Too much live rock?

[carpenterwrasse]

I have roughly 75 to 100 of live rock in my display tank(never weieghed it all) but a friend told me that that might be too much and that if i remove some of it it might help me cut down on my nirtates anyone have any ideas if this will help...I have a 75 gal. tank and a 20 gal sump with rock in it also.
George

[perpetual98]

1.5 to 2 pounds per gallon is usually what people suggest to have in their tanks. I think I have around 250 in one of my 120G tanks and somewhere around 125-150 in my other 120G, but it looks a LOT more empty than the other one.

Eric

[davejnz]

It all depends on the aquascape and personal preference.I don't like the lb per gallon rule.I prefer to add 1/3 the tanks volume with LR.

[dsfdbutterfly]

From everything that I have read they say the same 1.5 to 2 lbs LR in your tank. I'd have to agree with Dave that you have to go with what fits into your tank. How dense the rock is can make a difference on weight and you may not get very much rock. One the other side you may find yourself with lots of rock that doesn't weigh much and never be able to reach the above equation. The stuff I read also is that LR is a biological filter of sorts and should be helping keep your nitrates down unless there is die off of the life on the rock (like in a new tank cycle). The down side to a lot of rock is you can get in trouble with creating "dead" spots in which the water flow is bad. This can create pockets in which food can build up and that could raise your nitrates. If this was happening though you would first see a spike in your ammonia and nitrite levels. I would keep looking for another source for your nitrate problem. Just my humble opinion.

Angie

[mutts]

Like Angie said make sure all spots have water movement, lots of rock can cause those dreaded dead spots. I have some in my tank and it hasn't even effected my nitrates, but they are a bad idea, avoid them. Is your rock cured? Did you take it out of the water? On uncured rock there is alot of die off that can cause your nitrates to go up, so can taking the rock out of water. Water changed will help lower it.

[Amphibious]

carpenterwrasse
Taking out LR will not lower your Nitrate, you do not have too much LR.

Please give us more information.

What type of substrate do you have?
How long has your tank been operating?
Are you using a sump?
Are you using a skimmer?
How often do you do water changes?
How much water do you change each time?
What tank inhabitants do you have?

Help us help you by answering the above questions to begin with.

[carpenterwrasse]

my substrate is about 1 1.5 of live sand....the tank it self with the l.r. has been in operation for about roughly 5 years....my sump is roughly 20 gal...My new skimmer is a coralife 125 been running on that since last thrusday the 16 of mar....about 10 gals every 2 weeks not to the day but close enough...the inhabitants presently are as follows
1 humbug damsel
1 blue devil
1 bicolored blenny
2 serpent stars
1 cleaner shrimp
1 coral banded shrimp
1tiger conch
1queen conch
1 electric scallop
5 pincushion urchins
20 n. snails
20 ast. snails
12 hermits
button polyops
pipe organ frag
zoo frag
sm branching hammer
a waveing hand frag
and a couple of mushrooms

[davejnz]

I agree to a certain extent that removing LR won't actually reduce you NO3 levels but it certainly can help.However,to much LR and/or a poorly designed aquascape can have disastrous effects.The points that Angie made are valid and should be taken into consideration.Dead spots that form from too much LR or pileing it up will be the perfect spots for nuissance algae to take root.Most of use don't have near enough water movement in our tanks as it is.A small,open aquascape that doesn't rely on the sides or back of the tank for support makes it easier to provide water movement.
IMO,less is often better when it comes to amount of LR in a reef tank.Aerobic bacteria and anaerobic bacteria populatios will balance out with the total availiable nutrients/Nitrogen that is availiable to sustain them.So,you could just as easy have 50lbs of LR being used for bacterial filtration in a 75gal tank as 150lbs of LR.The bacteria densities will be much higher in the 50lb Lr than it would be in th 150lbs.We havn't even talked about the wonderful Nitrogen processing capabilities of a sandbed which ALONE is capable of maintaing a lightly stocked reef tank.