That's pretty minimum at less than 1.25 quarts per pound. If you have a lot of dead space so that a couple of quarts are below the grain bed, you'd probably be losing mash efficiency. Ideally you'd have a t least a little liquid on top of the grain bed when it's fully mashed in.
Calculate your dead space and figure on a mash thickness of at least 1.25 to 1.5 qts/lb and add your dead space volume. Then adding infusions and/or mash-out volume could put you at up to 2 quarts per pound, depending on your mash schedule.
Adding water to the dry malt is harder. I like to add the malt to the strike water. Now I have a set-up that allows milling directly into the recirculating strike water in the tun and can stir it in as it mills. I can start with a very thick dough-in that way (.8 qts/lb or so) and get the beta glucan/protein rest done before adding more water to get up to conversion temperature.
