leighton.bingham
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I’m sure this is out there 1 million times. But I can find how many lbs of live rock do I need per 100 gallons of tank volume. I have about 35-40 now
How many lbs of rock
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There's no universally true answer so to speak. A lot of it depends on your setup and filtration. Live rock is great for nitrifying bacteria to culture on simply because the amount of surface area it has, but some people go for bare bottoms with more elaborate aquascapes that don't actually have a lot of weight in Rock but compensate by adding extra biomedia in the sump or running equipment and more powerful filtration. Also depends on your fish needs. Depending on the size and shape of your tank you might not have room for a lot of live rock if you're keeping certain type of fish that need a lot of swimming area whereas in other situations you may want more live rock for fish that need places to hide or fish that are territorial. I've had tanks that were completely loaded with rock and had so much live beneficial bacteria that they barely needed filtration and one of them even at 20 gallons would stay stable as long as you kept the auto top off and check.
There is no set number. Do as you please. More = easier at the start.
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leighton.bingham
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Thanks
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leighton.bingham
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Great info here.
Very true, I used to keep a bin just full of live rock and progressively add dry Rock I had in it. Since the parameters were so stable in it, it could also serve as a timeout tank or an observational, oh I suppose been not tank, but I know a lot of people with extra Rock to do the same thing. I always did keep some inverts in it though, and maybe a pest eatinh fish. Some Put extra rock in a brute 50 gallon trash can with the circulation pump and heater that way you have a variety of different rocks ready to go if you ever want to change something, have a tank crash, need to set up a new tank, etc. live Rock is one of the best ways to start up a new tank in a short period of time
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leighton.bingham
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Adding coral really adds maturity to a tank, not a little, massively. Keep it a secret,, sssshhhh.
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leighton.bingham
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lol thanks
Just be careful if I didn't fresh or dry Rock because it can potentially crash your system if you had too much at once as it absorbs several things out of the water and can affect your parameters. On the other end getting live rock from a reputable source is expensive or difficult so I always expect to deal with some pests right off the bat particularly vermatids, and bristlesorm depending on your preference about those. If you have 30 extra pounds of live rocket probably wouldn't hurt to add it if you're confident that it's not containing anything that would harm your system, you can always take it back out. I'll normally go and do a certain local fish store and buy a rock covered in cheap zoas in their frag system for almost the price of regular live rock likely because there's always are growing out of control, but aside from all the bristle worms it's been effective.
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