Live Rock is too expensive for me, Is there a cheaper alternative?

[Narmical]

Im planing to enter the hobby and have hit a budgeting dilemma.

From the advice that ive read on this board, its been suggested that one needs 2lb of live rock per gallon of display volume. At current Im planning a 65 gallon display.

Ive shoped around on the internet and have found that live rock sells for about 3-4 dollars a pound.

SO

that works out to 390 - 520 dollars worth of live rock! This would put me way over my budget.

Is there a cheaper way to obtain biological filtration that also includes NO3 breakdown?

or maybe a solution that includes a lesser amount of live rock combined with something else that is cheaper?

Im a student on a budget, but i still would like to have a nice aquarium!

[Reefland]

2lbs per gallon is not necessary. We run a 75 gallon aquarium with about 65lbs of Bali rock...and it made for a nice open aquascape. You can easily get away with 50-65lbs of good liverock for your tank.

[Narmical]

and that should be enough NO3 filtration?

that bring it down to about 150 to 260 dollars. still expensive but WAY less.

What about Deep sand beds? i hear they have a similar effect. but does a seep sand bed require live sand? if not sand is way cheaper.

would this be a good alternative or possibly a combination?

[Clay12340]

If you are willing to give it some time you can buy much much less live rock and aquascape with mostly base rock which is very cheap. The base rock will eventually become live rock. You will just have to add fish more slowly, which isn't a bad thing at all.

Most people use live rock and sand in combination. They provide different functions. Live sand is usually only used as part of a deep sand bed. The rest is made up of cheaper dry sand. The process is called seeding and is used to introduce organisms into the sand that will grow and spread throughout the whole of the sand bed. Making it all live sand in time.

[CSeaSee]

I agree. Get around 20% high-quality live rock, and the other 80% dirt cheap base rock, and be ready to be patient. Very patient. But, it's worth it, and watching the algae succession can be interesting in and of itself. You can get base rock for $0.75/pound. Good, high quality LR should run you around $5-9/lb.

[GoinSalt]

Or, look around on Craigs List and the like. You can usually find people breaking down tanks and selling their LR for a lot cheaper than the LFS. I found 50 lbs. for $50. I gave the guy $60 cause no one had change, but 50 lbs for $60? Quite the bargain.

I ended up selling about 1/2 of it a few months and made my money back.

Nate

[leebca]

Live rock isn't needed at all. Live rock can perform several functions. They are elaborated upon here: What is Live Rock, Anyway?

Everything live rock can do in the way of the nitrogen cycle, can be accomplished through other means. Biological filtration (nitrification) can be handled by any surface area sufficient enough to hold the bacteria including: decorations, substrate, mechanical filter chambers, etc., so long as you have good enough circulation passing by or through the surface area.

You mention nitrate, denitrification. If you want live rock to handle all denitrification activity in a FO tank, 2 lbs. per gallon is the right target. But there other ways of controlling/exporting nitrates. There is a deep sand bed, nitrate reactors (equipment to for bacteria to consume the nitrate to make nitrogen gas and other compounds), nitrate absorbing media (chemical filtration), water changes, and growing macro algae in a refugium. The least expensive of these include growing macro algae and deep sand beds.

For thirty years, marine aquariums were set up and operated without live rock, quite successfully.

[Narmical]

on the subject of deep sand beds. Does anyone have an opinion on those "sand activation kits" that come with a bunch of little critters to live in your sand? Is that needed? is it helpful? is it worth 60 bucks?