How much live rock to have?

[t5Nitro]

How much live rock should be in a tank, around 1 pound per gallon?

Thanks

[GobyJohnKenobi]

That's a good target number to shoot for.

You could try 3/4s of a pound per gallon and see how that looks.

You want to leave swimming space for fish and alot of the corals you buy will come mounted on rocks.

Have fun picking out your rocks.

[sir_dudeguy]

one pound per gallon is the least amount that is recommended...more live rock means heavier bioload tho, so if you can afford it...get more.

[ChunksInClemson]

I say go for 2 lbs/gallon.

[t5Nitro]

ok thanks for the opinions. 2 pounds a gallon can get really expensive though doing a whole tank in live rock lol.

[mg426]

Do I hear a pound and a half ????

[t5Nitro]

lol! pound and 3/4 maybe :P

[ChunksInClemson]

t5nitro, who told you this hobby wasn't expensive? I know its expensive, I have abuot 150 lbs. in my 90. The key is mixing in a little base rock with the LR and finding ppl who are selling the LR for less than 6.99/lb. I also did mine little by little but just added about 60 lbs. this week. Go out and try to find deals on LR!!! If you aren't ready to spend some money, then get out of this hobby now!

[t5Nitro]

lol, ya I found a pretty decent deal on live rock, and I know this hobby is expensive :D fun hobby too, looking forward to getting a tank up and running.

[sir_dudeguy]

ya definately dont pay the freakin 7 bucks a pound that the lfs is trying to sell for lol. My lfs is a little more fare and sell for 4.50 but still...i'm too poor for that, so i just turn to local reefers, and i can usually get it for like 2 or 2.50 per pound...and yes you could add about half live and half base rock and you'll be fine. just dont get lace rock...i've got it and havent had any problems, but i hear it has metals in it that arent good for certain animals.

Try your local group tho...go to the bottom of the forum list on the previous page (or 2 pages back idk which) and look for the one that says "reef club forums" and then look for a club in your area and just post that you're looking for live rock but you're on a budget...theres often somewhat of a response, and what might happen is 4 or 5 people will say that they can sell you about 20 lbs for a really good price.

[ChunksInClemson]

i think a pound and 13/16ths is the best ratio lol

[hodsgod]

I initially put around half a pound a gallon in my set up, it is $20 a pound in Japan. After a few months I then bought some dead rock, I left it outside for a few weeks to make sure it was really dead, then I put it in a bucket of water from a water change, and swapped the water every week when I did a tank change. After 4 weeks I placed the new "live" rock in the tank.

I monitored the ammonia and nitrite/ate levels all the time and had no problems at all. I also saved about $600.

[mg426]

How much is that in Kilos??

[SeanySean]

2.2lbs = 1KG

[lt34]

I found nice Cocana (spelling?) rock that I used for base rock and then put lr on top. Now the base rock is starting toget the coraline algae. I was always told 1 to 2lbs per gallon for rock.

[lux_06]

lol dude if i put the recomended 45kgs of live rock in my 100g at $25 a kilo thats friggin $1125 worth of rock! (aussie dollars there!)

lol and to think i once bought 30kgs to cycle a tank and killed most of the good stuff! lol

i started with 10kgs of the good stuff! and a whole lot of cheaper not premium rock in the sump, this time round i added 2 small pieces a week to the display and that way i dont have to know what i spent on dam rock! but i love to find wicked base rock shapes that i have used to make my reefs shape so cool then used the live rock to seed it as others have mentioned!

i also prefer my tank to look less full so i wont be near 2 pounds per gallon, i just use a remote sand bed and awsome skimmer to make sure i have sufficiet filtration.