can you have to much liverock ????

[tropills]

Originally Posted by Coral Keeper
This is interesting. So, what if you have 2 55 gallon tanks, one is filled with 100 lbs of base rock and the other with 50 lbs of Fiji live rock. Both tanks that have the rock take up the same amount of room. People say that a mandarin needs like 100 lbs of LR, can you also put one in the tank that has 50 lbs of Fiji live rock? So, does it matter how much space the rock takes up or how much it weighs?
IMO no, the more rock you have the more stable the tank will produce the foods necessary for you fish and more area for good bacteria to colonize.
base rock is just that base rock it will eventually become live if it is seeded with a few pieces of actual live rock. how much room it takes up is kinda irrelevant the rock needs to be pores and not solid, the more pores it is the better it will act as the filter for your tank thus eliminating any hang-on or canister type filters, the only thing you may have to run is a skimmer but there are several people not even running them, just water flow and a lot of pores rock..

 

[ccampbell57]

I have around 300# now in my 180 and have taken out about 100# for swimming room. I am stocking up for my 375

 

[tropills]

very nice selection of fish ,,, love the emperor and hippo, naso, and trigger mix , how do they all get along ??

 

[ccampbell57]

Thanks tropills! Yep they all get along like a good little family. The Crosshatch is the newest member and is still trying to find his place in the lineup. The Emperor is the only one that is bossing him around currently.

 

[nigerbang]

I wish you were closer, a buddy of mine is having his grand opening on the 1st of Feb. He sells rock for $2.50lb, and won't sell rock unless its been in the water for a min. Of 8 months

 

[ray28576]

I would say no, you can't have too much live rock, but I also say the more live rock you have, the less water volume you have.

 

[tropills]

just added 150 pounds of rock and I have to say I'm VERY HAPPY

tank looks full, but yet still has a ton of flow in and around all the rock.
I'll post a pic in a little bit..

 

[hefner413]

when I added 100lbs to the existing 30lbs in my 55gal, the overall flow decreased tremendously. SO I had to add 2 Koralia PH's - a #4 and a #3. Now I wish I had got 2 #4's. That was my biggest thing - more rock = more barriers to water flow. So you may want to try compensating for this...

 

[tropills]

Originally Posted by Hefner413
http:///forum/post/2454331
when I added 100lbs to the existing 30lbs in my 55gal, the overall flow decreased tremendously. SO I had to add 2 Koralia PH's - a #4 and a #3. Now I wish I had got 2 #4's. That was my biggest thing - more rock = more barriers to water flow. So you may want to try compensating for this...
Thanks, I already did when I was building this tank... I have a seio 2600 modded onto a diy spray bar behind the rock work, so need less to say I have 2600gph flow behind the rock itself, also have 2 other seio 2600 in the corners and 2 maxi jet 1200 in the back along with the returns that's pushing 1400+. so if you add it all up I have 10,600 gph flow in the DT, I have NO dead spots.

 

[tropills]

OK here's some pic's with all the rock I added today,, so the grand total is ruffly 650 to 700 pounds of rock

now I'm happy,

yea right.

 

[hefner413]

uh oh... pics didn't work..

 

[tropills]

 

[hefner413]

that's awesome! Just a little rock, eh?
I noted your pvc cave on the bottom right. did you use a few of these in your setup?
Otherwise, is all the rock just stacked on top of itself, or do you have it secured in some way?

 

[tropills]

I have 4 4" PVC elbows under some sections to help with flow under the rock, but it is mostly all rock stacked on top or more rock. Thanks

 

[tropills]

just to clarify this tank is 8 foot long and 2 feet high and 18 inches wide = 180 gallon

 

[hefner413]

looks like it has the corner overflows? is it aga?

 

[tropills]

not real sure what make it is, If I had to guess I would say it was a older O'Dell,
yes it has corner overflows, I'll bump my 180 long build thread up if you haven't seen it yet.

 

[acrylic51]

Yeah I believe you can have to much rock in a DT.....basically what Ophiura stated....and when it's packed with rock you don't really have alot of swimming room for your fish, and it starts to look like a block wall, and with that much rock you can't really access the back glass, and water flow is tremendously cut down and spray bars will clog over time....