Marco Rocks - Dry Rocks

[JustKoch]

Okay as stated yesterday in my introduction post, brand spanking new to saltwater tank and I picked up my 60 gallon tank with stand yesterday - stoked. (Not a fan of the stand going to hunt for a new stand for it) but the point of this post - so my first objective was to look for some rocks and came across this guy selling some Marco dry rocks 50lbs for about $100.00 - so now would 50lbs suffice or should I be doing 60lbs - watched a youtube video stating we should do 1 lb of rock for every gallon of tank. (Is that a must?) And secondly are Marco rocks solid rocks - I know there are other kinds. OR should there be other rocks I should look into.

 

[Spare time]

Personally, I would do this.:

Add enough rock to where you like the look of the tank. Try to keep these in mind; how much swimming room you have, how easily the flow will work, and how you will be able to keep spots of the tank from becoming detritus traps (aka most tanks behind their wall of rocks when placed against the back of the tank). If you used a lot of rock then you are good and shouldn't need any additional surfaces. If you want to use little rock (my preference is to have a clean open tank / negative space style tank), get biomedia in the sump to act as a replacement (biomedia being super porous rocks that you can hide in a sump or filter.


Marco rocks are fine.

 

[PatW]

Spare Time is largely right.

The amount of rock you need to detoxify ammonia wastes depends. It depends on how porous your rock is. Rock with lots of pores will have more surface interface and hold more bacteria. It depends on how much you feed. It depends on how many consumers you have (primarily fish but also grazers like snails and crabs). It depends on your filtration. So it is pretty complex. Many people just go with the old 1 lb rock per gallon. I think that is way over done but I have ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF OF IT.

The style nowadays is to go with a more open landscape and thus quite a bit less rock (a pound per gallon can look like a big ole pile in rock tank). You can supplement that with rubble or ceramic media in your sump.

Marco rocks enjoy a very good reputation in the hobby.

 

[JustKoch]

Thanks for the reply - so what I was thinking for to start off - was the Marco Rocks - sand/live sand and salt water and a filter to start off the cycling. Is there anything else that would be needed right away to start off or those would suffice for now.

 

[Spare time]

Thanks for the reply - so what I was thinking for to start off - was the Marco Rocks - sand/live sand and salt water and a filter to start off the cycling. Is there anything else that would be needed right away to start off or those would suffice for now.

You just need an ammonia source. I prefer nitrocycle or dr tims ammonium chloride as it is speedier than using dead shrimp or pellets/flakes. Dose that and some bacteria and you should be good to go.