Ok noob question

[bnutz24]

I have looked at pics of reef tanks and was up in the air at what I wanted to do with my 130g tank.I am really leaning towards a reef setup or at least partially I have noticed that most reef tanks have rocks almost all the way to the top is this preferance or necessity?? my tanks is 24in deep I would like to have A nice reef along the bottom about halfway up the tanks and leave the upper portion open. IMO alot of reef tanks look really crowded (or give the perception of being crowded) so with this in mind I would like to setup my tank in this manner (opinions pls) my tank is 72in long 24in deep and 18in wide I would like my reef to be something along these dementions 48in long about 5-7in wide(front to back leaving space all around it) and about 10-12in high I think it would look great with some nice shelves and caves in the aquascaping and would give me the best of both worlds reef and fish without being crowded looking. any opinions would be helpful and welcomed.

 

[copernicus45]

most people try to pack in as much live rock, because more liverock = more biological filtration, if you have a nice sized skimmer (which you should on a reef that size), you could get away with less rock, no problem. Setting up a refugium under your stand would also help with the bio filtration, when you have less rock in the display. But really its all up to you.

 

[bnutz24]

Well the tank is still brand new only been running since 5/27/07 so still in the planning stages. I am just trying to avoid costly mistakes early on. so all help is appreciated

 

[aztec reef]

just get as much liverock as you can...there's no such thing as crowded, I know it doesn't look that good having a tank full of rocks at first.. but hose rocks are going to be the shelves for your corals, and once your tank is mature and corals start to overgrow then you won't even see that much liverock ..
Also it is a good idea to add all or most of the liverock at first, since liverock has a bunch of die-off (ammonia) it is not a good idea to add once your tank has been stablished and cycled..It comes down to your personal preferance but if you want a good filtration from liverock then go with 1-1.5lbs of liverock per gallon of water..

 

[sjimmyh]

If you have the money, make a live rock sump. Best of both worlds. Having a lower reef (deeper into the tank to reach the top of the rock) may limit you on what corals you can keep due to lack of lighting. Even though its still "lit" at the bottom of the tank, unless you have higher wattage MHs, you may have problems keeping the more light demanding species. Most SPS corals are almost at the waters surface in a lot of tanks due to their high lighting NEEDS more than that's where the aquarist WANTS to keep them.
You could still have a gorgeous reef with many corals, but you would be limiting yourself on species more than if you had places to put corals at all levels in the tank. That's why most of us do the live rock all the way up thing... not so much because we all "love" that look.

 

[bnutz24]

Hmm thanks both of those give me something to think about pls keep the suggestions and thoughts comming.