live rock per gallon

[moumda]

I'm setting up a new tank that will be sps only and am wondering how much live rock per gallon would be recommended. The tank will be a 75 standard size. Input would be appreciated.

 

[Ti]

I think it was 1lb per gallon as rule of thumb

 

[msuzuki126]

Put in whatever looks nice and just get at least 40 pounds I'd say.

 

[teen]

get enough so you can have place to put corals, but at the same time take into consideration that the corals need room to grow and you want a lot of flow in the tank. more rock will make it harder to get nice flow through the tank.

 

[mboley1]

My two cents. Buy 125 pounds and build a really nice reef with the rock that goes together nicely. Sell the remaining rock or put it in your sump. Hand pick it at the LFS. Avoid round or Oval rocks, and use Epoxy after you get it the way you want it. I guess that is 10 cents.

 

[mpoletti]

2nd the epoxy...Mine keeps rearraging itself.

 

[moumda]

Thanks everybody. I'll take it into account.

 

[FinzAquatics]

ive always followed the lb per gallon as a "at least standard". so in your case id get atleast 75 lbs... when i had my 90 i had 211 lbs in it. im a fan of alot of LR

 

[BadOleRoss]

My 220 has 400 lbs in it.......makes a nice reef.

 

[rodgod20]

I am putting 100lbs in my 65 for a close estimate

 

[Deep6]

I have a 55 gal. I went with 2 lbs per gallon. 40 lbs in a 125 gal tank is not enough. You will have a little tiny pile of rock in the tank. If your looking to save some money get 150 lbs of base rock and another 50 lbs of live rock and let it seed the base rock. It will take about 2 months for the base rock to seed, but it will save a lot of cash. I did 80 lbs of base in mine and 30 lbs of live rock, putting some in my sump and after two months, the base rock was looking very good. I also used Purple Up as an additive, it seems to work. I have coraline alge growing everywhere.

 

[rodgod20]

Yeah, I have 50 lbs of base rock in there now. Probably goign to be put about 15 more, and the rest with LR

 

[SptfireXIV]

You've got to remember that different kinds of live rock have different densities. I've only got about 60lbs in my 75 and I think it looks just right, its definitely not a small pile of rocks.

The advice about putting whatever in that you think looks right is probably the best advice you could follow.

 

[comfort_racing]

2nd that. if you go to liveaquaria.com and look under "live rock", you pick the different species of rock they give a poundage range per gallon. it is different for each species. the carribean rock os 3/4-1-1/4 pounds and the fiji was 1-1/4-1-1/2 pounds.

 

[saabore]

I would agree with most and would stay away from the 1 to 1.5 lb per gallon rule. So much is dependent on the size and type of rock used. I would start out with .75 lb per gallon. This would incerase your options for aquascaping and increase flow through your system.

 

[moumda]

Thanks all.