how much rock should i have???

[nelson.jdautobody]

hi.i was wondering how much rock i should have in my 40gallon breeder tank? seems like when i see other tank on here that i may have too much rock in my aquarium but dont really know. (honestly i cant say exactly how much i have in there based on weight but i thought someone once told me about 2lbs per gallon is max. now that i think of it that seems like a lot). any specific ration i should go with as far as pounds per gallon ?

 

[KillerKlownFish]

I got the RSM 130d (34 gallons)and have 30lbs. Lfs tried to sell be 50lbs. I can do maybe 5-10 more.
It also depends on the type of rock. Some actually weigh more.
Start with the lower amount and add as necessary.

30lbs:

 

[DaveMorris]

I think any "formula" would be much like the 5w per gallon formula for lighting. Nice on paper, but has no real relevance to reality. I think you should have as much as you think you want to make your tank look good. I also believe that in most cases, if you put in enough rock to look good, it will probably be more than sufficient to support the beneficial bacteria that the tank needs.

 

[Reefing Madness]

1lb per gallon for FOWRL.
2lbs per gallon for Reef
The more you have the more bacteria you will have in the tank for stabilization.

 

[Birddog]

The 2 pounds per gallon for reefing is something I learned from day one, but with some of the "minimalist scape's" I see (and love) here on R2R where's the LR in the Sump/fuge? Are there other ways of achieving the biology/reactivity/surface area when the "Minimalist Scape" is a pound per gallon or less??

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yea, some will throw some in the sump, others just won't run it with that much, and will end up using larger skimmers and nitrate reactors.

 

[nwkermit]

It depends on bio load...if you have 25 lbs of rock in your 40g, but only have 2 fish they be fine. But if you have 80lbs in the 40g but have 40 fish, you are still in trouble.

I like Haitian rocks that have a lot of caves, they are lighter and have a lot more surface areas for bacteria to grow. If you have a heavy base rock that is solid...the bacteria only will grow on the surface and that is a lot if wasted weight. I also like minimum footprint so there is more sand bed for the critters....like this.

 

[Mike J.]

Hatian rocks are like lead compared to Vanuatu rocks. To answer the OP's question, though, no, you can't have too many rocks, but the fish do need room to swim. It depends on where the rocks come from, but 1.5 - 2 lbs. per gallon is good to go.

 

[edsbeaker]

I think how much rock you need also depends on the type of rock you are talking about. Some live rock is very dense and solid. It's only filtration surface is the outside of the rock. When you are talking about newer types of available rock like Marco or Pukani, these are extremely porous. They weigh a lot less then the solid piece of live rock you might use, but have a much larger surface area for filtration lb. for lb. I only have about 120 lbs of Marco in my system that has a total of 175 gallons. I've never had an issue. So I don't think there is a hard and fast rule.

20 years ago, I used 2 lbs per gallon, but again there wasn't such a variety of rocks available back then, and I also think the skimmers of today have improved so much over the last 10 years that it just isn't necessary to use that amount of LR if you prefer less in your tank.

 

[nelson.jdautobody]

I'm not totally sure what my ratio is but this is what it looks like. Thanks for the great feedback everyone. I might put sum in my sump to make more grow out room for my corals...I don think I could put another piece in there-lol

 

[Mike J.]

Looks good to me.

 

[Bubbles_B]

depending on your desire to place live stock and growing corals you should consider other tank builds :flypig: