Do I need more live rock?

bawest · 02-13-2007, 02:57 PM

I just finished setting up my tank.... well, not finished, but I have water in it and I'm cycling/curing the live rock. It's a 55 gallon and I bought 40lbs of new live rock but I already had about 15lbs which makes it a nice even 55 lbs of live rock. This puts me at the limit of one pound per gallon. Is that enough? Sometimes, I think it looks like it isn't enough, but at others, it seems to be enough. I don't think I can put another 50 in there without just stacking it up on top of everything. I kind of like the airy look, but it also kind of looks barren. What do you think?

4G1v3N · 02-13-2007, 03:00 PM

Hey Bawest,
The general rule for live rock is 1 lb- 1.5 lb per gallon. IMO the more the better, because the LR will act as your bio. filter. Goog stacking man looks good! Karma to you.
-Jordan

geekdafied · 02-13-2007, 03:05 PM

I agree with 4G1v3N for the most part, Ive always ehard 1-2lb per gallon, but really its a matter of choice. If you plan on having lots of corals, you will want more surface area that the lightt reaches. Which means more rock. The more the merrier is always good beuase like 4G1v3N said, it will be beneficial for filtration. For a FOWLR, it looks killer! Its a lot easier to move things around and add things when nothing is in it, then when you have a bunch of critters and corals.

geekdafied · 02-13-2007, 03:06 PM

oh yeah, like the piano stand, haha

bawest · 02-13-2007, 03:10 PM

Thanks for the comment on the piano.... I kind of got in a hurry at the end which is why I have pipes showing so much in the tank.... I'm not happy about that, but I am happy that it drains into the sump without overflowing

I still need to do some work to it, the lights are only temporary as well as the hang on filter. It will be gone in a few days.

Urban_s · 02-13-2007, 03:42 PM

I would agree with the above. But that is a sweet tank.

coral reefer · 02-13-2007, 04:00 PM

To me too much live rock is not essential to the success of a reef tank or tank in general. If you stack your live rock like a wall what you are doing is inhibiting the flow of water between your rock work thus you have detritus build-up and less than optimal oxygen/carbon dioxide transfer!
As for the filtration, you have enough biological filtration due to the live rock in your tank and more importantly your (substrate-aragonite sand!!!!) It is best to minimize the amount of rock that covers your benthic area of your tank(substrate) to allow proper gas exchange from the water movement that is basically flowing across you substrate.
Your goal for a tank especially a reef tank, is to offer as much water flow and limited the available dead zones in your tank.
One very important thing that i would like to reitterate to you, as i don't know if you know this or not, but photosynthesis takes place during the day due to algae, plants and zooxanthellae converting CO2 to DO(dissolved oxygen). At night this process halts unless you run a reverse daylight lighting scheme for a refugium for example. Otherwise a build-up of carbon dioxide builds up in your tank due to the respiration by fish and bacteria living in your live rock and the sand bed as well as the photosynthesis that has stopped. If this builds up to an elevated level you could cause your livestock to suffocate!
To avoid this situation, it is best to run a powerhead at the top of your tank at the water/surface interface to help to add beneficial DO to your tank and rid some of the excess CO2!
Sorry for the lengthy post, however, i feel it should be mentioned and since I was talking about water flow I figured I would discuss this pertinent issue as well!
Let us know how you end up setting-up your live rock in the tank!

4G1v3N · 02-13-2007, 04:09 PM

Very well said CR!
I never intended to make my post sound like that... There is a certain point where you can over do your LR as CR is stating. Very good point and I will sit back down

-Jordan

bawest · 02-13-2007, 04:32 PM

Thanks for reminding me to set the sump to reverse lighting scheme. I had seen where some people do that, but I didn't really understand why. As far as the reverse lighting, does this work with mangroves also? I bought a few of these because I thought they were attractive and heard they do a good job of filtering. I think I'm going to put a 10 gal sump on the side of the tank to house them and then have the 20 gal sump with macros and protein skimmer below. I don't have any macro algae yet, is cheto the best to use? Does anybody have any extra they want to donate?

As far as the substrate, I have quite abit of it showing now with the way the rock is stacked. For the return line from the pump, I have 2 loc-line fittings that terminate at the top center of the tank and also the overflow fittings are at the top. This should always keep the top layers mixed. Also, there are2 (ugly and highly visible loc-lines going to the bottom to help stir things up.

Drs Foster and smith have 20lb boxes of caribbean liverock, maybe I'll just get that, I don't want the tank to look overcrowded and I don't want to buy more live rock than I need.

bawest · 02-13-2007, 04:34 PM

how high should the live rock be stacked? Can I stack it in the corners high enough to hide the dropdown pipes and the return fittings or would this be too high and close to the lights?