Amount of reef rock ad live sand to put in a BioCube 16

[John J in Pickens]

Good afternoon, folks!

I'm launching my BioCube 16 by the end of January, and I need advice on approximately how much reef rock to put in the tank. I was also going to buy a 20 lb bag of Carib Sea Live Sand for the tank and need to know if I should use the entire bag. I have heard from several people that I should put down between 1 and 2 inches of sand. TIA for any input.

John in SC

 

[Subsea]

Wet sand in a bag is not “live sand”. Get dry aroggonite and add bacteria in a bottle.

How much sand depends on your preferences and what you will stock in tank. More important than depth is grain size. I like 2” of aroggonite at 1-2mm grain size

 

[LordofCinder]

You can use as much sand as you like. I think most use about 1"-2", I like about 4"-5", some people use none. Its a preference thing.

Rock should be somewhere close to about a pound per gallon, so about 12-15 lbs would be good IMO.

 

[Subsea]

@John J in Pickens
I looked at your first thread in Meet and Greet forum indicating into marine aquarium since 1980. You might be a dinasour.

With respect to how much live rock do you need, it depends on your husbandry. I don’t follow reef hobby mandate of nutrient export should equal nutrient in. I focus on nutrient recycling. I have 25 year mature tanks in which the coral are the biofilter and the only time I export nutrients is when I frag and sell coral.

Consider using standard amonia nitrification cycle for cycling sandbed with nitrification bacteria than get diver collected live sand & live rock to bring in diversity of micro inverts to process detritus into live food for hungry mouths.

Gulf Live Rock

gulfliverock.com

 

[John J in Pickens]

Yeah, I guess I AM a dinosaur. So, you are saying just put in dry sand and dry rock, and use something like Dr. Tim's One and Only to "seed" my tank? I have two Oscellaris Clownfish that will go into the BioCube.