Enough LR?? and What do ya think?

[saxerphoner]

What do ya think??? Is this enough Live Rock? I'm pretty sure this is all the LR I'm gonna add at least for a while and I don't know the exact weight because I purchased it from someone without a working scale. Just want some comments I suppose.

It's been running for a little over a month and the levels are reading very good. Hopefully, they'll be reading even better when I get my skimmer up and running next week. I eventually want to put some soft corals and inverts in the tank. Here's the specs:

20 gallon high
?# LR
1 T-5 Actinic O3; 1 T-5 10000K; 1 T-6 Actinic 03
Whisper 20 HOB filter
Maxijett 1200 with wavemaker thing (that I think significantly decreases flow)
Coralife Super Skimmer 65 325 gph (coming next week )
"live" crushed coral (I know i should have gotten the sand)
two damsels (yep, I know they are aggressive)
one atlantic anemone (yep, I've been told it's not the best in such a young tank)
cleaning crew: 2 turbo snails and 6 mini hermit crabs

not sure what I forgot...

thanks for the comments!!! (good or bad)

 

[saltyVT]

Hard to see pic, IMO I like a fare amount of LR, i would add more, but I really can't see the pic that well The more the better for your tank!!:strooper:

 

[saxerphoner]

with a flash

 

[saxerphoner]

darn... i had to shrink it down so small because of the size restrictions that the program is trying to increase the size... oh well... any suggestions on how to fix this???

 

[sir_dudeguy]

try using photobucket. it'll work much better thru them.

But imo, you should add more. With just a couple small fish (like those damsels..how big a tank and how many/what fish are in there?) it might be fine, but whats that biggish roundish black thing up in the top left just to the right of the powerhead?

imo, i'd add at least like 10 lbs...but thats just kinda based on the size of everything else in there.

 

[saxerphoner]

better

better

lets try this: click the image to enlarge in a new window

this is without a flash:




This is with a flash:

 

[sir_dudeguy]

oh, that black thing is actually on the powerhead lol. It kinda looked like a retarded fish or something from the first pics lol. But do you have a scale? you could just take it out and weigh it w/yours...and what size tank is this? i'm gonna stab at 24-30gallons?

 

[saxerphoner]

**improved pictures above**

but whats that biggish roundish black thing up in the top left just to the right of the powerhead?

It is actually attached to the powerhead... it's made by Hydor and it's called a Rotating water deflector, also called "flo"

thanks

 

[sir_dudeguy]

ya i see now with the clearer pics lol

 

[saxerphoner]

-IYO... are the rocks set up decently? ...took forever to set them things up where they were half way stable (still think they're not stable enough and I have a branch leaning up against the back glass) Also, is there a cheaper way to go about putting stuff in there such as something without growth and letting stuff grow on it to become LR instead of buying LR?

 

[scottcc]

Garf has good articles on making live rock...I also use epoxy on several small rocks to make one large one

 

[afelder]

You could also get some base rock. It is much cheaper than the live stuff. After a year you won't be able to tell the difference. It si a nice set up but I would double the amount of rock. Of course I have 70# in a 36 gallon tank so I don't know if I should be talking.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

ya do the base rock like afelder said...you wont know the difference after a while (prolly less than a year...i've got lace rock which is way different color than live rock and its now the same after only 6 months

 

[saxerphoner]

Awesome...

so it's just called "base rock" and another option is "lace rock"

Thanks!!

 

[sir_dudeguy]

well most fish stores prolly wont know what the crap you're talkin about when you ask them about base rock...then you'll say "dry live rock" and they'll be like..."oh..you mean lace rock?" but they're 2 different things...many people use lace rock, and i've got half lace half live...but i'm not doing it again. A few people have said that it contains certain metals in it that arent good for certain typse of corals and inverts, (but i dont know what kinds) so i'm not gonna use it again.

Base rock however, is perfectly safe...however most people consider lace rock "base"...i disagree tho. The 2 main base rock places used to be reeferrocks.com and hirocks.com...both are out of business now tho...i think the first one's manager/owner/whatever had back problems and had to quit...idk what happend to hirocks...one day i was about to order..next day they were gone..glad i didnt order lol. Plus their service was terrible so i hear. But idk...maybe try a google search for "aquarium base rock" or soemthing like that. maybe liveaquaria sells it? its usually like 2 bucks a pound or so...(but usually i can get rock from the local people for that or a buck more...so i just get live rock).

If you wanna go with lace rock tho...its a buck a pound at one lfs by me, and a buck 19 at the other...personally, i dont like it cuz its kinda ugly looking (really dark brown) but i havent had problems because of it that i know of so far..

 

[JC VT]

Personally, I think your LR looks great as is. I am a fan of lower lying and open scapes.

What are your plans with stocking?

 

[gregbot9000]

might want to get rid of cc asap. i replaced mine with sand about a month ago. best thing i ever did.

 

[saxerphoner]

Not sure about the stocking... I'll prolly start with some small frags of polyps and see how they do and then go from there. Soft corals, a few invertebrates... something like that. LFS told me that a maroon clown would like the anemone I have so we'll see about that. Definitely some mixed opinions out there on that one. Thanks for the comments and help... definitely appreciate it!!!!

 

[sir_dudeguy]

problem is, the maroon clown more than likely wont like anything else (as far as fish go)...they're generally pretty dang mean. I dont know how they are when they're younger, but they get pretty big and mean.

Also, an anemone would be cool...but remember...there's no guarantee the clown will even take to the anemone.

 

[JC VT]

Ditto on the anemone; it looks like a condylactis. It's pretty hardy and actually should do alright in your new system (it looks healthy to me), but I've rarely, if ever, heard of a clown hosting in it.

If you want to see hosting behavior, a toadstool, frogspawn, torch, or hammer coral are popular alternatives to an anemone.