Filtersss

Hello there firstone...Welcome to the forums..

Answers to your questions...

Filters - If you have in the tank, 1 - 1.5lbs of live rock per gallon, and sand...there is no need to have any other filters..The live rock and sand will provide with all the mechanical filtration that the tank needs..

You do need to be fitting a protein skimmer, best of buying one that is rated at twice your tank size..So, for a 30 Gal, you want to be buying one rated for 60 to 70 Gallons...

Powerheads - I would put a couple of 900 litre per hour powerheads to give you good current. Something like two MaxiJet 900's.

Substrate - You want to be using sand. Sugar sized grains, aragonite type. This will help with buffering the pH and wont trap any detrius, bits of food etc etc..We dont use gravel in a marine aquarium because of bits getting trapped in between the chips of gravel and causing bad algae blooms, high nitrates etc ...

I hope this has helped you a little bit...If there is any other questions, dont hesitate to post them and we all will do our best to point you in the right direction..

Niko

Well, how clean the sand stays is really down to the circulation in the tank with the powerheads...When you see a place in the tank with brown diatom algae on it, it usually means that there is not enough water flow in that area of the tank..The powerhead placement takes a little while for you to find a good balance that give circulation...So, there is not really much need to clean the sand..If you do need to clean it a little, syphon it out when you do your water changes...Trick is to keep edging the syphon hose closer to it so it's just right to be pulling the brown off the surface and not such up loads of sand...

Which brings me onto the water changes...What most people do is buy a large rubber-maid container, put a powerhead and heater, fill it with Reverse Osmosis water, add your salt and mix it in there. Set the heater to the same temp as your tank...Then, after 48 hours of mixing, you now had a good load of pre-mixed saltwater to do water changes on the tank...When you do a water change, do about 10% of the tank volume per week.

In case your wondering what reverse osmosis water is...Well, marine aquarist buy what is called a " Reverse Osmosis Unit " or RO Unit. This generates about 98% clean water. The filter removes metal traces, chlorine, copper traces, phoshates and many others from the water..If you simply use tap water, there is a very good chance that you will encounter major green algae problems...mainly green hair algae as this algae feeds off the nutrients in the water...

Hope this helps a little

Niko

ok....to start off with...couple of things really..Take some of your tap water to the local fish shop and get them to test it for nitrate and phosphate and post the results of the tests...Unless you have spankin gorgeous tap water, it will lead to bad algae problems...Another way around it is ask your local fish shops if they sell RO water, or pre-made salt water...this will help you out loads..But, i know they cost a bit, but getting an RO unit will be one of the best things you can buy for your tank mate...

All the chemicals remove is chlorine and chloromides...We also need to rmove metal traces, phosphates and more for it to be up to an excellent standard for the tank...Try looking on eBay, you can sometimes fall on an RO unit for a reasonable price..What country are you in?

Ask away with any more questions you have...

Niko

Yes, alot of people use dead or base rock and then pile the actual live rock on top of it, within a few months it will start to become live...As you will be cycling the tank with the dead rock in there, it should be fine by the time you come to start stocking the tank ( 4 - 6 weeks )...

Dead spots around the rock are created when water cannot flow around them..You do have to take water flow into concideration when aquascaping your tank...

Niko