Not enough?

Was talking to a owner of a lfs, saltwater specific store, and i told the lady that i have a 36bow with about 25lbs of rock, in my display, she said i was about 15lbs short of the amount of rock i NEED otherwise my parameters will constantly be swing, is this true? should i add more rock? i let my system cycle for about 4 weeks, and ive gone thruogh my spikes. my ammonia and nitrites are now at zero and i have about 30ppm of nitrates, and i added 2 clown fish 2 days ago?

Any opinions? do i not have the surface area needed for the proper amount of bacteria?

Its still a new system and i probably wont know for sure until a couple months

 

Could you use a tad more rock yes, but will 25lbs of rock in a 36 gallon tank will not make it less stable. She just wants to sell you more rock. A common guideline is 1-2 lbs of rock per gallon. If you like your current scape I would not bother.

 

you have enough rock to cycle a light bio load, the more life you have in the tank the more bio filter you need. i like two lbs of rock per gallon i also likea deep sand bed but corals can be kelpt with what you have with no problems

 

So does that mean if i want to add more fish and/or inverts i would have to add more rock or just wait longer periods before adding new?

 

As a safety measure I like to wait 2 weeks between adding fish allowing the biological filter to adjust to feedings and the metabolism of the fish. Corals you can add until the cows come home.

Simply put the larger the biological filter the greater it's ability to efficiently complete the nitrogen cycle.

Do you need to add more rock no, but might be inclined to especially if you do not run a skimmer.

Spacing out additions of fish is more important.

 

You could always by dry rock for 1/3rd of the price and let it mature on it's own in your tank. I probably wouldn't add more than 4-5 fish to a 36 gallon if it were me, regardless of rock quantity.

 

I would add dry rock as you add fish if you wish to get up to 1 lb per gallon. Follow Corailline's suggestion on adding fish to your tank.

 

Ok, yeah i running the cad pipeless skimmer
I started with the dry rocks as well
ill keep an eye on the clowns and the ammonia levels
Would it just be better to add 5-6lbs of dry rubble to my refuge chamer in the sump , i have nothing in there right now, or would some live rubble from lfs be better?

 

also all rocks are not equal, some have more pores than others making them better then a more solid rock the filtration comes from inside the rocks the larger total area of space inside the pores makes it better.

 

These are the rocks