Help w/ my 46gal Bow

I am very new to this and very excited and I'm looking for any help i can get. I haven't done anything yet as far as adding the things i have, I'll break it all down for anyone who's willing to help. OK, as far as rock I have ordered 50lbs of premium figi form Walt Smiths I also have 20lbs of very good looking base rock, I have already started my substrate made around a 2 1/2 inch base using southdown and will probably add about 2 cups of seeded live sand being given to me from my LFS.I just purchased the coralife 2x96w lunar, 2 maxi-jet 1200 power-heads for circulation and i have a Fluval 304 canister that was given to me. so basically my rock will be here in 3 days and I'm wondering if I'm on a good start. Oh yeah i will be eventually getting the AquaC Remora skimmer and only using the fluval for additive filtration. Help please i spent a good bit of money for my live rock and i just want to make sure i do everything right in the beginning.

 

Sounds like you're definitely off to a good start! The only thing that I can suggest at the moment is that if you've got your sand in already and will be putting rock on top of it, make sure that you push your rock down as far into the sand as you can. When I set up new tanks, I always put the rock in first and then the sand to prevent accidents due to the burrowing activities of fish or cleanup critters

Post some pics of the tank once you set it up!

 

I too have a 46 gal bowfront - I am a newbie too! I used the same poundage of live rock (Marshal Island which is not as dense as Fiji) and one bag of live sand. I put my sand in last - for the reasons mentioned in the previous reply. I am using only one maxi-jet 1200. I'm using an HOT Emperor 400 filter. An AquaC Remora skimmer with a maxi-jet 1200(working great). I returned my Coralife light (same as yours) for the Current fixture. The Coralife fixture would not allow opening the glass top "door" completely without hitting the plastic legs that hold the fixture. The Current has a design suited more for the bow front tank with stronger legs that don't get in the way of the door. That was my only "problem" that I ran into when setting up the tank. My LFS where I purchased the tank swapped out the fixture for me for the Current (2x96W Actinic + 2x96 W Photo).

 

I still think a good and well established deep sand bed is the way to go for newbies (and even oldies alike!). 4-6" of dsb, 1.75lbs per gallon LR ratio and a fine skimmer thats it.

You can use things like chemical additives, canister-HOT-HOB filters, denitrators and stuff but a properly established DSB really beats these hands down. Makes them all unnecessary if not detrimental.

How to establish a good dsb! Thats food for thought.

 

IMO your off to a great start. I tend to agree with the sand/rock info but don't believe it is worth taking the sand out to fix it. You should be good
Mr. Crabs You have said your lights hit the glass top. I would recommend removing the glass top all together. This will help in gas exchange and increase evap. Plus it is a huge PITA to keep clean once the salt creep starts
JMHO

Jason