How much rock do you use?

[Aquattro]

I still see references to using 1.5 pounds per gallon to acheive proper filtration. I never have, always doing about half the recommended amount, but it's always been enough, as I've never had measurable NO3...

do you use the suggested 1.5 pounds per gallon? What are your results either way?

[Magma]

think i have closer to 2lbs per gallon and I always thought it was 1lb to 1gal?

[christyf5]

i have less than the recommended amount but was going for a certain look. i have about 150-160lbs in my 180 and still think it is a bit much but i paid for it so i;m gonna use it!:razz:

[kien]

I think I have about 0.5lbs per gallon in both my reef tanks. I much prefer to have more open space for swimming. Seems to be enough filtration.

[Aquattro]

Ya, I just rockscaped the 180, and figure I might have 100 pounds...I prefer more open space. Not sure what it looks like yet, I added 4 bags of sand too, and I have a tank of milk. It felt good going in, maybe tomorrow I'll get to see it :)

[kien]

I personally find the "pounds per gallon" rule as useful as the "watts per gallon" rule :)

[bvlester]

The old school thought is 1 pound per gallon of mixed salt water in your tank and not the total capacity of your tank and sump. so a 100g tank would get about 85-90 pounds of rock. you can have more but less if you are going to heavily stock is frond upon, as the rock will not be able to keep up with the bio load demand.

Bill

[Delphinus]

I think surface area is probably the more meaningful metric so while you're waiting for the water to clear, measure the volume of your rock using the Archimedes principle and then measure the surface area of said rock and let us all know the results. The method for measuring surface area is left as an exercise to the reader. Bonus points if you somehow use a laser. Extra bonus points if you use a blue laser. http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/896a/

[Chowder]

Less then what is recommended. Believe I have about 80LBS in my 105G. I like the more open space look.

Chris

[Reefer Rob]

1.5 lbs per gal would be OK if you could set it up in a sump. Way too much rock in the display for my taste .

[Doug]

Just to be different, I like lots of rock. Never been an "open" look fan. I love full reef tanks. More rock, better filtration, just need to make sure enough water movement and placement to allow for such. I can say for a fact, most fish we keep, including the cruising tangs, love lots of rock and hidey places. Anyways, just a different opinion to the mix. :D

[reefwars]

Just to be different, I like lots of rock. Never been an "open" look fan. I love full reef tanks. More rock, better filtration, just need to make sure enough water movement and placement to allow for such. I can say for a fact, most fish we keep, including the cruising tangs, love lots of rock and hidey places. Anyways, just a different opinion to the mix. :D




I'm with ya Doug lol lots of rock here more the beter lol:):)

[lorenz0]

I'm probably at 0.8/Gal for both tanks

[Lance]

I don't pay much attention to how much rock I use. i just 'scape it 'til I like it. Probably about 1 lb per.

[bignose]

I scaped my tank to how I like it which is less that the pound per gallon. But I filled one of my sump chambers with rock. I don't know how much I have in the tank but it probably worked out to the "pound per gallon rule".

[fishytime]

2lbs/g ish......:biggrin:.....110g display not to full looking with probably 100 lbs.....sump STUFF-ED with probably close to another 100 lbs.......the more the better....

[2pts]

I have aproximately 230lbs of live rock, my total volume is aproximately 150 gallons (including sump).

Most of mine is in my display, some in the sump.

I plan to add a 90 gallon second display in series and a larger sump moved down to the basement sometime in the future. I will not add significant rock to my system when I do.

I have a fair amount of Chaeto in my display, I rarely run a skimmer ( I have a cheap, ugly drop in the display one ).

My softies and LPS do decent, I am able to keep a few tough to keep fish species alive as well as my long tentacle anemone. My Amonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate have read zero for a while, so I assume I'm doing something right, lol.

[Milad]

i had probably close to 300lbs of rock in my 180g when i first started. it filled the 180g + the 70g sump.

since then ive taken almost half of the rock out of the display because i didnt like the look. But i still have the rock so im planning a massive outdoor sump to store all the rock and add a big refgium and ATS

so basically what has happened is that I got a great deal on all the rock (really great deal) and ended up with too much rock so now im spending about $1000 on a new outdoor sump which technically would put me at a very bad deal on the really good deal rock.

[intarsiabox]

I just put my rock in until I was happy with the look and added another 20lbs to the sump. I figure what's the point of following a "rule" if the results makes you hate the tank.

[Werbo]

+ 1
I just put my rock in until I was happy with the look and added another 20lbs to the sump. I figure what's the point of following a "rule" if the results makes you hate the tank.

[Dez]

I don't pay much attention to how much rock I use. i just 'scape it 'til I like it. Probably about 1 lb per.

I'm with Lance on this one. I probably only have about 100lbs of rock with about 340 gallons of water volume. That's about 0.3 lbs per gallon... hmmm, I must not have enough filtration. And I have over 30 fish and tons of coral. Oops.

[Coleus]

i have like 200 lbs for my 150 gallon tank and i hate it. going to redo the tank once i have time

[daniella3d]

I use about 40 lbs or so in a 75 gallons but it work great because it's the totoka liverock and it is extremely porous. Not only that but the total amout of surface a small piece of Totoka give is equivalent to a much heavier and larger piece of regular liverock. Because Totoka liverock has a lot of branching, it has a lot more amount of useful surface area.

So I guessed the 40 lbs of Totoka was probably equivalent to 80 lbs of heavy rock shaped liverock with very little surface. Worked great for me as my nitrates are undetectible and the rock seem to be doing a good job at filtration and denitrification.

It's not the quantity that really matter but the quality of the rock you put in there I think.

[riceboy]

I personally find the "pounds per gallon" rule as useful as the "watts per gallon" rule :)
:lol: totally agree on that one :lol:

[DCDN]

I probably have about a pound per gallon but thats just because I added till I had what I wanted to see