rock and substrate questions

[collins]

I’m in the process of starting a marine tank and have a few questions.

The tank is 90 gallons and will work with a 33 gallon refugium. I was planning on buying 90 lbs of cured live rock to go with a 2 inch aragonite sand bed but at $10 CAN/lb, I have been considering using Travertine rock as a substitute for some.

Has anyone used this type of rock? Should I just bite the bullet and not take any chances?

If I can sub in some cheaper rock, how much live rock should I buy to seed it in a reasonable amount of time?

Is a 2” sand bed deep enough? I am concerned about H2S pockets being exposed by the wee beasties if I go deeper.


Any advice is greatly appreciated.


Yet another rookie……

 

[Gealcath]

You can get Tuffa base rock rather cheap, and its calcium based like Aragnonite. Also Lava Rock can be used as well (at least i think its steel its not really volcanic rock, its created as a byproduct of ore smelting, and its inert)

 

[VDub90]

$10/lb ouch!! Have you checked out any of the Canadian online places. I take it you are from Canada as you stated prices in Can funds.J&L Aquatics They are almost half that. The shipping is a little steep, but not bad if you are wanting 90lbs.

 

[geoffgarcia]

Personally I enjoy the diversity from getting rock from various distributors.
With the size of your tank you might want to search for places that have 30-60 pound crates, and get 2 different types of rocks...getting crates is often much cheaper then going to a store.

another option would be to get a lot of dead rock off ebay or something like that (there is a ton of it on ebay) then just seading it with 10-20 pounds of assorted live rocks and a few bags of garf grunge.

what are h2s pockets? I think 2" might be a little low...personally i'd go for 4" but it depends on what type of tank your going for, reef or marine?

 

[geoffgarcia]

also there are tons of reef forums out there, and people are always stripping down tanks for moves or getting out of the hobby or whatever...I HIGHLY recommend that you just start browsing these classified sections as its not unheard of to have people give about 100 pounds of rock at a time... or free corals or whatever...
granted its first come first serve and it usually goes super fast, plus you have to wait for something in yoru area...but its worth keeping an eye on!

 

[Richer]

I got all of my rocks locally for about half of what the LFS charges (10bucks/lb here too). Every now and then the local reefers here put together a big group order from J&L for rocks/livestock and whatnot. See if you can come into contact with some of your local reefers. There are a couple of Canadian reef forums that you may want to check out as well.

-Rich

 

[collins]

Thank-you

Thanks everyone for the advice.

VDub90 – The link you provided to J&L Aquatics is a great help. I’ll order from them, have some extra to donate, and still save some money.

Geoffgarcia – Why do you recommend two different types of rock? I was planning on using the Fiji rock only… Should I also buy some Tonga rock? Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas is highly toxic and forms under anaerobic conditions. I have read that the lower level of a deep substrate can create conditions favorable to the production of H2S and was leaning towards 2 inch substrate for this reason. Is there a disadvantage to 2 inches?

I’ll also investigate the existence of local clubs and Tufa

Thanks again!