How much live rock can a 90 galloon tank hold?

[Guest whitewater72]

how much live rock can I put in a 90 galloon tank and not risk cracking? I also have a lot of hard cylander type things attaching to my live rock and at times some of them have something in them. Most are really small but others are about .5 " long. The casings are hard and brownish with the insides being tan or off white. Thanks for any help or direction towards some help

[HowardofNOVA]

Did you ever see the commercial with the lady holding the baby and pushing the shopping cart to her car that produced that looooooooonnnngg shadow?

...Probably less than that! :D

 

I've been a big fan of alot of coral in a system. I like lots of tunnels and valleys. My 75g has about 150# of LR, so with that theory, you COULD go about 180-200#. But over time, I'm looking at adding less to allow more room for corals to expand. So it's a personal choice, but I wouldn't go with no more than 150-180# of coral rock. Probably 120-150# would be more reasonable depends on how you arrange it! Here, less can be more for looks!!

Also, your stand height has alot to do with. I've become a huge fan of raising the support stand up higher for better viewing of the tank. With higher view of tank, you can see more of your display as well!

[davelin315]

Figure that the weight will be distributed by any substrate and the fact that it's in water. As long as you don't have it all on one point and there are multiple points that touch the bottom or the substrate, you can put in as much as you want. Ever seen stores where they store their rock in tanks? Stacked up and out of the water, not a problem. I had a 125 before with probably more than 300# of rock in it. I liked how it was situated and I had tons of rockwork and places for the rock to create caves and overhangs. It's all up to you and how you want it to look. Don't go on the amount you have, but the amount you need to achieve the look you want. I don't think you can possibly overstock a tank and crack it unless you don't stack carefully. My 58, for example, is basically a clearinghouse for rock that I buy for school. At one point, there was only a tiny clearing in the middle, maybe enough to fit a gallon jug into, otherwise it was wall to wall rock. I never worried about it cracking.

[Grav]

Figure a loaded 90 gallon is going to be at least 700 pounds of water rock and sand... I guess if you wanted to max out you could do around 500 pounds of rock and just filling in the few empty spaces with a little water.

[davelin315]

Oh yeah, it also has to do with the types of corals and fish you want as well. If you want a lot of high light demanding corals, build up some ledges up higher. If you want fish that can swim around in open spaces (like tangs) then you need to have more open spaces. A lot of reef fish hang around the reef rather than in it, and then there are also a lot that hang around in it. Everyone's tank is different...