Bulk Rock

[Snafu]

Hi

My LFS said to buy mostly bulk to start out with, then add live rock on top.
because it all becomes live with in a few months. is this true?
The same goes for the sand. again the LFS. Is this true?
Or is this the reason i'm having so much trouble with my Tank
I'm starting to feel like its a money pit

[amcarrig]

Yes, it's true. In fact, this is how I set up all of my tanks. I'm glad to hear that an LFS would suggest such an economic method of setting up a tank!

[bouraganes]

As long as the bulk rock you add is fairly porous it will eventually become "live rock" - I did use a few pieces of granite from an local salt lake (Poncahtrain) as a base to build my rockwork on but it can't be considered liverock for filtration purposes it has encrusted nciely!. As far as the sand you can certainally seed it with some live sand- make sure the sand you use is not to fine in grain size. Some sand contains more silicates and will produce more red slime (cyano) early in your tank but other than that I don't see a problem-