Okay, finally getting our 180, wet about 1/2 way there now. Poor RO unit has been running for three days straight (good RO unit, poor water pressure & well water @ 60* isn't helping). Just using a 1" sand bed. Tossed in a heater and PH's to keep the circulation going for now, and of course a large cocktail shrimp to jump start the ammo.
Now I managed to locate some great looking base rock, super porous, and lightweight for its mass, water will litterly run right through it, so @ $1.59/lb tough to go wrong there, so I grabbed up the best looking 50lbs I could find. My guess is this stuff should turn into fantastic live rock in a short amount of time given the tremendous amount of sruface area. As soon as the LFS restocks with some new stuff I'll get another 50-100 lbs of this stuff. I realy like it. As soon as I get the rest of the water in and the sandstorm subsides I'll get some pics.
Now the expiriment part, I srcubbed and rinsed all the rock down pretty good and now the experiemnt, just tossed it in. Think the bacteria from the cycle will populate the rock as is without havign to add LR to the tank? I am going to toss in a few cups of live sand from the existing fuge to jump start the sand bed in a couple weeks.
Ultimate goal is to see if I can get the whole tank up and running WITHOUT having to pay out the nose for LR. I'm going to add 20-30lbs of LR rubble later to help boost the little critter population and establish itself.