Amount of Live Rock in a Reef Tank?

[NaCl_H2O]

Chris, maybe you could turn this into a poll?

I am approaching the need to order LOTS of Live Rock for my new system and I'm curious how much live rock does everyone have in their Reef systems (I'm not interested in FOWLR numbers).

I have about 225 lbs in my 120, so with sump capacity that's about 1.5lbs per gallon.

So, how much rock per gallon do you have in your system?
0.5lbs, 1.0lbs, 1.5lbs, 2.0lbs. 2.5lbs, 3.0lbs, MORE?

Thx - Steve

[MikeDeL]

I have about 8 gallons of water in my system, and there is about 20 lbs of live rock, between the main tank and the filter. So whats that? About 2.5 lbs per gallon of water.


Mike

[Gator]

I think alot of it depends on the type of rock yo have. I have tonga branch with huge branches i think a 20lb rock of branch compared to a 20lb bolder has diffrent amount of surface area. but i have 2lbs of tonga branch per gallon.

[OldSalty]

REMEMBER, leave some room for the corals and stuff you will add, they come on live rock as well. to much LR leaves no room for anything else.

[cailan]

i have about 40 pounds in my 30 gallon right now and i'm looking to add about 10-15 more. it isn't reef tank though so i'm not factoring adding in liverock with the coral.

[pilot_bell777]

I have about 150 - 160 in my 75 gallon (still pretty open the way I have it aquascaped).

[matt]

I'd consider making PVC and eggcrate structures to stack the rock on. With a little creative rockwork, you can really hide the PVC and it takes much less rock to get some nice looking reef structures. You might ask Troy Valentine to show you his set up. It looks great. After I did this to my tank, I noticed an immediate improvement in flow in/around/behind the rock. And, there was much more of the sand bed exposed to the water; less detritus build up, more room for the sand animals to move around and do their thing. If you have a deep sand bed, you're relying much less on the rock for bio-filtration. Once I had the PVC/eggcrate structures, I had maybe 100-125 lbs in my 110 and it looked fine to me. If you really fill up a tank with rock, it's much harder to keep water flowing all throughout the rock work.

[Tim Marvin]

Most people run about 1.5-2 lbs per gallon. I stay on the 1.5 lbs per gallon range.

[fishhawk]

Me too, at present about 1.5 per gallon. I have several of what I call smaller pieces in my 110. Abouy softball size. When I get my refuge set up (somewhere between 38 & 45 gal), I will transfer these to that and buy a few more mega-pieces to replace them with.