[pistol37]

I have survived what some people have told me is crazy to attempt. I have, like all of you, created a harmonious underwater marine ecosystem. However, that said, I'm not sure how to properly add more live rock or substrate to my established tank. I have a 46 gal FOWLR setup(hope that's right) with 2 clowns, 1 longnose hawk, a chocholate chip starfish, a turbo snail, a jawfish and an awesome sally lightfoot crab. I have 30lbs. of rock and 40lbs of substrate and I feel the need if not for asthetics alone, for my jaawfish to add more rock or rubble. What is the suggested protocol for doing this?

[RyanG]

Since you already seem to have a decent bio load what is your filtration setup if any?

Normally the procedure would be to acquire live rock and place into tank, and small cycle that may or may not be detected by test kits will happen.

[pistol37]

I have an Aqua Clear 110 hang-on-back type filter with the foam-live rock rubble-sandwich.

[RyanG]

Your good to go, just be sure to clean the filter foam out regularly from buildup of nitrates.

[pistol37]

Cool but how do I know my limitations? How much more rock should I add? How quickly? What about substrate? Thanks a million for your advice. I just want the best for my friends. My hawkfish will actually be on one side of my tank and if I'm 15 feet away and say "Hey Buddy", he immediately swims to my side of the tank. He has the temperment of a puppy. Thnx again.

[RyanG]

For live rock you can go either between 1 pound per gallon all the way to 1.5 pounds per gallon. I would recommend live sand as substrate. Changing out the sand will be tricky if you already have another substrate in there.

[spanko]

My opinion here.

For substrate sand is the accepted norm for this. Less than 1.5" is considered a good shallow sand bed and is what most will do. More than 3.5" is considered a deep sand bed and is a little more challenging. I suggest you do some searches here to determine what is right for you. Adding sand is as easy ads taking a pc. of pvc pipe with a funnel at the top and adding the sand through it targeted at the area you want to increase. This should be done in increments of maybe 1/4 of the tank at a time with a few days in between to allow time for the new sand to populate with bacteria.

For live rock \ rubble adding this to and established tank needs to be done with cured live rock. You don't really want any die-off to be causing any ammonia spike in your tank, especially if you already have inhabitants. Some store see cured live rock but I always put any that I buy into a Rubbermaid container with a power head and heater. The test the water over the next week to see if there is any ammonia. If there is let it cycle with water changes before putting it into your tank. You want the ammonia, nitrite to read zero, and the nitrates to be equal to or less than your tank is.

You can always buy Tufa base rock and rinse it and add it to your tank with little concern. It will not have anything on it to cause any ammonia spike and will populate with bacteria quickly.