LR and LS question

[boombadan]

I was wondering how much live rock and live sand i should buy for the 29g biocube?In the magazine i get(like dr. foster or something) it was like 90$ for 22lbs of live rock yet iv heard people have been putting in 30lbs of rock in the biocube. I have no clue how much the live sand costfrom the magazine or anywhere.LOL
At the lfs i can buy live rock 8.50$ a pound but that sounds like a rip off if i can get 22lbs for 90$. I can always buy the 22lbs from the magazine and then buy more from the store i guess. I hate the idea of having to cure it though since its being shipped. It gets me nerves to buy it then have most of it die off. But i guess if its a lot cheaper.
I plan to make a reef aquarium with the works, coral and such. I have no idea about the live sand. If i should even bother with live and just buy dead. My freind also said i didnt have to buy all live rock too. He said i could buy dead rock for a base and then the organisms would move to the dead rock after i cycle the tankand it would become live. If i go with this plan should i buy live sand, the 22lbs of live rock and some dead rock. Or should i just buy dead sand, 22lbs of live rock, and some dead rock?????........
Help me out here im new Any suggestions???? Itd help a lot...thankks

[bertoni]

Move to the NTTH forum as more appropriate here.

Most people go for 1-2 lbs of live rock per gallon of tank capacity. 22 lbs of live rock sounds fine. You could add a bit of base rock if you want. If you want to have sand, which is optional, I'd recommend an inch or so of dead sand. Good live sand might be useful, but it's very expensive. The bagged live sand is useless, in my opinion, since it contains only bacteria.