live sand or dolomite? on 3rd substrate change.. help please

[newbie for life]

Hello,
I just recently jumped into this hobby on a whim.. not a good idea as im discovering alot of people have alot of different ways of doing things, and it is really confusing me badly.
I have a 55 g sw tank that i just want to get some cool fish in .. Im in no rush as i want to set up this tank properly for minimum future maintenance.
I have changed the substrate 3 times already.. One person sold me colored gravel. So i put it in just for someone else to tell me the salt would take the color out of the rock and kill my fish. So i removed the gravel and put some live sand in, mixed with regular sand. Just to hear that live sand will give me problems in the future and i should use dolomite with and underground filter.. so now i have removed the sand into a bucket and put down the ugf with dolomite ... i feel like i am just throwing money out the window of my car... is there any way i can put the live sand on top of the dolomite and still keep the integrity of the ugf.? I just want to use the stuff i bought because i have heard so many different things from different people.. and then i read this forum and i get really confused..
I just thought it would be cool to have a fish tank .. im a newbie
Any thoughts would be appreciated .. thank you.
Just to give you more info on my setup i have
55g tank
2 power head 30's with ugf
1 biowheel 350 i believe.. its a double wheel
a heater
and a bucket full of sand that i paid alot of money for that i would like to make use of... Should i put the sand over the dolomite? I am interested in growing plants in there aswell.
thank you for any input.:help:

[SHK_ATK]

welcome to fishkeeping newbie (sorry couldnt help myself)

1st thing 1st, are you wanting to make this a FW tank?? or a SW tank?? you mention salt (but dont mention either sea or aquarium) plus you mention plants (or are you meaning corals???)

if you are going SW I would def take all the dolomite out of the tank and sadly suggest to toss the "live sand" away for two reasons,

1 if you did not keep it submerged in water its prob dead sand
2 you mixed the live sand w/ reg sand (reg sand can contain things like silicates)

I would buy roughly 60lbs arogonite sand (does not have to be live sand) and thats gives you a nice even inch of sand as a substrate

(still assuming you are going into the sw route)
Live rock would be the next thing on my shopping list, roughly 1-2#'s / gallon (55-110 total pounds of live rock) basicly LR is the foundation for life in a sw tank, it filters the water, provides food and organisms that is key for aquatic life, Plus it will seed the arogonite sand and make it, live sand!!

so knowing that the LR filters the water columm I would ditch the UGF and keep the powerheads as added water movent (striving for 10X the turnover rate (550 gallons/hour being either achived through powerheads, water pumps, filters or a combination ))

I would also take out any media (filterpads, carbon, bio- wheels) from the filter you are using all it does is clog up with detrius and cause high Nitrates in your water ( thats a bad thing) instead fill the compartements w/ live rock rubble. either get small peices of lr or get a big piece and take a hammer to it.

finally the water, I would suggest either buying water (reverse osmosis, deionization water) or buying premixed water (ro/di water w/ salt) OR you can make your own (prefferably using RO/DI water) but if you MUST use tap water take a small water sample to a local fish store or a petco, to have the water tested (making sure there is nothing out of wack and safe for fish use) get some sea salt (instant ocean is a popular brand I stand by it) and a hydrometer, to test the salinity of the seawater. Usually you want to strive to be anywhere from .020-.025 *anywhere in the red if you use the instant ocean hydrometer*

finally comes cycling the tank, preparing the tank for aquatic life, after you mixed your saltwater added the sand and live rock (depending how much you add the more you add the faster the cycle) ran your filter with live rock rubble and plugged your heater and set your temp to anywhere from77-80 deg, you wait for things to become stable, again taking a small water sample to a local fish store or a petco as they can test your water and determine if you are go to go or need to wait.

when you get your water tested a good stability for a sw tank would be
amonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0-10
ph 8.2-8.3

sorry for the long post im sure many question will arrise just ask.

[ooja3k]

Dolomite should only be used in calc reactors to help with magnesium buffering

[biggy_boie]

welcome to the world of salt water LOL
your going to hear every idea under the sun or waves of what to do. from bare bottom to deepbed and every thing inbetween. you could save the ugf and cap it off and it will act as a plenum. i have a deep sand bed and have not had any problems with it. all i can say is ask and read as much as you can then just wing it. youll never learn any thing in this hobbie with out experinent.

[newbie for life]

thanks for the advice. I have finally settled with the dolomite substrate with an ugf on 2 powerheads. Seems to be working great. This is one big experiment for me. As far as the dolomite. I got that advice from a lfs, a guy that has been doing it for 40 yrs and has never had problems with his tanks. So i went with his advice...I did like the look of the sand bed.. looked really natural. I heard sand is better with reef only tanks and dolomite better for lots of fish.. well thanks again.