don't waste your money the live rock will seed the san and it will become alive soon enough...just my 2 cents
Trying to become a salty..
- Thread starter Dhillon14
- Start date
Hi Dhillon, I run almost the same set up you are starting. I run a 55 gallon, sumpless Reef tank. I have 65 or so lbs of live rock, an Octopus HB-300F (Great Skimmer, plus no pump in the tank), and I run a simple filter in case I need a quarantine set up. You can do this very easily, but you need to remember to top off, and learn your tanks needs for mag/ca/and alk. I got my levels to 1400/400/11, and have become really comfortable with when and how to supplement with top off water. Once you get your tank established, test for these for about three weeks straight, writing down your results and what you added, how much, and when. After three weeks you will know without testing when to buff each of those three. Also, and probably most important, do a weekly water change. I have the dreaded Crushed Coral in my tank, yet have never seen Nitrates. Good luck, I hope it goes well for you, Reef tanks are a blast to play with. here's a pic of my tank.
If you can get southdown sand, then use it.
As far as live sand being a waste, it depends upon the live sand you are referring to. IF you mean the bagged kind, then the best it can do is shorten the initial tank cycle. If you mean the "real" thing, which has been collected similarly to live rock and shipped from a holding tank to your door, that is different. The latter has numerous organisms in it (that wouldn't be in bagged sand and are different from those found in live rock) and is a worthwhile addition. Unfortunately, the places that I preferred to purchase it from no longer exist. I haven't purchased any in a while, so take a look around and see if you can find some reasonably priced. I actually managed to get a handful of rissoid snails in the last live sand I bought (~4 years ago). These little guys eat detritus, burrow in the sand, and are about the size of rice grains--there are thousands of them. They are one thing I can attribute to a healthy sand bed, which is why I don't worry about getting cerithid or nassarius spp. snails.
Well... Plans are changing, I'm going to be getting rid of this 55 gallon along with the Canister filter. and Upgrading to most likely a Drilled 75 so I can have a sump aswell I just got swayed by so many people here and was told I wouldn't regret it in the long run. Anybody got any advice?
