I need help lol

[reefgirl189]

Originally Posted by FFGirl

Thanks so much everyone for the welcome, and for the advise!! I appreciate it I was figuring I would get my live rock from Pisces as they give a discount o your 1st purchase of it when you buy a tank from them. They carry cured, cultered live rock. I am wanting to take this very slowly as I know that is the key to minumising catastrophe lol. So the couple things nobody has commented on that I still feel sketchy on, are, is it ok to use grocery store RO water? I just would rather wait a bit before investing in a RO DI unit of my own. Also, chemicals needed for a healthy reef and when do I add them, or do I at all? And then the shrimp with a cleaning crew if I supplement their food? Or do the shrimp come in once there are fish
Thanks again everyone!! You guys are awesome!!

Are you referring to chemicals or elements (like calicum, mag, etc.)?
Only the latter are necessary for reef keeping IMO.

[CM125]

I have used tap water with no issues, as well as bought some live rock from someone online, then topped up from the store. There was some nice pieces at big als. Cycle only took about 2 weeks.

[fishytime]

I would agree with almost everything said, except for the dry rock....I hate dry rock....it will cause you nothing but trouble and I will bet my life that Marko rock is not lighter than good live rock....it is basically petrified live rock, so I seriously doubt it will ever have the capacity to be as good as live rock.....dry rock could take anywhere from a couple monthes to a year (or more) before you will be able to count it as part of your biological filtration.....for the 25-30 pounds that you will need for that size tank, I would bite the bullet and get all live rock.....start a tank with 100% live rock and you need to be patient, start a tank with dry rock and you will have to be REALLY patient....I know others will chime in and say that they never had any issues with using dry rock, but I work at a LFS and see and hear about the problems on almost a daily basis...

[jorjef]

And cured rock and pest free rock are NOT the same thing. You can have cured live rock that still have critters in it. I also vote live rock vs. dry/base rock. But I'm very impatient lol

[CM125]

The live rock we got came with some critters, almost all good! And reduced our cycle time, its nice to have purple in a brand new tank.

[FFGirl]

Wow lol, lots more stuff to read about!! Thanks so much everyone. So, if not pisces, where would you guys recomend I get my live rock from? Wais? Red Coral? I personally think I want to go the live rock route.

[Coralgurl]

Hi and welcome!

I would check out Red coral for live rock, they always have a great selection of interesting pieces. I would look at others tanks and decide how you would like your aqua scraping to look, then find pieces that would work. I have dry rock in my tank but wish I didn't, simply because true live rock is so much cooler looking.

As everyone else has said, go slow, and ask here, very helpful friendly crowd!

Congrats on going salty, can't wait to see your tank come to life!

[Triggz]

Originally Posted by fishytime

I would agree with almost everything said, except for the dry rock....I hate dry rock....it will cause you nothing but trouble and I will bet my life that Marko rock is not lighter than good live rock....it is basically petrified live rock, so I seriously doubt it will ever have the capacity to be as good as live rock.....dry rock could take anywhere from a couple monthes to a year (or more) before you will be able to count it as part of your biological filtration.....for the 25-30 pounds that you will need for that size tank, I would bite the bullet and get all live rock.....start a tank with 100% live rock and you need to be patient, start a tank with dry rock and you will have to be REALLY patient....I know others will chime in and say that they never had any issues with using dry rock, but I work at a LFS and see and hear about the problems on almost a daily basis...

+1!

I am a firm believer that true liverock is the lifeblood of your system. Personally, I like using really fresh liverock when cycling a new aquarium. Usually the liverock will kick in the cycle for you. You may get a few bad crabs, the odd shrimp but I really think the good (different shades of coraline, nice macro algaes, good critters) outweighs the bad. I usually leave the sand out for a weeks if I go this route. This way you can easily siphon out any "crap" that falls off the rocks while its curing. Get in there and give them a shake or hit them with a powerhead/turkey baster to flush out as much die off as possible.

Liverock is def a tricky subject.... gonna get a lot of opinions on this one. Either way you go take your time, sounds like your on the right track

[FFGirl]

Originally Posted by Triggz

+1!

I am a firm believer that true liverock is the lifeblood of your system. Personally, I like using really fresh liverock when cycling a new aquarium. Usually the liverock will kick in the cycle for you. You may get a few bad crabs, the odd shrimp but I really think the good (different shades of coraline, nice macro algaes, good critters) outweighs the bad. I usually leave the sand out for a weeks if I go this route. This way you can easily siphon out any "crap" that falls off the rocks while its curing. Get in there and give them a shake or hit them with a powerhead/turkey baster to flush out as much die off as possible.

Liverock is def a tricky subject.... gonna get a lot of opinions on this one. Either way you go take your time, sounds like your on the right track

Thanks so much for the advise I do want to go the live rock route I never thought of leaving the sand out to keep clean up easier
All of you guys are awesome I so appreciate all of the time you have all given me!!!

[FFGirl]

So YAYYY!!! I am off to go and buy my tank this afternoon!! I am very excited in spite of the fact that all it will be today is a tank full of salt water lol....but tomorrow will come some live rock!!!