How much rock is too much rock?

[Greg P]

Yes, I know, I am long winded, sorry. (My wife tells me this all the time) I will try to keep my posts to 17 words or less even if I am in the middle of a sentence or a ..........

Hey Paul ... great to see you here
I'll try my best to keep up with your humor in the future and not disappoint you ...
Don't forget, the Dolphins drink after 11pm

 

[DeniseAndy]

One thing you can do as I do too is when you want a minimal aquascape in the display, just add a bunch of rock to the sump. I have rock in both the refugium part and the return part of my sump. I can switch it around when wanted and never a lack of pods or issues with bacteria. I will use the rock to begin picos and my traveling tanks.
I know this is obvious, but had not seen it mentioned yet. Could have missed while scanning the newer posts though. Sorry if this is a repeat.
I am working on new aquascaping right now. Love one of my structures. Hope you settle on it soon. If you do not like it after a bit, you can always change it. Granted, once coral starts growing less able to move around.

 

[Steve180]

Heard it should be around a pound a gallon. Try to build caves, you have too much rocks if you’re creating dead zones

 

[JoeJoesonoma]

I really think its all about what kindve look your going for. But when having fish you can't just have a wall...they need caverns and ledges to hide under. After changing mine to having more space for the fish to swim in..i noticed the fish were more at ease. And this will leave you more options for coral at different levels.

 

[Stigigemla]

There are three reasons to use live rock in a reef tank.
1. As a self cleaning base for good bacteria.
2. As a base to mount corals on.
3. As shelter for fishes

If You are a beginner with heavy fishload #1 is dominant.

If you have a frag tank with very few fishes in You hardly need any live rock at all because the corals are cleaning the water.
But the fish will be nervous without hiding places and of being alone. There is no such things as a fish alone on a coral reef.

If You have a lot of fishes they need hiding places. But many fishes prefer to hide in corals instead. When i had chromis in my 400 gallons they used a 1 foot birdsnest coral as hiding place and very seldom was to find in the live rock.

For beginners I always recommend 10% of the tank volume in rocks.

 

[van7271]

Just got done aquascaping my new 90gallon. I have to admit I love aquascaping and I love a lot of rock. What do you all think? Too much?

Once you get some coral growing it going to beautiful.

 

[Mad Marine]

Way too much rock and unnatural looking. There needs to be gaps, spaces, branches, overhangs etc. Look at videos on YouTube. Take out half the rock and start over. Good luck.

 

[Greg P]

I should have added more info about my process;
I use a very minimalist amount of LR and rely on my Corals to process nutrients. And I use the most porous rock I can find to maximize bacterial surface areas.
As I add fish, my corals grow and process NO3 and PO4

Then, as the corals grow, I add more fish to increase the food for more coral growth