
 

davidcalgary29

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I'm ordering supplies to set up a 15 gallon Waterbox peninsula...I was in the hobby 10 years ago, and back then, it was live sand and live rock, at 1lb/per gallon each.

I'm getting Marco rocks dry rock and CaribSea Aragonite dry, how many lb of each should I be shooting for?

What did you have in mind for your aquascape? Are you going for a complicated structure or do you want to have negative spaces in your build? Just make sure that there is ample space around your aquascape so that water flow isn't impeded. Unless, of course, you're planning rock walls on either end of your peninsula (which would be cool). I was satisfied with 11 lbs of live rock in my Evo 13.5, so that 1lb/gallon rule might be a bit of overkill. I also found Marco rocks to be really dense (and heavy), so proper weight distrubition is key.

Aragonite tends to blow around alot, so you may need to make your sandbed a little deeper to compensate, or you may end up with bare patches. Have you already ordered the sand? If not, have you thought about "special grade" live sand?
 

James_O

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Aragonite tends to blow around alot, so you may need to make your sandbed a little deeper to compensate, or you may end up with bare patches. Have you already ordered the sand? If not, have you thought about "special grade" live sand?
I used this stuff:
Ans it’s worked perfectly for me. The goby likes to sift it around, but it’s just heavy enough so that it doesn’t make a tornado in your tank.
 

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