[philolsen]

I have a 55 gal tank with a yellow tail damsel, a striped damsel, a percula clown and a huma huma trigger. It has a remora skimmer, amiracle sump, 2 mj 1200s and a 48" 10,000k light. I do not have a place to cure it I will have to buy and add to the established tank.
1) how much l/r should I add (not a reef)?
2) how much do I add at a time?
3) how do I know it is "fully cured"?
4) I live in western burbs of Chicago (53 and 64) any suggestions on where to buy?

[Reefland]

All I can say is you need to make sure that the rock is actually fully cured and the only way to tell this is to know that it is been in a curing vat for several weeks. I am fortunate to have a store near me that cured some for me and I was able to monitor the progress. I would not add any amount of uncured rock to an established tank.

[philolsen]

OK, so how much should I have total and how much should I add at a time?

[BubbaWPB]

About 1.5 pounds per gallon... if you are SURE it is fully cured, you can add as much as you like. I would not add ANY amount of rock that was not fully cured to a tank that is already stocked.

[philolsen]

OK, How much should I add at a time? All or?

[Ninong]

Because you will have a FOWLR (fish-only with live rock) tank, I think you shouldn't put too much live rock in it because you need to leave swimming space for your fish. I think that somewhere around 45 lbs would be adequate. Anything more than 60 lbs might take up too much space.

All of your present fish are very hardy species so you should have no trouble at all adding all of your live rock at once provided it is really fully cured rock. You should get very little if any dieoff.

For a FOWLR tank, I like the looks of Tonga branch rock mixed with some other rock, like Kaelini or Fiji, etc. If possible, you might want to get half Tonga branch and half something else. You want a rock structure that is open with several caves for hiding places, rather than a solid mountain look.

[bonbon]

I asked if you had fish in the other post.
I put in 40lbs, checked my water , when it was all good I went to get it tested (for a second opinion) when they assured me it was, I purchased 2 clowns and a yellow tailed blue Damsel, and a Fox Face,
I had a good experience with Premium Aquatics (rock smelled good) so I ordered 20 lbs more, that was 2 weeks ago, and my water tests good.
I'm in Palos
I can recommend some places local, but for the Tonga you'll pay $1-2 more per lb

[philolsen]

Hey, yes I hace 2 dansels a percula and a huma huma trigger, I dont mind paying a little more to het locally, from what everyone says it is the safest bet, what places do you recomend?