starting new 40 gallon reef

whats a good skimmer for a good price ?

 

I run the Octopus BH-100F skimmer on my 40. Its an excellent skimmer for the price. I also run a mechanical filter with it for carbon.
Base rock will become live rock, it's the way I go with my tanks. You will just need something live to seed it (sand, small piece of live rock, whatever).

 

Base rock is much cheaper and you don't need to worry about adding hitchhikers that may not be wanted, such as mantis shrimp, macro algae, aptaisia etc. You will cure it when you cycle the tank, that is what is really going on, bacteria colonize the rock that consume ammonia then bacteria that consume nitrites, once you ammonia and nitrites are 0ppm, you tank has cycled and you are ready to start adding livestock. This should take any where from 4-6 weeks, although it could be longer or shorter, it depends. Also, you don't necessarily need a piece of already cured rock, aka live rock to seed it. I have cured base rock with no problems, don't worry, the bacteria are there. Now, if can find a small piece of rock with some coraline on it, that will help seed your tank with coraline, but it's not needed for the cycle.

 

do I put live sand with this or no ?

 

I wouldn't because when you are aquascaping w/ your live rock you want it to sit at the bottom of the tank to prevent any rocks from falling and killing all your coral/and or fish

 

oh sorry about the double post but also for your skimmer... don't go cheap on a skimmer it is what I did the first time around definitely shouldn't have done that... but it all depends on whether or not you want your tank to have a sump or not. There are benefits to having a sump just look around.