Hi there,

I'll always be new to this hobby because every time I put my hand in the tank I end up spending 2 hours sorting the tank out.

When I first started, my LFS said the more live rock the better. My 34 gallon RSM is packed with Live Rock (some is turning white so its dying/dead) but now I have got more detritus than my entire flat would have when I move out. I have since installed 2 wavemakers, removed about 4 kg but just can't get rid of it all.

I have one wavemaker at the far bottom right corner and another at the in the middle of the right wall. This is in addition to the 2 nozzles at the left that come with the RSM.

RSM officially says 11 kg live rock (I just read the manual last night). Internet says 1.5 lb for every gallon. I read on this site someone's put 40 kg.

Can someone please help with detritus removal, how much live rock and aquascaping. I have read StevieT's thread and will start weekly changes. I used to do them every 2 or 3 weeks.

Thanks

Addicted reef keeper.

Rough rule of thumb for those who think metric:

Divide the volume of your tank in litres by 10 to give you a starting quanity of rock in kilos.

Little example: RedSea Max is 130L, divide by 10 gives you 13kg.

Considering the rock will displace some water and your tank is not filled to the brim, you probably have about 26/27 US gallons of water. 13kg is little less than 29 pounds. So just over a 1lb/gallon.

If the rock is dense and not vey porous, you will need to use more. If your tank has a high bioload, you will need to use more. Arrange the rock to avoid areas of low flow to keep waste in suspension for easy removal by your filter floss or other mechanical filter.

Hope this helps.

EDIT Live Rock turning white is probably coraline algae dying. Check Ca and Alk.

Thanks for your help. Not sure why so many sites suggest 21-23 kg for a 30 gallon. Looks like I'm gonna have to take a lot of rock out. Just out of curiosity, nano tanks that are filled with corals, how does the circulation work in those tanks? There are some where all you see is coral over rocks. I wonder where these rocks get the flow and light from.

That's just at the upper end of the 1 to 2lbs per gallon "rule". Multiply by 2.2 to convert kg to lbs.

Nothing is fixed but it's better to have too much rock than too little. Bacterial colonies will balance themselves to the quantities of nutrients available. When using weight to define how much rock is needed, we are in truth not considering the most relevant factor: surface area. If we have two rocks of the same size and one is porous and the other not; the porous rock not only weighs less, it has greater biological filtering capacity.

In truth, there is no accuracy in any of these rules/guidelines.