Did I buy too much Live rock?

[first29gallon]

Hi, it's my first post! I'm so excited about starting my first salt water tank and currently have my tank cycling with Live rock that I bought off someone . I have two questions on the live rock:

1. Is 40lbs too much for a 29 gallon tank? . Take a look at the attached picture of my tank with all the live rock already in it.
2. Since I put the rock in first and then the sand, after the initial cloudiness of the water went away it left a layer of very very fine dust on all my rock. What is the best way to get this off the rock?

All feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Ron Reefman]

1) No, it's not too much.
2) You can just stick your hand in the tank and wave at the rocks. You'll create enough water motion to blow off the sand. If you want a 'better' way, get a turkey baster and suck up tank water to 'blow' off the sand. BTW, having a turkey baster as a dedicated tool for your aquarium isn't a bad idea. I use one to feed the tank. I mix various foods in a heavy glass (heavy makes it harder to knock over) and suck up food and deliver it where I want it in the tank. I have some anemones that I need to feed as they don't do well with just light, and the turkey baster works perfectly.

 

[Deftones2015]

Tank looks good with the rock you have. I agree with the turkey Baster I have used one the whole time I've been in the hobby for everything from target feeding to blowing detritus off my live rock every week. It will take a while to get the sand off because the sand will go into the water column and some will fall back on the rock.

 

[Slipstream06]

I've always heard the recommendation of 1.5lbs of live rock for every gallon so your right at that mark.

 

[uncleL]

Tank looks good! I just setup a 20g

 

[A1t2o]

Just going off the title, not reading your post, I would say no. I don't think you can ever get too much live rock unless it starts causing issues with blocking flow and creating dead spots to the point that rearranging it can't help. Live rock is the foundation of your tank and the more you have, the more stable things will be.

 

[thelawnwrangler]

is your 29 gallon 30 inches?

I am looking to buy rock for my 36 gallon which is 36 inches want to get a feel for how it would look.

I think yours looks great

 

[first29gallon]

is your 29 gallon 30 inches?

I am looking to buy rock for my 36 gallon which is 36 inches want to get a feel for how it would look.

I think yours looks great

Thanks for all your input everyone!

Yes, my tank is 30 inches long. It's acrylic and I was just moving the powerhead and it causes one of the big rocks to fall and put a deep scratch in the front of the tank. Its not a big scratch and others prob won't even see it. But I will always know its there :sad2:

 

[Psychomantix]

Just going off the title, not reading your post, I would say no. I don't think you can ever get too much live rock unless it starts causing issues with blocking flow and creating dead spots to the point that rearranging it can't help. Live rock is the foundation of your tank and the more you have, the more stable things will be.

Gotta disagree with this. Rocks take up space. The more rocks you have, the less water you will have. And the general rule of thumb is the more gallons of water you have, the more stable your parameters. And I believe that water parameters are the foundation of your tank, not rocks.

 

[aznflyfisherman]

I think once you start buying corals, you will need to remove some of the rocks. This is always the cast in my experience..

 

[rsain]

Gotta disagree with this. Rocks take up space. The more rocks you have, the less water you will have. And the general rule of thumb is the more gallons of water you have, the more stable your parameters. And I believe that water parameters are the foundation of your tank, not rocks.

You are partially correct. In that rocks take up volume. BUT and it's a big BUT, your rock is the primary source of biological filtration - meaning the rock basically does the work of managing your parameters for you (in a sense).

The rock holds the bacteria that process ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate

The rock also holds all sorts of other little critters that help establish a functioning ecosystem within your tank.

Rock rocks.

- ryan

ps: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2152814

 

[CStrickland]

I don't think the amount of rock is all that important. There are plenty of tanks that run less than a pound per gallon and don't see nitrate issues. I think there's more to it than real estate when it comes to bacteria. So I would say there is a point of diminishing return where the more rock isn't helping with filtration but it is interfering with other processes, doing more harm than good. I'm running a 55+15g sump with about 30# of rock and I've never seen any indication that it's insufficient to handle the ammonia produced by my heavily fed stock. I have seen people with bad nitrate problems who have cluttered up their sump with rubble to the point that it's filthy.

 

[AcroNewbie]

I would say if you can maybe take some of those rocks back to the LFS and see if they will let you re-select some rocks, if you arent too far along on the cycle (i.e. if you just filled that tank up and your rocks are still dead rock), and select for some rocks that are more porous (lighter) which will help greatly with the filtration of the tank as well as it being more aesthetically pleasing and easier to work with when scaping. Right now it seems a bit cramped in there so down the road there wont be a lot of room for you to add corals, or if you have a sump, maybe consider bio-media substitutes like Siporax or Matrix, you can even run those in a reactor so you dont have to rely solely on rocks. It may seem like a lot of work now but down the road you will wish you had done it early, because its a lot harder to change things once livestock are in.

Also, use some epoxy to glue down the aquascape once you have it set so the rocks wont fall.

 

[scooter31707]

It looks ok, but if you wanted to, take a screwdriver and hammer and break some of the big pieces into smaller pieces and that will provide some caves swim through areas.

 

[Psychomantix]

You are partially correct. In that rocks take up volume. BUT and it's a big BUT, your rock is the primary source of biological filtration - meaning the rock basically does the work of managing your parameters for you (in a sense).

The rock holds the bacteria that process ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate

The rock also holds all sorts of other little critters that help establish a functioning ecosystem within your tank.

Rock rocks.

- ryan

ps: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2152814

In my mind rocks play 3 mains roles in the aquarium, and the biological filter aspect is the last on the list. Anyways the 3 roles are:

1. Aesthetic hardscape of the tank. Choose rocks with interesting shapes that fit what your vision for the tank to be. Your rock layout will also affect the water flow in the tank. I think this is the most important reason this is the aspect that you will notice every time you look at your tank.
2. Rocks provides caves for your critters to hide and a place for corals to stick to. You want a variety in rock heights to accommodate different lighting needs of corals. You also want looks of crevices for fish and inverts to hide to reduce stress.
3. Biological filtration. The important thing here is total surface area of nocks and NOT weight. Look for porous rocks. However, bacteria will also stock to sand, bioballs, and corals. Although necessary, you don't really need that much rock to accomplish this task. And when people's water parameters are out of whack, it is usually not the ammonia-nitrite-nitrate. It is usually some other parameter or condition/disease that leads to die off, which would then cause ammonia-nitrite-nitrate to spike, not the other way around.

 

[platypusklr]

Whatever looks good do you.....is great! Volume is important, but so is good filtration and great buffering. Do you have a sump or fuge? If not and you love your scape consider a remote vessel and pump. Could be as simple as a brute trashcan. I had a 29 gallon years ago. I ran a dual fluval fx5 on it.....1 fluval in to can return to tank, 1 fluval in to tank return to can....on a constant loop. Instant 40 gallon volume increase, and lots of space for carbon!

 

[first29gallon]

I don't have either. Just a canister filter . This is all new to me

 

[rsain]

Did I buy too much Live rock?

I don't have either. Just a canister filter . This is all new to me

Not really an effective method when doing marine aquaria. Long story, but an interesting read.

Take a gander at the sticky post about setting up your tank! (Edited to include link).

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1031074

- ryan

 

[WaReefer458]

I had a canister on a 55 the first 2 years I was in the hobby with no problems. It's kind of a crappy way to do it but it works. You just have to be diligent with cleaning it. If it is a canister with trays, I used to run bio media in 2 of the trays and carbon in the bottom one

 

[shifty51008]

There are lots of people that do the min aquascape look to keep the dt clean and not look like a pile of rocks but they also have a decent ammount of rock in the sump/fuge. Imo you can never have enough rock, wether you put it in the dt, sump, fuge, remote fuge, ect as long as it's connected to the tank it is working.