GF wants a reef..

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Coel03

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Jun 21, 2012
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SO i am building a nano tank for my desk and loving the process so far. however the girlfriend has expressed interest in turning the old 38g tank into a reef tank. now i have a lightly planted 55 tropical tank and i love my freshwater so i am coming to you all for help.


Equipment i was thinking of doing

- 2x 36" t5ho dual fixtures so 4 blubs (2 actinic and 2 10ks)
- Protein skimmer
- 40ish lbs live rock
- 40ish lbs sand
- 2 power heads provide current
- 100W heater

is there anything i am missing?

also due to costs i was thinking of dry rock and placing in a bio add like Instant ocean's bio-spira?


also this is on the 6month plan
 

TL1000RSquid

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Apr 6, 2011
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Your going to want to consider a RODI unit for water. I'd also consider doing mostly dry rock with just a couple pounds of live to seed it, marco's has 25lbs dry with 5lbs live for $80 with free shipping. Also if your planning not to have a sump, some sort of HOB like an aquaclear 110 in case you want to run some purigen, carbon, chemipure, floss or what not. Some good reef salt, refractometer, and some good liquid test kits.
 

the wizard

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What squid said. I myself am not a believer in bacteria in a bottle. Every time I read about how it sped up someones cycle, their total cycle time is the same as when I just used a raw prawn from the super market to fishless cycle my tanks.
 

Coel03

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So to seed the dry rock, if I take a few lbs of live rock and scrub it in the water with a brush an just use power heads will that help or am I better just placing the rock into the tank?

Also I have an ac50 will that be enough of a supplement?

And I was going to ask for a 50-75gpd ro/di for Christmas




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TL1000RSquid

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Just stack the live rock with the dry rock in the tank, the life on the live rock will slowly spread out onto the dry rock AC50 will work.
 

Coel03

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Also does that person/place for rock have a website?


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Coel03

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Yeah BRS was who I was thinking f ordering through and seeding from there also I can keep live rock alive in a bucket and get it from thatfishplace.com when I go down to lancaster in a month. Thanks for the advice so far.... Time to find affordable 36" t5ho dual fixtures lol


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Gill Roy

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Nov 6, 2007
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Also might want to consider a HOB skimmer if you are going to have any corals.
Take your time, nothing in this hobby happens fast except trouble.
Have fun and keep us posted.
 

TL1000RSquid

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Apr 6, 2011
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Yeah BRS was who I was thinking f ordering through and seeding from there also I can keep live rock alive in a bucket and get it from thatfishplace.com when I go down to lancaster in a month. Thanks for the advice so far.... Time to find affordable 36" t5ho dual fixtures lol


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Better off looking at the 4 bulb fixtures, 2 bulb really won't let you do much coral wise.
 
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