confused by shop talk

I recently visited my local aqarium shop and he has really confused me about setting up a reef tank.I have a 2foot by 2foot by 3 foot high tank that i want to set up a reef system in.I wanted to have a good 6inch or so deep sand bed that was half play sand and half live sand but the guy in the shop said this wouldnt work as the live sand wouldnt seed the play sand.Also as I told him I wanted soft and hard coral he said i would need a calcium reactor and that there was no other way of getting calcium in the system for the coral.Then he goes on and says i need a protein skimmer and a large external filter,when i told him that i had about 100 pounds of live rock he just laughed.Can anyone advise on this as i think he just wants me to buy loads of equipment that i dont need.Im not wanting a refugium and have no space for a sump so hang on skimmer only or filter as well.
thanks in advance im sure someone on here knows a lot more that the shop guy.

 

Your being scammed.

I will tell you a few things I know:

1. There are a variety of ways of getting the beneficial bacteria growing in your system. You can get alot of dry substrate (sand) and seed it with some "live" substrate from a healthy existing system. You can also use all dry sand, and add all dry rock and seed that with one or two peices of CURED live rock. You can also use substances like microbacter 7, seachem stability or Dr Tims one and only to add the beneficial bacteria without adding anything "live". I just this route as you do not add any nastys to your tank that are notorious for coming in on live rock.

3. Not having a sump is not a problem. There are also a variety of hang on back refugiums and sumps you can get. Not having a sump will reduce the types of corals you can keep due to two reasons, one it will not have enough space to hold big skimmers etc that are necessary, nor will you have the ability to house these reactors or dosing systems down the line if your corals require. However you can have a simpler reef system without these things.

2. You do not need a Ca reactor. Salt like Red Sea Coral Pro, will add Ca, Alk and Mg to the water for you, thus providing the conditions for the coral. Soft coral and LPS and SPS coral have differing needs. Soft coral are easiest to keep, LPS little more difficult and SPS very. As corals use up the nutrients in your system, they can replaced through water changes. If the nutrients are used up faster than you can replace them, then you need a reactor. This is only the case in highly stocked system with many SPS and LPS coral.

For further information look up some of the new to the hobby links. Read as many as you have time for. They are a great knowledge base.

 

+1 110%

Exactly. What you need depends on what corals you plan to keep, and what you want to use to help reduce manual maintenance.

Personally, I prefer to maintain my tank, not a cabinet full of fancy gadgets.

 

I have a lot of softies and some hard corals, and even using Reef Crystals my CA and mg were very low, even with a 10% weekly wc.

No reactor, but suppliments are necessary at that point. For some people it is is easier to just get a reactor rather than dosing. But you can cross that bridge when you get to it.

If you don't heavily stock your tank then you can easily get by with what you have. If you start putting in more fish and feeding more, then you'll want a skimmer for sure. I ran skimmer free for a while. Wasn't great for the tank but there weren't any terrible effects from it.