Live Rock Questions

[Quigley]

Thanks for your help! My wife and I are converting a saltwater fish tank into a reef tank and have a several questions regarding Live Rock.

- We've read reef tanks require 1.0 - 1.5 lbs of LR per gal. Our tank was advertised as 100g, but measures 90g, and actually holds about 80g. Do we use the 80 gal value when calculating for LR?

- Can you glue LR together to make a more pleasing land scape? If so, what glue do you use?

- What are the pro's and con's of stacking LR up onto the walls of the tank? We are tying to find a way create a large open sand area in the middle of our tank.

- Many pictures of beautiful looking reef tanks have what looks to be far less than 1 lb of rock per gal. How is it they get away with a lower LR/gal ratio?

Thank you for your help,
Randy & Deanne

 

[Krish]

- We've read reef tanks require 1.0 - 1.5 lbs of LR per gal. Our tank was advertised as 100g, but measures 90g, and actually holds about 80g. Do we use the 80 gal value when calculating for LR?

In all honesty, you only really need enough rock to to handle the bio-load of your tank. Some rock is more pourus than others so with that being said, you could buy 100lbs of one type of rock and 50lbs of another and the 50lbs could possibly do more for your tank than the 100lbs. The pound per gal thingy is only really something to give people a general idea of how much rock is needed for a tank, but not "gospel"

- Can you glue LR together to make a more pleasing land scape? If so, what glue do you use

Yes you can glue them together and some people will use epoxy to do this (of course marine safe). Also, people will drill holes in their rocks and either use acrylic rods to hold a few pieces together or just use zip ties

- What are the pro's and con's of stacking LR up onto the walls of the tank? We are tying to find a way create a large open sand area in the middle of our tank.

The only downfall to stacking rocks against a backwall is you may create some deadspots where detritus and waste may settle (which you may not be able to get to to clean) which in turn will degrade water quality. This is why people tend to try and aquascape in the center or atleast off of the backwall a bit, to allow flow to circulate around the rocks

- Many pictures of beautiful looking reef tanks have what looks to be far less than 1 lb of rock per gal. How is it they get away with a lower LR/gal ratio?

This goes back to my first reply...It's not the quantity of rock that's important, but how pourus it is. Your tank may be totally fine with just about 50-60lbs of live rock

Hope that helped some! Good luck!

 

[CarlaW]

Hey there, you need to take a trip into Spokane and talk with Kevin @ Aquatic Dreams!!! Most of the rock that he sells comes out of the south pacific, and is very light for it's size.
What I have noticed lately is that alot of folks are going with less LR for the simple purpose of allowing room for their corals to grow. As was stated before, the more porous the rock, the better off you are, and you get away with having less rock. HTH

 

[Quigley]

Krish, Charlie,

Thanks for your feedback.

Charlie, yes - we visit with Kevin at Aquatic Dreams about once a week!

Again Thanks,
Randy & Deanne

 

[CarlaW]

Krish, Charlie,

Thanks for your feedback.

Charlie, yes - we visit with Kevin at Aquatic Dreams about once a week!

Again Thanks,
Randy & Deanne

Maybe I 'll catch you in there one of these weekends.

 

[4251cpd]

What Zen Master Krish forgot to add is, Wear thick gloves when handling the rock while you scape it. I've had my tank running a year and still am discovering hitchers that would've been a bad day had I not seen them first.

 

[Krish]

What Zen Master Krish forgot to add is, Wear thick gloves when handling the rock while you scape it. I've had my tank running a year and still am discovering hitchers that would've been a bad day had I not seen them first.

Thanks you grand master Borat!! I am guilty of the above

 

[4251cpd]

Thanks you grand master Borat!! I am guilty of the above

Yak shemash...