Less is more

[Beverly]

In my 37g, I have about 20 lbs of rock, most of it light weight and stacked with lots of holes.

[danny zubot]

Bev, how long until my caps look like that?

[Beverly]

Danny,

I think it depends on a number of factors. Lighting, keeping chemistry up to snuff (alk, Ca, Mg), possibly low nitrates. The massive orange cap in the 37g (24" high) was started about a year ago from two toonie sized frags and kept under a single 6500k MH until two months ago when I changed the lighting to 14000k ARC MH. Can't tell if it's grown much, but that may be because it's so big already.

Am closely watching the green cap on the left side of the towering rock. It's growing quite well. There are other, much smaller green cap frags on that same rock. They were kinda frags of frags and have taken a bit of time to establish their "growing edges". These are the frags that I believe poisoned me wuth their slimy edges

[danny zubot]

Ooooh, I guess I'll have to be careful when handling them. I've had my orange cap for over a year but I've gone through some drama with the tank. Now I have them up hight under my 250 watt 14k ARC as well.
Wanna race?

[Beverly]

Can't even see the cap in your pic Might want to race, though, if our caps are comparable. Also, my MH is only 175w.

[whaase]

Would you say then that you should use a 1:1 ratio for rock to size of tank?
I always read about 2 lbs for ever gallon of tank. I was never sure how I was going to fill my 30g with 60lbs of rock and still be able to get any water in!
I thought I was just cheap, now I know I was doing it right all along!

Interesting finding though!

Walter

[marie]

A lot does epend on the kind of rock. From what i understand, the aquacultered rock from florida is very heavy and wouldn't take up so much room in the tank. Fiji rock is light and porous and you would need half as much to take up the same space

[Aquattro]

Walter, with the current rock we're seeing on the market, closer to 1:1 would be my recomendation. Going higher isn't bad, but will give detritus more places to hide.

[Beverly]

Speaking about hiding places in rock for detritus, how many people here tureky baste their rock for detritus export?

I do, every week the day before water changes

[danny zubot]

I don't do it regularly but it does get done from time to time. Right now I have my flow setup so that my rocks get blown pretty good, this comes at the expense of my sand getting the detritus. Thats were the reef crew comes in.