How much live rock

[Amandry7]

Is acceptable to have in a 55 gal tank?. Right now I have 4 lg pieces of dead rock but did not think of weighing them before I started the cycle. I am gonna get live rock next but now I'm not sure how much to have in there where it doesn't compromise the tank...picture in the avi is actual pic of what's In there now

 

[Spicemonkey]

I was told 1.5-2# of rock per gallon of water. so; shoot for 83-110# of total rock. the dead rock will come alive when you add live rock to the tank

 

[Convict2161]

If this helps I have a 29 gallon bio cube with 30 pounds of live rock. The more rock (to a degree) will aid on filtration.

 

[Amandry7]

At the risk of sounding dumb....should I be concern of how much weight I'm placing on the tank, my wife keeps thinking that we are gonna come home and find the tank in pieces because of the weight....so much that I'm about to take my rocks out and weigh them before I purchase the live rock...lol

 

[Amandry7]

Does live sand help make the dead rocks live? I have 60 lbs of live sand in my 55 gal tank, I'm noticing some grayish color on the rocks closer to the return. Is that something I should be happy about?

 

[mr_X]

The dead rock will become live after the cycle. No other rock needs to be added in order to achieve this. Look for more porous pieces of rock, and not very dense boulder type chunks. The more porous the better.

 

[Amandry7]

Took the dead rock out of my tank to weigh them... All 5 pieces weighed about 80#... I'm looking into getting 30# of live rock.

 

[Spicemonkey]

If money is tight you could stay with what you have but more very porous rock is best. Do you plan to do a reef? If so; you will probably acquire more along the way too when getting corals on rock etc.

 

[Amandry7]

I do want a reef, I am worried that I might put too much weight in the tank and bust it...

 

[mr_X]

I've never heard of that happening before.

 

[Spicemonkey]

I do want a reef, I am worried that I might put too much weight in the tank and bust it...

If the tank is on the proper stand and supported correctly this should not be a problem

 

[Amandry7]

Thank you that puts me at ease...