After breaking my glass top on my oceanic tank that I have only had for about a month I figure while I had it off I might rearrange my tank. Currently I do not have any live rock but many rocks and dead coral pieces in which my clown fish, rabbit fish, and gobi seem to like to hide in so that I cannot even enjoy them. Can anyone suggest the number of pounds of live rock and provide a picture or method that I can arrange the live rock in which I am going to pick up soon in. I have a 92-gallon Oceanic corner tank with the return on the right side with a great deal of force from a MDQ-4 pump. P.S. is it necessary to have special lighting for live rock? I only have a 50/50 strip light set up actinic 30W and a 36 W. I have attached a picture of my current setup in which makes viewing anything living a challenge. Thanks Joe
How to place live rock
- Thread starter joej
- Start date
Really depends on type of rock your using (fiji, marshall islnads, etc. etc.) FWIR, fiji is 1.25-1.5 lbs per gallon. Aquascaping-numerous thread about that in here. Some have drilled and placed pvc tubes through the rock, others have using aquarium epoxy to hold together. I just place rocks strategically so each rock was supported by at least 3 below it, and did not wobble before any others placed on top. Only porblem with this is if I buy any stars or urchins, they can cause an avalanche even though I was very careful about positioning.
About lighting-it's not necessary to heavily light LR only. Some feel that may actually increase algae blooms. The coralline algae does not require a lot of lighting to thrive. The wattage and type of lighting you mention-30/36 watts, would be low for almost any photosynthetic corals, however, I don't see a problem with just the coralline, although with a tank full of LR, it may look a bit dark.
About lighting-it's not necessary to heavily light LR only. Some feel that may actually increase algae blooms. The coralline algae does not require a lot of lighting to thrive. The wattage and type of lighting you mention-30/36 watts, would be low for almost any photosynthetic corals, however, I don't see a problem with just the coralline, although with a tank full of LR, it may look a bit dark.
No need (generally) to worry about lighting for simple live rock unless it clearly has photosynthetic organism. If you'd like to see some actual diagrams, they can be found in Bob Fenner's "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist", and more than likely on the site http://www.wetwebmedia.com -- just look up "aquascaping" or similar through the Google button at the bottom of the page.
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