LFS..true or not?

Ah, by the way your post reads, I understood it as they were correct about everything except the lighting, meaning his filter wasn't enough either.


Ah well, cheers

 

I had a HOB filter on my fish only for almost a year. No problems. But I also had a skimmer.

 

Slocal thank you for all the input. you have been answering on all my posts.

Is LR completely neccesary. will dry rock become LR once cycled. can i do some LR and some base rock.

I understand that i will need power heads. which would be best for my 55gal. noticed everyone seems to use K1,2, or 3s.

Is Coraline growth essential for a FOWLR. What does is do?

Was told that a sand only bottom would be hard to vacoum, do i need to vacoum if i add CUC?

sorry for all the questions. i just want round two to be done right.

 

My pleasure

I would use at least one or two good sized cured live rocks and then have the rest be base rocks. It will make your cycle a bit slower but the money saving will be beneficial if you're patient enough.

Coraline isn't really necessary but I like it for two reasons:

1. I think it's pretty
2. I takes up the space where nuisance algae might grow instead.

I'd never vacuum a sand bottom. The sand houses bacteria vital to the biological filtering process. Get a CUC that includes sand stirring inverts to keep the sand healthy.

I us Koralias, but I've heard very good things about Maxi Jets. In fact, an MJ1200 is powering my skimmer.

 

this is exactly where im at.

started tank 4 days ago.

filled tank with tap and treated it to remove chlorines and such. added crushed coral. the tank has settled for the most part and water is pretty clear.

so the onlt thing in my tank is water, CC, and my HOB. Also have the salinity correct. that is it.

after reading all these post about CC being very bad and not having the ableness to add CUC to it i was thinking i should start over. use RODI add live rock and LS and start again. keep hearing that tap will kill things and CC will be a hassle.

my LFS sells arragonite. is that good. looks nice or is just strait sand bottom best?

should i start over or press on im very confused now and cant make a decision.

 

Well since it happened before to me, I'd suggest replacing the CC with a sand bottom. I ended up doing this months into my tank. It was a major pain in the butt to do so. Sand also has more surface area for the bacteria so your bio filtration will be helped there.

You'll want to buy aragonite sand as it has very good buffering characteristics. Do NOT buy any sand with silica in it. Don't worry about buying that sand they sell at the LFS with "bacteria" and water in it. Rubbish.

Now for filling up your tank, I'd suggest buying a cheap RO/DI unit or buying some 5 gallon water jugs and filling them up at a water dispensing machine. I buy my water for the water changes from my LFS, but then again my tank is smaller and I only change 5gal a week. Tap water the initial time won't hurt anything because there's nothing alive in there, but I would never use it for water changes even if it's dechlorinated. You'd have to also worry about TDS, copper from household pipes and phosphates that are safe for us but the bad algae loves to eat.

Hope the water is heated to the right temp

 

Dry on cured rock/ base rock will turn into what they sell me as LR. just takes longer to cycle?

 

You need to introduce the bacteria first into your system. Use cured live rock to do this. The bacteria that's on the cured rock will propagate to the water, base rock and sand and make them live sand and live rock during the process. You'll have to give the bacteria time to multiply, so yes.

If you used nothing but a lot of cured live rock, the cycle would be short because the rock is already home to the bacteria and all you'd have to do is wait for it to spread into the sand and water.

 

OK thanks again. beginning to feel more confident.

i will post a pic or two once i get underway.

i noticed on Dr. foster/ smith that there are a few types of aragonite. fine sand and reef sand which appears to be more course. the reef sand is what is at my LFS and in most of there tanks. does it matter. lots to learn lots to learn.

 

It's more of your taste. Jawfish and other burrowing critters would prefer a bit more coarse sand while sifting fish would like it a bit finer.