Starting a new Red Sea Max Aquarium

[mrnugget]

After months of planning a planted FW tank, I decided to take the wife and family to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, in part to get some ideas for what she would like to see in the aquarium in her kitchen. The idea she got was a marine tank instead of FW, so here I am...

The Red Sea Max setup (34gal) is on order, and I have a couple of weeks to get educated on setting up and maintaining a SW tank. Reading thru the stickies and doing some searches, I'm looking at a FOWLR setup to start, and then moving up to some soft corals as things settle in. Seems there are some questions regarding whether the RSM standard lighting will be enough for some of the more advanced reef species, so I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Based on recommendations I found here, I have three books on order:

Marine Fishes - Scott W. Michael
Conscientious Marine Aquarist - Fenner
New Marine Aquarium - Michael Paletta

So, a few questions to start off:

1) Any general advice on stock selection? Color is going to be a key factor for SWMBO, but I'm interested in a good mix that will get along well in a tank this size.

2) Suggestions / recommendations for a good LFS in Central NJ (Somerville area)? I've heard mixed things about one in Green Brook, not sure if others have had more luck elsewhere. Would prefer to find a good one, and do my liverock purchases there prior to stock purchases.

3) RO vs. distilled water - seems like a simple enough thing, but at what point does it make more sense to buy/install a RO filter rather than purchase gallons of distilled water? Assuming I'm doing 10% - 20% water changes weekly, that's up to 7 gallons a week... wondering how others handle it.

4) Live Rock vs. Base Rock - is the main reason to go partial base rock vs. all live rock strictly a cost factor? I've seen suggestions ranging from 80% base rock to all live rock, so not sure where the line should be drawn. My key concern is getting the tank started right the first time.

Thanks in advance for the assistance!

[dmjordan]

1) gobies, firefish, clownfish stay with the small sized fish. mix it up with some inverts
2) can't answer this one for you as i have never been to jersey.
3) i love my ro/di unit make as much or as little water as you want, no more lugging gallon jugs from the store, comes in handy when you need to do a water change but are low on cash and have no gallon jugs of distilled at home, if you by pass the di stage you have your own drinking water instead of renting a water cooler and getting 5 gal jugs delivered to the house.
4) $$$ is the main factor for doing base rock with live rock instead of all liverock. if you can afford it i would do all uncured live rock and no base rock. the uncured rock will cure in your tank and cycle your tank at the same time. the more live rock you have in your tank the faster the base rock will become live rock.

[mrnugget]

Thanks for the response, small fish with the small tank makes sense to me. Wondering if I can put in one 'centerpiece' fish along with them, open to suggestions...

Are there any other RSM keepers on this forum?