# Do I need THAT much live rock



## Musicman980 (Sep 2, 2010)

I was in my lfs the other day and asked about fish to live rock ratio, the guy said that the 5 to 6 lbs of live rock in my 35 long tank was enough to keep a clownfish in it, cause any more rock would just die off. 

I went in there days after and spoke to a different person and he said that i need 30 more pounds of live rock to get another small clownfish. 

Do I really need 35 pounds of live rock to keep 2 clownfish? Because hypothetically speaking for exaggeration, if I had a 150 gallon tank with one goby I wouldnt need 150 pounds of live rock, am I right?


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

the basic deal is 1-1.5 pounds of LR per gallon.. now this could change if you are intending to keep your stock limited to just one or two fish but if you wanted to later add more fish and or corals starting off with the LR would only assist in keeping the tank stable... as for die off i dont think thats true at all most micro organisms (hitch hikers) will feed off the environment and will do very well in your system.... 
IMHO the more the merrier for live rock....


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## Mike (Jul 16, 2006)

Technically you don't need any live rock if you are planning to keep a fish only tank. However, as I've come to learn, it will make your life much easier because it offers biological filtration, or as I've read it described, metabolism. Bacteria within the live rock consumes your fish's waste (ammonia) and converts it to nitrite, then nitrate, where it is ultimately converted to nitrogen gas and leaves the tank via the water surface. The alternative is for nitrates to accumulate until you do a water change. You'll still probably want to do water changes even with live rock, but from what I'm hearing you won't have to change as much water as often. 

I am in the process of determining whether this is the case myself right now, as I've only recently removed the bio balls from my wet/dry and began adding rock to the tank. I want to add as much rock to the tank as I can while still allowing room for the fish I intend to buy to swim. I believe I've read that it's a good idea to avoid covering rock completely with other rock, though, presumably because the beneficial bacteria is inhibited that way.

I've read the same that Brett has, that you should strive for 1 - 1.5 lbs of live rock per gallon. While it can be costly, if live rock proves to do everything everyone says it does, it will save you a lot of money, time, and aggravation in the long run.


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## frothyspoon (Jul 21, 2010)

If money is the reason why you don't want much live rock then you have a few options. The first option would be to go on the internet and search for people selling their live rock due to them breaking down an established tank. You can most likely get the rock for much cheaper than if you buy from a LFS and you can add a bit of rock from a LFS later on. You would add some from a LFS to get more diversity out of your live rock which should better filter your aquarium. Your other option is to buy dry rock from a webite like marco rocks. Place the dry rcok in your tank and then buy live rock and place it on top of the dry rock. I've been told you only need about 20% of the total rock to be live rock. Over time all of the rock should become live.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Musicman980 said:


> I was in my lfs the other day and asked about fish to live rock ratio, the guy said that the 5 to 6 lbs of live rock in my 35 long tank was enough to keep a clownfish in it, cause any more rock would just die off.


I'm not even sure how to respond to this. I've erased my response 3 times now. Lets just say this this is a ridiculous statement and completely untrue. :roll:



> I went in there days after and spoke to a different person and he said that i need 30 more pounds of live rock to get another small clownfish.


Again, not at all correct. Not even close to being correct. I can only assume that the people at this particular LFS have almost no training at all, or that they are total sales people just wanting to drive the $$$.



> Do I really need 35 pounds of live rock to keep 2 clownfish?


No, you don't. In a 35 gallon tank, you would "need" between 10 and 20 pounds of rock at most to keep 2 Clownfish, assuming you have no intention of keeping additional fish. The real answer depends on the rest of details. What sort of filtration? How deep is the sand bed? Do you intend to keep any other fish or livestock?

By the way, the rock won't "die".


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## bigrift (Aug 30, 2010)

you need to remember that LFS's are riven by the all mighty $$ and will tell you anything to get you to buy more even at the cost of the life of a fish. from what iv read 1 to 2 pounds of lr per allon is the norm. but it also depends on what you intend to keep. im starting a 75g tank and only useing about 50 pounds of rock total 30 pounds ish being base rock as i intend to keep a few fish that need room to swim and dont tend to hang in the reef as often as the other fish i may keep. always better to come here and aks first from people who learn from exp an not people who learn from some corprate handbook writen by a guy who has never kept any fish lol


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