Too much live rock?

[haus]

Is it possible to have too much lr? I have 62 lbs right now, and a guy I know with a 280 gal tank is taking some of his out to make room for more corals. He just gave me about 15 lbs +/-, but it was out of water for a week so I am cleaning it and getting it ready to add to my tank as reef bone now. That will get me closer to the 1.5 lbs/gal range, but I asked the guy that if he takes any more out to leave it in water and I will take it as lr . If I have too much lr will there not be enough food for the bacteria and will it die off possibly causing an ammonia spike?

 

[vertex]

I don't think you can really have too much live rock. Its more personal taste than anything for how it looks. Anyway, if the rock has been out of water for 1 week I don't think you should put any right back into your tank. I would do a water change and use the old water to recycle some of the new rock for a couple of weeks. Watch its water parameters and circulate the water if you can. If you want to risk it and add right to the tank, only add one rock at a time (with several days in between) so you can level out any cycle that might occur.

Saltwater cycle it out of the your tank is the safest though now that its been out dying for a week out of water...

 

[haus]

I already scrubbed it down and now I am letting it set out to dry for about 5 more days then I will wash it again before I put it in. I am not taking any risks, too much to lose, and I don't think my fish would be happy with me if I just threw it in. They give me "the eye" every time I have something new for the tank anyways

 

[lando]

I would strongly suggest re-curing it in a seperate tub.

 

[baidieneriy]

I don't think too much live rock is a problem, I've got about 85lbs in my 30gallon tank and haven't seen any detrimental effects in the tank.

 

[schoeplein]

The only issue with "too much rock" is the occurrent absence of water as the rock displaces inversly with the amount of rock added.... just something to keep in mind. My 110g is really more of a 40-50g tank given about 40-50% is occupied by rock....

 

[flamingonhot]

it shouldn't be a problem,for the live rock thats dry i would highly suggest setting it in water again for about a week or 2 before putting it back in and then scrubbing it and rinsing really good,i had to do that when i had a bristle worm invasion.

 

[seaham358]

You also need to remember that fish need room to swim. Is adding the new rock going to limit the space your tang has for swimming? LR is nice, but I like to have fish tanks not LR tanks so I run a little over 1 lbs per gallon. Its your choice more LR is good but is it better for the tank mates??

 

[runway1]

Also might want to consider water flow. The more rock, the more dead spots. To exaggerate, if your tank were totalling rocked out, your water flow would be terrible.

 

[hcuellart]

I would strongly suggest cycling the rock for a couple of weeks in a vat. Even though you srape it and leave it outside there will be a lot of dead matter inside it...

 

[Guest]

Yes, you clearly have too much live rock in that tank. 10 lbs. is more than enough...

Send me the rest.