New to the Hobby

Hey everyone! I'm just venturing out in to the world of saltwater, i've been doing freshwater for about 3 years but theres only so much you can do with tetras... Anyway, I have some total newb questions, I looked at a lot of forums and this one seemed to be the best. Basically I got inspired the other day to do a small reef with my 20 gallon long since I already have a T5 fixture for it that I was using for aquarium plants, it's nothing special, double 22" 24 watt bulbs, if I had known anything about T5's a year ago I would never have bought it but it gets the job done, I'm just going to replace the plant growth bulb with an actinic bulb. My main questions are about starting one up, I know you don't need lights or a protein skimmer when you're first cycling but must you have live sand? I was going to do like 5 lbs of live rock to begin with and maybe 20lbs of regular sand, since I figure it'll take a while to cycle anyway might as well not buy everything right now and conserve my budget a little, I also don't have a gigantic budget for this project. Also, can I add any inverts like snails/crabs while its in the process of cycling?


Thanks for the help!

 

Welcome to the addiction. To answer your q's...no you dont need LIVE sand to start a tank...buy dry aragonite, and ask your local fish store for a small cup of their sand (or another reefer in ur area) to seed the dry aragonite with...u could even do both to geta nice mix of things to seed ur tank (just make sure the tank its coming from is healthy)..all u need is a little bit of live rock, and some base rock to start things up...it will all spread. No live critters in the tank until its done cycling..unless you choose to cycle with damsels (which i dont reccommend because they are a real pain to try and remove)...if you do things right the first time, you will save money in the long run...so remember the best thing you could ever have is patience

 

Hi there and welcome!

You don't need live sand like Kevin said for the cycle. I used mostly base rock and seeded it with a few pieces of live rock. Don't put any live animals in the tank while its cycling because its torture and unfair to them...even inverts. If you want inverts, wait a week AFTER the tank cycles so they can begin the clean up process. Good Luck!

 

+K. Do it right once and it will save you a headache from heck.

 

Welcome to 3reef.

 

Welcome to 3reef

 

Cool! I bought some aragonite today, Thanks for the advice!

-M

 

Welcome to 3reeeeeef! Good luck!