aquascaping advice needed

[robertmathern]

Ok I have set up my tank with 80lbs of live rock. 50lbs fiji and 30lbs of key west (I live in florida so cheap). But all I have is round bricks stacked up I have done the best I can to make it look good. However after reading the post on how many lbs per gallon. I am wandering I should not take most of the rocks with not much visible life on them. Crush em up to big chunks and out it throughout my sump -my fuge I have a deep sand bed in there. The reason I ask is the lfs has really really nice dry rock. Yes dry rock no life. But I could do some cool aqua scaping with it. And I think in time it will become live. And do like you guys said just wait intill I find really cool pieces and add it slowly after cureing it if its live. The lfs says they get cool pieces in all the time but they sell fast. But even the dry is cool. then I would have more than 2lbs a gallon. Sorry for the long post just a thought I had.Here is a pic of the tank dont mind the alge it only 3 weeks old. Umless you know ssomething I can do to help. The cyno especially but I think it is from a rookie mistake I made in the biging. I put some home made food in but way to much and overfed quite a bit. I think I have that under control now. I also hear it can come from the diatoms that are just starting to go away.

 

[robertmathern]

Man I forgot to put the pics.

 

[rotarymagic]

Unless you added more rock.. its not gonna get much better than that. just make sure everything is pretty secure.

 

[robertmathern]

It sucure thats for sure. Took me hours to figure out how to get it that way. The lfs has some really nice pieces though may be I will add small rocks from them to the sump. And maybe add another level of rocks or a third story if you will leaving alot of open room in between the 2 layers for the fish to swim. I just want to add more rock to the sump for better boi filtration. Thanks man. Any idea on the alge on what I can do. Or just let it take its course. Maybe get some more snails since I only have 2 astria snails. What do you think a turbo an emraild crab and a few more astria. I dont think I want to add more than that at one time. oh I forgot to say its a 55gal.

 

[girlina4x4]

Looks good! As for the diatoms, they will go away on their own. Its just one of those things you deal with when you have a new tank. And the cyano, try siphoning it off the rocks with a gravel vac. Other things that help are less light, less feeding, and more flow. It doesnt look like you have a ton though, which is good.

 

[sueandherzoo]

Wow - that's 80 pounds of rock in there???? If so something is really deceiving! I have a 55 with about 60 pounds of live rock and it looks a lot more crowded than your tank.
I think it needs MORE rock - seems like a shame to bust up large pieces to make rubble, but that's just my opinion.
Sue

 

[rotarymagic]

rowaphos and a fuge/scrubbe will knock out cyano too by removing the phosphates and nitrates that they feed on.

 

[robertmathern]

Ok thanks I thought it was not a good idea to bust up rocks when the lfs sells smaller ones. And for Sue each rock is about 5 lbs give or take the one in the top middle is 8 lbs. most of the rocks on the bottom are pretty much burried in the sand. In fact there are 2 rocks in there that the sand sucked them in and are not visible anymore

 

[robertmathern]

And I think thats why the cayno is not to bad I have about 1800 gph in the tank. Flow seem to be pretty good everywhere in the tank. I will look into the few spots where the cayno is to see if I can incress it there.