I am confused NOW!! Big surprise huh?

[pmartin727]

I have a 30g 3 1/2 foot long tank. I now have 30lbs of live rock in it now. here is the inventroy.

30lbs of live rock.
20lbs of live sand.

3 hermit crabs

2 baby clowns no more than 1"

1 purple tip Anemone (Sorry no good with names)

1 small six line wrasse 1 1/2 "

1 bartlet anthis 3"

and about 7-8 Soft corl frags Candy coral, gorilla nips, and three different polips, green mushroom, green star pulip. (really small but nice looking).

Then tank has been doing and looking great. the fish are eating twice a day small morning feeding and med night feeding (brime ,& mises frozen cubes).

My question is after I added the live stock to the tank I think I would like a little more Live rock. I have room for about 25 more pounds comfortably. but being that I have the anthis I dont want to cut off to much of his swimming room. So I was thinking I'b add about 10-15 more pounds.

Is it wrong/ bad to add More Live rock to an already established tank?????????? Should I not add more rock???????????

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/1/156231tank.jpg

[pmartin727]

I am confused....I thought the more live rock the BETTER the softies will grow... Plus I am worried about the Six line wrasses diet....... I want to grow all my coral from frags at least thats the plan.

I only want to add MORE rock to make life better for the coral and fish not for the look so much.

FYI - All water specs are perfect. My cal and alk are a little high salt is 1.028, 460 cal and 9.1 alk but I was thinking I might add some hard coral later. So I think Iam okay there.



I have 15lbs on each side of the tank. =30lbs

[shag26272]

You will be fine with 10-15lbs more. I would buy some base rock

http://marcorocks.com/proddetail.asp?prod=15%23TongaShelf

[1F2FRFBF]

Adding more rock to an already established system may cause you to go through another cycle, which will likely produce ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, all of which can be harmful to the already-established livestock in your tank.

How long has your current system been up and running?

If you can cycle the rock separate from the main tank that would probably be the safer way to go.

If your tank is already well-established, adding a little bit of rock at a time might be an option as well. You don't want to overwhelm your system.

[WaterKeeper]

No problem to add rock to an existing tank. If you get it from the LFS and it is fully cured you can place it right in. If you go mail order or get other uncured rock merely cure it in separate curing containers.

[pmartin727]

Do I need MORE rock or do you think I am okay here with 30lbs

[UnderCoverDork]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9985117#post9985117 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pmartin727
Do I need MORE rock or do you think I am okay here with 30lbs

that depends..do you have any other means of filtration? skimmer? phosreactor?

i would get more LR..it can only do good

[UnderCoverDork]

oh, and the "purple tip anemone" is a condy i bet. Most likely bleached white and will fade to a browish color in 2-4 months...or it could be something else
i used to have one..moved around stinging other corals too much..had to get rid of it

[pmartin727]

Water Params.

Calcium 460 ppm
Alkalinity 9.1 dKH
Salinity 1.028
Temp 76 - 79
pH 9.2
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Nitrite 0

Running on

1 Rio 2600gph power head
1 CPR Back pack skimmer
sand and the 30lbs of rock

[blkdrgn]

i think it is 1 to 1 1/2 lbs of LR per gallons of water. I think you are fine now but it doesn't hurt to add 15lbs more. You just have to be a little concerned about the tank cycling again.
If fully cured LR you shouldn't have to worry too much. You can put them in all at once or just 5lbs at a time per week to be extra safe.
If partially cured than you will have to watch your water parameters carefully and be ready for PWCs. I would add 5lbs until water parameters are good and then add again. This would keep the spike lower. But the best would be to fully cure it in a separate tank.
The reason why some suggest you have enough LR is that you want to save some space for corals and others.

[HPD Turbo]

Is that Al behind your tank?

[pmartin727]

No its not a condy (I know ALOT of Anemone are died for color)
However this one is not..... I am terrible at spelling so I wint even try to spell the name. But it is beautiful.

I'll post some pic when I get a better camera (Cell phone photos suck)

The anemone has been in the same spot since I put him in the tank. (3 months now) The clowns love it!

I think I just got lucky or so my freinds say. I paid 40$ for him

[pmartin727]

Yeah I love Mob movies......I change the back round wall paper once every 2-3 months. I basiclly cut out $5 Posters to fit the back of the tank...

I think it makes the tank look awsome ..with all the lights in the room off and just the tank lights on = Al comes to Life LOL



..Though some of you guys think is is lame!

[Icefire]

your salinity is just a bit high ;)

[sabbath]

Did you typo is your PH 9.2????? Is so that is way to high.

[pmartin727]

I did not notice that but yeah I mean to put 8.2 PH
ANd My Salinity is a little high... Not much I just did a water change so in a couple of days with a few top offs it should be around 1.026. The tank has been doing great.... I just got a new camera so I'll be posting pictures soon.

Calcium 460 ppm
Alkalinity 9.1 dKH
Salinity 1.028
Temp 76 - 79
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Nitrite 0

Running on

1 Rio 2600gph power head
1 CPR Back pack skimmer
sand and the 30lbs of rock

[Saltwater_Dog]

Add some base rock. It will be alot cheaper on your end.

[shag26272]

same results also, 35 of my 50 lbs is base rock , you would never know , plus it looks nicer then alot of LR out there

[pmartin727]

cool I'll look into that thanks

I'll be post pics just as soon as I transfer the pictures from the camera I just got to the CPU.

Thanks for the ideas !!!

[shag26272]

heres the link again

http://marcorocks.com/products.asp