Live rock placement

[BLACKMOSS]

Hey all,

Recetly started a 75g SW tank and as of now, I only have about 15lbs. of live rock. In photos of other's tanks, I have seen rock to the ceiling. After further reading I know now I need at least 1lb. per live rock per galllon.

I am heading to the fish store later this week to get some more rock and wondering about placement. How do you stack the rock without fear of it falling? And do you keep a 1-2in space around glass for cleaning the glass purposes? A person at the LFS said I could buy the limestone and put it in there and it would be live rock very soon. Would anyone mind answernig these questions? Thanks in advance!

Blackmoss

[catmel]

Originally Posted by BLACKMOSS

Hey all,

Recetly started a 75g SW tank and as of now, I only have about 15lbs. of live rock. In photos of other's tanks, I have seen rock to the ceiling. After further reading I know now I need at least 1lb. per live rock per galllon.

I am heading to the fish store later this week to get some more rock and wondering about placement. How do you stack the rock without fear of it falling? And do you keep a 1-2in space around glass for cleaning the glass purposes? A person at the LFS said I could buy the limestone and put it in there and it would be live rock very soon. Would anyone mind answernig these questions? Thanks in advance!

Blackmoss

1-2 pounds per gallon works well. I'd steer away from the LFS enless its really cheap. You can get mostly 'dead reef rock' and seed it with some live rock. Much cheaper. Marcorocks.com and liveaquria are pretty good deals. Ive ordered from both and have been happy. I have about 1.5 # per gallon in mine. Its stacked about halfway up the tank.

[ezy33]

A 2" space between the glass and rock will keep the glass or Plexi glass from scratching. When laying the rock make sure it's sitting on the bottom and not on the sand. This will keep fish or inverts from undermining the base that could cause a collapse. When placing the rocks on top of other rocks make sure the bottom rock is stable. You should not be able knock it off with a gentle push. Take your time turning the rock until it stable. Some people use white PVC pipe to make shelves.

[melosu58]

I put my LR on the back glass as to make the fish swim out front. As Ezy said make sure it`s on the bottom glass so any burrowers will not cause a landslide.

[BLACKMOSS]

Thanks for the advice all! Really appreciate it. I will def. look into online buying next time, but as for now I bought another 15 lbs live rock from LFS (figi rock). I removed all the rock from the tank and then made the design I wanted outside the tank, then put it all back in. I did lean it against the back glass and made sure there were swimming and hiding holes/valleys for the fish, and also "bottomed" it out against the bottom of the tank.

When I took out the live rock that had been in the tank for about a month, I noticed something crawling on it. Freaked me out at first cause wasn't expecting it, but it looked kindof like a ladybug body (oval shaped) and kindof was moving on the rock sluggishly. Then I saw a couple more and they are pretty well camoflouged. Anyways, I put it all back in the tank and will take a picture of it to post here. I lost a damsel the next day though, not sure why.. maybe he got too stressed with new design?

Blackmoss

[melosu58]

You`d be surprised what`s in that LR.

[CaptainAhab]

Which is one advantage (albeit expensive) to buying live rock as opposed to base rock. You'll get all kinds of critters (good and bad) and a quick (or quicker) cycle

[BLACKMOSS]

Yes I now see that the little slugs things have gotten bigger and are crawling all over my glass. They look like little snails with no shell. Is it possible my snails had babies? Or was this already on the LR I purchased?