12 Gal How Much Live Rock?

[fiskkeeperpro]

I have 5kg of live rock in my 12 gal juwel rekord 60, with some livestock
2 nassurius snails
2 cerith snails
2 turbo snails
2 red legged hermits
1 black and white stripped hermit
2 cleaner shrimp

With the 5kg LR, could i add any more because my tank is really looking empty and im not getting and fish for ages and i think i need more LR.
some pics of my setup are here: pic 1
pic 2

thanks.
will

 

[Musho3210]

if you cure or cook in a separate tank or container, dont see why not

 

[1entra]

By all means you could get more in the tank, if you have a look at my 25G tank, I have just over 22kg of live rock in there! Remember its your tank at the end of the day so you have to decide when you think you have got enough! Looks to me like you could easily get aonther 4/5kg in there!

One thing to bear in mind however is that any live rock you get will have some matter/life die off from it which will cause you ammonia levels to spike and you tank will need to go through the whole cylce again which will probably kill most if not all of your invertibrates/lifestock!

2 ways to avoid this happening is firstly like musho said to cycle the rock elsewhere ie. in a large bucket or container full of salt water (same SG as tank) using a thermometer to keep water at same temp as your tank along with a powerhead to keep water circulating and take off any pieces of loose debris/die-off, you would have to syphon the base of the container/bucket to remove the dead matter! Once your params are all 0, you can add the rock straight into your set-up. Second way would be to remove all livestock from the tank and use your current live rock to help cycle the new rock in the tank itself. Once all params are 0, livestcok will be able to be re-added to tank!

Hope this has helped

 

[Musho3210]

oh and i didnt litterally mean cook lol...

 

[1entra]

Alternatively you could get some corals that grow quite big and spread them out over your current rock. Over time when the corals mature you tank will look alot more fuller as they will consume most gaps!

oh and i didnt litterally mean cook lol...

Are you sure musho, thought you was giving a recipe for some live rock stew or something! Not that it would be very alive once cooked!

 

[steelhealr]

IMO, the more LR the better. You have to balance between what you want in your tank. A roomier tank is good for your small swimmers....more LR is better for more biologic filter if you are a 'heavy' contaminator.....SH

 

[Musho3210]

Alternatively you could get some corals that grow quite big and spread them out over your current rock. Over time when the corals mature you tank will look alot more fuller as they will consume most gaps!

oh and i didnt litterally mean cook lol...

Are you sure musho, thought you was giving a recipe for some live rock stew or something! Not that it would be very alive once cooked!

its just a way of curing that helps prevent algae outbreaks. Unless you were hungry, i mean, its just limestone and marine organisms.....