Just A Few Questions About a new Setup

[Adam Kasycz]

Hi there My Name is Adam

I am Setting up my first SW tank, its a 50 galllon. 36x16x20 And i have a few Questions. First off is crushed coral any better than nice fine sand, that you can buy at like canadiantire or walmart? Second i saw a yellow tang at my LPS, and was wondering if i could have one of them in my tank? The tang at the pet store was only like 5 inches long do they get any bigger than that? Thirdly LIVE ROCK :eek: the cheapest place to buy it where i live is 19.99 a pound. So for 2 pounds per gallon thats like 2000$ just for rock thats Complete madness. Is there anywhere online that i can buy live rock for cheaper than that? But heres the Catch i live on the east coast of Canada And as some of you might know there are like no canadian online fish stores. Please help me out I have been saving my money for like a month but i can only affor like 13 pounds of live rock.

Thanks Alot :)

[gcvt]

Hi Adam - Welcome to AC! :)

Fine aragonite sand and live rock is the best way to go. A deep sand bed of 4-6 inches and 1 to 1.5 pounds of live rock per gallon will work very well. If you can't find aragonite sand, you can use a fine grain silica-based sand. Here's a good article on sand beds: http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm

Also, you don't have to buy all live rock. You can buy 'dead' (or 'base') rock and then put some live rock on top of that. The live rock will soon seed the dead rock and make it all live. You can save a LOT of money this way as base rock is quite cheap. I'm not sure if they ship to Canada but you might want to give http://www.gulf-view.com/ a try for some good live rock. Also check out http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/ - see their 'shipping information page' for international shipping info/costs.

I would not recommend putting a yellow tang in a 3 foot tank - they can grow up to 8 inches and need lots of swimming room.

[OrionGirl]

Good advice all around. Instead of the tang, try looking at some of the yellow dwarf angels. There are many of choices, and these little guys will do great in your aquarium. The problem with the tangs is they tend to stress easily in smaller tanks, and when stressed, they are very prone to illness. Not just parasites, which can be treated, but bacterial infections that require medicating--not an easy thing to deal with by itself, much less while trying to learn a whole new hobby.

There are lots of places online that will ship live rock to Canada, for much cheaper. Even with some of the additional customs charges, I think TampaBays would come down to less than $19/lb. Another thing to keep in mind--you can add live rock as you go. It's great to be able to start off with the full amount, but the reality is that sometimes this is too costly. Start with good base rock, and then pick up choice peices of rock when you can afford it. Sometimes, the stores around here will have rock on sale, so watch for that as well.

[Adam Kasycz]

Hey thanks Alot for the quick reply i apreciate it alot and the websites are great to :D

[gcvt]

Originally posted by Adam Kasycz
Hey thanks Alot for the quick reply i apreciate it alot and the websites are great to :D

We're happy to help :cool:

[Ray Pollett]

Here is a place to get base rock.

http://www.hirocks.com/pages/894239/index.htm

Use base rock as most of your rock and buy some live rock(LR) to seed it. It will take some time ( 3 - 6 months ) for all your rock to become LR. Will be much cheaper.

Ray