live rock

[regaltang]

I want to get rid of the cannister filter and would like to know how much live rock would be needed for 50 gal tank. I have about 50 lbs in there right now, an AquaC Remora Skimmer with the 1200 pump and two additional 1200 maxijet pumps set up in each corner. Cannister filter is an XP? for use up to 75 gallons. I have heard from this site that cannister filters do more harm to the water than good.
Tank has been set up since Nov 2003, all water paramaters are good with the exception of the nitrate (or is it nitrite, I get the two names mixed up, it's the one that turns orange when testing) which is currently between 40 & 80 ppm.
by the way this is a fish only tank with live rock.
Any suggestions?
thanks.

 

[loganj]

I would add another 25lbs minimum and would suggest another 50lbs. You'll want to make sure the rock is fully cured before you add it to the tank to avoid going through another cycle. I'd probably keep the canister running with no media for extra flow...it's a great place to run some carbon occasionally too. 40 is a bit high for nitrates. How often are you doing water changes? For a FO tank, you really want to shoot for nitrate levels of <20 with a target of 0. I would probably do a 50% water change now and at least 20% per month after that. Most of the tanks that I care for get 20% every two weeks.

 

[ccCapt]

Usually 1 1/2 -2 lbs of live rock for every gallon of water is recommended for good biological filtration. Another 25 lbs or so will be fine as long as you have good water flow in and around the lr.
Even for a fowlr tank your nitrates are too high and more than likely that is from the cannister filter media not being cleaned or changed often enough. You can take the filter media out of the cannister and use it for circulation and do weekly water changes with ro/di water an get those nitrates down.
HTH