Now i'm confused

[CienFuegos]

Hi all,

We are about to start setting up our first reef aquarium and I thought I had everything I needed and I thought I knew what I need to know in order to give our reef the best possible start. I have the following to start with.

35 gallon tank
RO/DI filter 50gpd
protein skimmer
LED 10,000K lights
20lbs of live sand
30lbs of dry sand
2 power heads
heater

That said I went to our local lfs store to buy some live rock which I wanted to seed dry rock with and let it cycle. Well I walked out with more live rock then what I intended on getting and the sales person was also trying to get me to buy some additives such as Kent Calcium and two others. While doing my research I never came across anyone using any chemicals in their aquariums when they started one up. Not only that put when I told him about how much sand I was going to use he said that was a bad idea and how he would not do that (I wanted to have 2 1/2" to 3")

I was going to start by cleaning the dry rock with some saltwater and a tooth brush. Then I was going to place it on the tank. Next I was going to add the dry sand on the bottom then the live sand. Followed by of course the saltwater.

Any help you guys can give me would really be appreciated...


Will I owe some one three?????

 

[Slappy*McFish]

2 1/2"-3" of sand is right in between a shallow bed and a deep sand bed. I'd shoot for a maximum of around 1 1/2"-2" OR go DSB at around 4"-6".
As far as the additives go, you don't need them right now so just put them aside.

 

[CienFuegos]

Thanks for the advise, I'll go with the 1 1/2" to 2". And I'll put off the additives.