Quote:
Originally Posted by SmallFry
OK, it all started on Christmas morning. Evidently the Wife had noticed the amount of time I was spending in the LFS looking at saltwater fish, because in my stocking (well not actually in it) was a 25g fish tank with a pump, stand, wet/dry filter and a light hood.
I've been doing some research (on this and a number of other forums) where I have found a wealth of useful information and have formulated a plan. Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I want to do FOWLR - at least to start with (and the lights aren't powerful enough for coral anyway)...
My main problem is that I know I should have about 30lbs of live rock in there, however live rock is expensive here - and expensive to ship from elsewhere. I was thinking of using a few lbs of live rock and the rest of base rock (I was thinking of carib sea "south seas rock"). The idea being that the live rock will seed the filter and the 'dead' base rock with the necessary bacteria. Will this even work (I've heard rumors that it will but not sure)?
I'm thinking that this would mean it will take longer for the full filtration going, but does anyone have any ideas on how much longer, and what would be the minimum amount of live rock?
I'm not planning on having too much bio load in there and I also plan on getting a protein skimmer before any livestock, I was thinking of:
A couple of skunk cleaner shrimp to go in after the tank has cycled,
A pair of clowns (of some sort) to go in maybe a month or so after the shrimp,
Maybe a "something else" (I had been thinking of a yellow tang, but it looks like I don't have enough space for one).
Suggestions or opinions would be most welcome (I guess that the clowns and the "something else" might have to change order depending on what "something else" is)..
Thanks,
Robin
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First of all, ask the nice wifey to take the wed/dry filter back as it isn't suitable for a saltwater tank. You can exchange it for an AquaClear or something like that that's just basic and you can use that to run some carbon and phosphate remover, but no sponge or wet/dry, or bioballs, or ceramic rings or anything like that.
You are right that you can use a large amount of base rock and use a couple pieces of live rock to "seed" the base rock. I would suggest you check out
www.bulkreefsupply.com for their dry rock as it is much higher quality than most base rocks. Most base rocks are quite dense, and don't make very good live rock as they don't get seeded very well. You are also right that it will take a lot longer for the dry live rock to become a significant contributor to the filtration of your tank. It will take 6-12 months for the live rock to seed the dry rock properly. The more live rock and the less dry rock that you use the faster the process will be. Since your lighting is going to be low quality your live rock will lose a lot of the nice coloration anyway, so dry base rock is a good plan in your case.
I would suggest a Deltec MCE300 for your tank as a skimmer. If that's too much money you could try out a Remora (not the nano), but I'm really starting to dislike my stupid Remora. I don't even use the thing anymore, it's sitting there collecting dust.
That is a definate NO on the Yellow Tang. You need at least a 90g tank for a Tang of any sort in my opinion.
Take a read through the link in my signature about tank cycling before you get started. That should help you out.