I bought a fairly big saltwater aquarium and live rock is just too expensive. Does anyone know places around Va beach that would have nice slate rock or some other sort of rock that i could use to layer and make interesting structures in my fish tank.

Thanks for any input.

And if any of you read my VOte for Leland page... He won and is now on his way to becoming a celebrity and a sex idol for young girls.

 

Nothing like what you are looking for around Va Beach naturally - try a garden store or Home Depot.

 

I don't know if your new to salt water tanks, but live rock is essential to having a healthy tank. It might be expensive, but in the long run youll pay for a lot less fish and have a much more healty ecosystem in your tank. Live rock acts as a filter, all of the little micro-organisms act as filters.

One other thing, when you first get a tank, fill the tank up a couple of weeks ahead of time (not always easy to do, I get impatient sometimes) with the live rock and this will allow the eco to get good for the fish, so they will have a minimal chance of dying from shock.

I forget what the approximate ratio of rock/gallon is, but the person at the store should be able to give you a good idea. I think in our 60 gallon, we had like 25lbs or so.

 

You should get a good amount of live rock, then use base rock. After a while, the base rock will become live, so if you're patient it doesn't matter. www.hirocks.com is the best source, and its significantly cheaper than live rock. I wouldnt risk putting found rocks in a SW tank. It's an expensive hobby and there's pretty much no way around it.

 

That is exactly waht i ended up doing. I started wtih a 13lb dead rock and a 4lb live rock. Its crazy to spend 9dollars a lb for rock, but Animal Jungle even charges almost 3dollars a lb for good dead rock. From what i was told at AJ, there dead rock is just cliff rock from mountains. I live in Charlottesville, when i go home for Thanksgiving, im goign to see if I can find anything decent. If not, ill just buy it slowly. Thanks for the link.

 

i have a tank full of semi live rock that i have had going for a while now. I been meaning to start up my tank, but never had the time. If someone is interested, i am willing to sell them for cheap. Since i don't know how many Lb's i have, giving a price per pound will be silly. it can fill a 20 gallon tank up completely i think.

Let me know.