Starting first reef tank in winfield. Any help?

[Guy Mannington]

Hi I have 15 years experience with fresh water aquariums and none with salt water. my plan for now is to load my tank with 50 pounds of marco rock and substrate and order a coraline booster card from indo pacific, http://www.ipsf.com/ (they havent got back to me if they ship to canada) and then wait and watch.I am only doing this because i do not want to spend crazy amounts on live rock when i enjoy watching the tank come to life just the same.
I think I will still be wanting about another 50lbs of live rock, but i may try making my own from a you tube recipe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFPebEdEoMA does this look about right to you?

I still need a sump that will fit in my stand,live rock if the price is right,live sand, a led light for the sump/refugium, a 48" light,AS MUCH HELP AS YOUR WILLING TO GIVE,and when the time comes frags and what not.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[RedCoralOnlineStore]

Welcome to Canreef! Enjoy the tank build up! You will find loads of useful information here!
Just my opinion, but you will achieve exactly the same result by adding one or two small pieces of live rock to your Marco rock! (booster card not needed) Given time all live organisms will spread and multiply into your Marco rock (Great choice by the way!) That is the best part is watching all the little critters start to appear!
Have fun! :smile:

[cathyg_99]

i agree just throw in one or two nicely covered live pieces and it will start to spread in no time, im only 4 months in and already scraping coraline off the glass in my tank (little bits) but its coming

[corrosionjerry]

I also agree / I started with about 40lbs of live rock ... purchased from a member selling extra and added about 80lbs of eco reefer rock... 4 months later most of my rock has nice coraline growth....

[Guy Mannington]

does the coraline need lots of light to grow/ thrive? i have a 30 gal tank that i am going to make into a quarantine tank and it has a hang on refugium that i have a light for but i dont much want to buy a light for the tank but want lots of live rock in it.

[Guy Mannington]

one more thing, does 50lbs= 50lbs live rock? I would imagine live rock is wet therefore would it not weigh alot more?

[Guy Mannington]

Thank you for the replies and welcome

[corrosionjerry]

does the coraline need lots of light to grow/ thrive? i have a 30 gal tank that i am going to make into a quarantine tank and it has a hang on refugium that i have a light for but i dont much want to buy a light for the tank but want lots of live rock in it.

You deffinetly will need adequate light to support or grow coraline on your live rock

[corrosionjerry]

one more thing, does 50lbs= 50lbs live rock? I would imagine live rock is wet therefore would it not weigh alot more?

live rock does weigh considerabley more then dry reefer rock / marco rock etc.

[bkelly]

Sent ya a PM on Rock and Sand FS.

[Guy Mannington]

Thank you jerry, light problem solved

[H2o2]

When your ready pm me i will find ya some free frags

[clouddancer74]

With live rock in the sump, does it require it's own light source? I have plenty of indirect sun light during the day that, still, not sure if it needs it's own light or not.

I just started a 120 gal about 2 1/5 weeks ago. I have roughly 110 to 115 Lbs live rock in the tank as well as 80 Lbs Caribsea araqamax select sand. Been looking for some good reading material to help me along on this journey as I am really not 100% sure what to expect. So far I have just been doing what the folk's at Aquarium Illusions have said to do.

I am wondering tho, should I be running my skimmer right now, with the tank being this new? I have heard some people say to just run the power heads and the sump with the skimmer off and filters out. This seems kinda odd to me.

What should I be looking out for at first? Right now my live rock has fuzzies on it that are kinda greenish in colour. I also got what looks like tiny air bubbles all over in the tank. Thinking these are not air bubbles. These good or not so good?

[Aquattro]

Hi, you might want to start your own (current) thread. This one is about a year and a half old and probably not relevant..:)