Is this enough...In your opinion???

[kingzfan]

Hi all...just wanted to get some opinions on the rock that is in my tank. It's a 55 gallon tank. Right now I have 49 lbs of live rock. Do you think this is enough? Should I get more? Should it be more filled out? Let me know your thoughts. Here is a picture of the tank taken today.

 

[yosemite sam]

It depends, what are your goals for the tank? If it is a FOWLR, then that is probably enough, especially if you're going to add some fish that need lots of swimming room (it looks really nice, by the way). If it's going to be a reef tank, you could add some more as you will need room to add all the corals, etc. especially if you have some that sting. 1.5-2 lbs of live rock (depending on size, shape and placement of the rock) will generally give the tank a pretty full appearance.
How old is the tank and what's in it? If you add live rock that hasn't been well cured, you may start a mini-cycle if there is a bunch of dead/dying stuff on it. Also, for what it's worth, if the tank is new and has no critters in it, save yourself some headaches down the road and put in a DSB now. If you try and switch later, after you have a bunch of fish, inverts, etc, it will be a major pain in the rear (I know this from personal experience!).
HTH

 

[krux]

email me at krux@lanset.com for some info on live rock options. there are routes that you can take to boost your rock very inexpensively.
from an aesthetics point of view, if it was my tank, i would rather have more rock, and i would get rid of the plant background, as when you have livestock in there you do not want a photo detracting from the stuff in the tank.

 

[thomas712]

Your tank is fine, and its up to you, you can add more rock later on if you wish. Also I think your sand bed depth is fine as well, you don't need or have to have a DSB, here to I don't see any problem adding sand later on, not a big deal.
Now that background could go, but hey if you like it
Thomas

 

[timsedwards]

lol yeh i must say, more rock less of the background!
Tim.

 

[krunk]

put a black or blue background on, around 20 more pounds of liverock.

 

[flydan]

Hey,
I also believe it is a personal choice. I have a 55gal reef tank and there is 130lbs of lr. (I also have lr frags in my refugium) Some people dont like the "box of rocks" look. A lot also depends on what you want your final product to be. As mentioned in an earlier response, if it's going to be a FOWLR it's probably fine. If it's going to be a reef I'd double what you have. I can't tell by your photo, but if that's all nice cured lr you could go buy some tufa rock or lace rock and put that down as a base, and then stack your nice lr on top of that. It would save some serious cash and the exposed tufa/lace rock would become lr over time. Just my .02.
Oh, I agree that the plant backround has got to go. (Actually my reef tank has been up for over 2 years now and back glass has so much coralline algae on it that you can't tell what backround is on the glass anyway.)
HTH,
Dan'l

 

[fishman88]

that si not 49lbs of rock. i have 45-50 lbs in my 29 and it could never fill up a 50 like that. so i think you have more than 49 so you should be ok.
mike

 

[ohioballer]

i have 100lbs. in my 55 gallon seems to be a good amount im opinion its hard with a 55 with the tank not being wide enough

 

[nas19320]

I have close to 60 lbs in my tank and it looks about the same. I agree with ohioballer that it is difficult to make good rockwork with the narrow width of a 55. I wish I had the money to set up my 90 gallon. I plan on adding more rock though to get close to 100lbs.

 

[kingzfan]

Alright...Alright I changed the background to an all black one. I didn't like it either and I forgot to change it to the other side before I took the picture. BTW - it's actually 49 - 50 lbs of rock there...Maybe I'm just a master stacker huh? .
I think I will get some more and fill it out a little more. I like the idea of the base rock with the Live rock on top.
Thanks for all your help

 

[clarkiiboi]

LR will "weigh" different depending on the type (ie. density). IMO, it looks nice as is, but you may want to create some caves and such by rearranging the rock you have. Like stated earlier, it really depends on what you want to do with this tank. You could add more, it's your decision (just dont go overboard--that will defeat the purpose). Like said, some caves/swimming holes would be nice, IMO.