Newbie Question

Some basic newbie questions.

I have a 90 Gallon Aqueon with the megaflow overflow system. My questions are:
1. If I only want some fish and a couple sea anemones what is it classified as? FO?

2. The rock I was thinking of getting is in bins with no water at the LFS and looks like a big gray lava rock. What would this be called?

3. Is living rock the rock in question #2 that still has all the creatures chillin in it?

4. When others ask are you gonna turn it into a reef, what components classafies a reef?

Thanks in advance...Jeff

 

FOWLR stands for fish only live rock. So with the addition of an anemone it would be a reef. However anemones can cause a full tank crash and should not be added to a system unless it is more than a year old and stable as a rule of thumb.

Is the rock in the store wet at all or just dry in the bins? If its dry then its not considered live as the bacteria on the rock will be dead without the water.

If you like the look of anemones you may look into torch,hammer or frogspawn corals as they are similar looking but much safer to keep.

Goodluck!

 

Don't like the idea of a full tank crash :-[. Those corals are awesome...

The rock in the LFS is dry. If I go the live rock route would it maybe have some of those corals in them?

Can you have triggers and puffer fish with the corals?

Thanks for your help...Jeff

 

if you went for live rock, then there may be some higher life forms on there , like Zoas or shrooms, and sometimes even more surpising corals do turn up
but dont expect to get large LPS corals like Psiclone mentioned as if there where some of those on the rock, the LFS would seperate and sell independently IME

Some triggers are OK with corals - such as Niger, Pink tail, Blue Chin and others I cant recall at present - but even those would enjoy a tasty peppermint or CBS shrimp so not invert safe

Steve

 

Live rock contains many living organisms. It ususally has a strong smell to it. If its not sitting in a tank at your local fish store, its not live rock. I would not recommend volcanic rock. It could possibly contain heavy metals that can leak into your tank.

Get a couple of pieces of live rock that looks like the pic below
and the rest you can get porous dead rock that has been harvested from expired reefs and pressure washed.


Live rock should be extremely porous and colorful(pink/purple)





For The rest of it, you can use rock like this, it will eventually become live rock

You dont want heavy dense rock like this

 

Dude, forget about anemones for now, 2 years down the road when you are answering basic questions instead of asking them, you might be ready. You've got to get your basics down first, water quality, sand and rock cycle, circulation, lighting (very important, good 6 or 8x54w T5 fixture), sump with skimmer and refugium, etc etc...
Also, volcanic rock could leach silicates that could cause continual algae blooms, not good.

 

Great info, thanks for the help. I am convinced that I am gonna do the coral now. Scratch the sea anemones, the coral looks better 8)... Now on to deciding a filter. Thanks again.... Jeff

 

So I had a change of mind after talking to the LFS.... I am doing the FO tank with the 90 gallon. Later on I will get a bio cube for the other room which will accomodate my reef ...

I ended up with:
90 Gallon Aqueon with mega overflow
Coralife RO/DI 50 gallon per day
Coralife 48" with lunar lights
AquaPro wet dry sump with bio-balls with rio pump
coralife heater
40lbs of aggregate
50lbs of rock

I started filling it up Saturday morning and it finished up late last night. I stood there looking like this > < when I first started it up. Great, $1300 worth of stuff to hear a toilet flushing all night. In other words this tank is WAY to loud. I have researched it and will try some other things when I get home. I am sure there is a cure, just not sure what yet....

Other then that the other things are working good so far. Thanks to all for your advice and helping me out.... Jeff

I have to start up a build thread, which section would I post that on?

 

Google the "Herbie method" for silent drain systems, it's the best IMO.

Build threads go in the "Show off your fish tanks!" forum.

I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of FO systems since mine's a reef but be careful taking advice from the people who are standing to profit from you buying their stuff, no matter how nice they seem to be.

I would research every piece of equipment and every animal you are going to be putting into the tank, good luck!

 

Jmik becareful with the bioballs. A lot of differing opionions on these forums in regards to their impact. It seems if you keep on top of maintenance they should be fine. One of the reasons I went FOWLR is to avoid some of the maintenance associated with bioballs (kinda messy to clean). As for the noise where is the sound coming from (sump or near the overflow?