Logistics Question

[BHRay]

I live in a small town, but received a gift certificate for a not-so-LFS which is about 2 hours away. I've been doing the FW thing for awhile and want to try a 10g reef. I have a couple questions:

1) I want to bring the 10g, PH, heater, and about 10lb. of LR home on saturday (a friend gave me a half bag each of sand and aragonite for substrate). How long will the rock survive. Do I need to carry it in a thermal cooler? It will take me some time to get the salinity and temperature right once I get home. Should I hit a Walmart on friday, pick up a 5g or so container, and get some water going instead? I don't have a PH, but I think that I have a airstone that I could rig up.

2) A friend of mine with a nice 125g SW says that I can have 5g or whatever I need of his tank water to use to start my tank. Is this a good or bad idea?

3) Can I put any "critters" in on saturday? Or do I just throw in a piece of shrimp as another thread had suggested? I usually fishless cycle my FW tanks. Does anyone in the SW hobby do that?

 

[Pineapple House]

1. Most likely the LFS will give you something such as a styrofoam container to hold the live rock in, so I don't think you would need to go out and buy something to hold it in. Live rock will be fine about 13 hours out of the water.

2. Couldn't hurt...I say go for it!

3. NO buying any critters!! Go with the shrimp cycle, as well as the liverock/sand cycle. Just drop in a couple raw cocktail shrimp in for 3 days or so, and you'll be set

PH =)

 

[Corax]

Hold up, rewind a second... Leaving LR out of the tank for 13 hours will effectively kill off most anything that once made it attractive to you unless you pack each piece in wet newspaper and keep it VERY wet for the entire time... This is why most companies that ship LR will not call it cured, but instead refer to it as "pre-cured", meaning that it was cured when it left them...

Your best bet is to make 2 trips to this no-so-local FS.. The first for the hardware, salt, whatever else you need (got a list of stuff yet?), and a second one for the LR... The salt is NOT an instant mixture, it requires mixing with a powerhead overnight (some say it can be done in a few hours, I say 24 hours, minimum to fully dissolve and become stable...) Then, once you get a stable salinity (Specific gravity, by using a hydrometer, should be on yer shopping list), and temerature, you can go pick up the LR... This is your best route IMHO... I'm not saying you are doooooomed to failure by getting it all at once, but your rock will suffer the least by minimizing how long it is out of the water...

A possible solution would be to take a couple buckets with you, purchase some water from the LFS (the better ones will even give you a bucket of water if you buy a pile of LR from em.....) and get a powerhead for each bucket... This will allow you to get your LR and hardware at the same time without subjecting the LR to drying out... If it dries out, and by that I don't mean bone dry, just not wet to the touch, then the LR will need to be re-cured and that, umm, well, STINKS....... Literally, the smell of curing rock can drive you out of your home =) I mentioned taking 2 buckets, and that is because a bucket full of LR and water isn't exactly lightweight... So unless ya got someone hulky to go with ya, yer gonna want more than one bucket.. =)

 

[latazyo]

it has taken me about a month of prep to do a 10g, if you don't have experience with saltwater, you might want to do a sh|tload of reading first...

if you want a reef, you need more lighitng than the hood that came with the tank

and I agree...that saltwater needs to be mixed in a bucket or something with a powerhead and heater overnight at least...get the water and sand in the tank....then put teh rock in...and I agree...dont 'buy any animals for it for a few weeks and definitely no corals yet

ask teh buddy of yours with the 125 if you can have 5-10lbs of his sand too...that'll help you out a little

 

[BHRay]

I got the tank, a PH, salt, Heater, and stopped by grocery to buy 8g of RO. Came home and mixed water in tank. Temp 76, salinity 1.023, ph 8.4, KH 9, after one day. I put about 10lb sand and 5lb aragonite in on day 2. Day 3 I bought 10lb of LR from local guy. He had beautiful purple stuff. The not-so local FS had some weird shaped stuff (Tonga?) and some regular rock - but they were just ugly brown - and they wanted $8 and up. My local guy sold me 10lb at $4 per! Anyway, he gave me bucket of water with the rock - told me to keep it, I'll need it. Will make water in it. So, I put the rock in a few hours ago (even though it was in a bucket, looks like the sponges wilted) - it was kinda chilly in my truck. But I see critters (worm looking) swimming around in the tank.

Question: I figured that when I put the aragonite in that the KH would go up. It didn't, it stayed the same, at 9 drops/degrees. But the PH went to 8.3. Does this sound right?

As for lighting, I haven't decided yet. I have a 30" single 20W from a 29g I had sitting on it now. I will decide on the lighting after I decide what I want to keep in the tank. How long should I keep the light on? I'm figuring that the coraline needs light?

Any ideas on what I should be doing now? I figure that I will watch for NH3, but besides that, I'm all ears.