starting a new tank
 

Hey guys I've been doing alot of reading and i was wondering what water i should use for my first tank. I've heard some use tap water and alot of people are against it at the same time. I'm doing a FOWLR tank that will stay at way for say 1-2 months, so I'm not exactly sure on what type of water. Thanks in advance :biggrin:

Welcome to the board! Most people recommend RO water as it is guaranteed to be pure water, vs. tap water, which while probably fine on a good day in Vancouver, may have levels of undesirable compounds. Run off, broken main lines, etc, all introduce risk of adding things to your tank that may impact your success. But, lots of people use tap water, so if you have RO, great, if not, maybe plan on it down the road and use tap water for now...

oh okay, thanks you :biggrin:

If you dont want bad pests like Bobbit/unice worms make shure you start with Dry rock not the live rock.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...t=77266&page=2
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http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=cs-rrock2

would it be fine to use rock that's been sitting in a bucket for a while? or from a tear down?

If you nuke the rocks you may be safe, however if it is wet you never know what survived and these guys can be very resilient. They can go with out food for months.
After what i had to go thrugh catching the bobbit worm, i will never buy a live rocks.

If you want to be sure just get the rocks to dry out and wait for a month os so.
BUT then there will be a lot of die off from these rocks and you will have to wash it and soak it and wash it again. So may as well boil the rocks, but it will stink up your kitchen unless you do it outside. For the above stated reasons i recomend dry rock.

so for base rock you just wash it off in tap water then put it in the tank or?

yes for dry base rock that is the way.
J&L has nice shapes, this is very important step in seting up your tank. This is what you will be looking at. Go to J&L and see what they done with two "mountains and space in between" design.
What you can do is get a rectangular sheet size of your tank, and try to get some nicely shaped dry rock at J&L and see what you can get in terms of good design of your land scape.
Might be hard to get it the same way though when you get home.LOL,

ill check it out tomorrow :) thanks for the great advice =], btw im contemplating with getting a heater. Since it's summer and it gets pretty hot will i need a heater? I haven't installed one in the tank but i've been closely watching the water temp. During the day it goes into the 28-30c and at night it falls down to 24-26. Would this be good enough? or should I go for a heater?

That much opf a temprature swing could hurt a lot. 2-3degree's F is enough to cause chaos in some tanks. heaters are one of the the cheapest part of your tank, and also one of the easiest ways to lose everything(I've had it happen :( )and throw a $10 walmart mini fan on the top that turns on when your lights turn on.

You've been given great advice about the baserock, a clean start would be great. With the cost down now it's a cheap way to start aswell.