Utterly Clueless, Please Help Me With Setup

Just saw something I missed. There are many ways to have a successful tank. We do not always agree on what they are.

I would leave the filter media in the 280. I do not use the bio-wheels. Once a tank is running well and you have a lot of pods; the media is a great place for them to live and breed. I sometimes do not have to change the media for 2 or 3 months on mature and healthy tanks.

Ray
 
Just like everything in this hobby, skimming is a personal choice. I skim, and I believe that it keeps my nitrate levels down. It seems to work for my tank. A lot of people on these boards do not skim, and their tanks are just fine.

As for live sand, it is sand with the nitrifying bacteria already living on it, as well as many other detrivores and critters. It will shorten your cycle time, as it contains larger numbers of nitrifying bacteria. In my humble opinion, though, live sand is way too expensive. Save yourself the cash, and do a fishless cycle with plain old sand. Then you are essentially creating "live" sand. Just my 2 cents.
 
A scoop or two of sand from an established tank can shave weeks off your cycling time. Sometimes your LFS will throw in some as a bonus for buying all their overpriced crap. Mine tries to charges 4.99 a pound for "cultured" aquarium sand. Seeing as how their tanks are ALL infested with Ich, I'll pass on just about anything they culture.

I'm not trying to say that people who buy live sand are wasting their time (and money), but if you have a little patience, your sand will be live in no time. Plus, if you want detrivores, you can get them in already-put-together packs from just about anywhere. I have had good experiences with Drs. Foster and Smith.

www.drsfostersmith.com
 
Thanks for all the replies! I know the guy at the LFS and he was saying if it was him he wouldn't do it. However he said if I wanted to shave a bit off and pay the price then I should get live sand. I think I'll go with good ol' Home Depot sand.
 
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