Sandbed & LiveRocks

[successnowhere]

Dear Bros,

Will be setting up my 2.5ft x 2ft x 2ft next month, kindly advise how many pounds/kg of sand I needed?

Will black color sand be better, in turn of color and speed up the benefical cycle on new tank, which I did

read about a miracle sand from Iwana(pasir ris).

For live rock, minimum how many kg I need to do the landscape? Where is the cheapest per kg of live rock

that I can find?

Tks

[Solo77]

depending on how thick you want your sand bed to be and your scaping requirement. For sand, you can buy one or two packs and test. If not enough, then buy somemore. For rock, it depends on the size and scape you want. Try iwarna and T95.

[successnowhere]

Anyone use Natures Ocean Live Aragonite Sand? What's the differene between noraml and live sand?

Heard that Live sand is only use as filter media to speed up the process but not in main tank, is it true?

[Fuzzy]

Not true that live sand is only used for biofiltration. Many if not most of us started our tanks with packaged live sand.

Quite a few bros using Natures Ocean, I am using Caribsea, no complaints, but I did mix sand from an established tank into my

new live sand also though.

For a 2.5x2x2, you should be looking at about 3 - 4 bags of live sand (approximately 30 - 40kg) to get a depth of 3 - 4cm in the bed.

Half the amount if you only want a shallow sandbed.

As for live rock, you want approximately 30 - 40kg for your tank size, but it is largely personal preference, the more the better.

Less if you are planning to stock LPS or other coral because they often come attached to a piece of rock.

If you can get your rocks scaped nicely, giving your fish lots of space to swim and many hiding places, put in as much LR in as you can!

The cheapest way is to camp the Pasar Malam here, frequently you will see bros selling LR, second hand LR is the best! hehehe.

Otherwise you can expect to pay around $5 - $10 a kg for LR at LFS, depending on quality and if its pre cured.

I've had good luck with AM Jln Kayu they are priced somewhere in the middle.