IPSF recommended purchase for 450g?

S

Spar

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I am looking into purchasing from IPSF, but unsure what to get. I have already used Bio-Spira for the bacteria, but no harm in buying more bacteria if part of a package. What all should I get and more importantly in what quantities from their website regarding other 'goodies' such as worms, pods, crawly critters, etc?

Whatever I get now will be in a couple 150g rubbermaid bins in the time being while my rock cures and cycles.

Any recommendations?
 
I've gotten the Live Reef Plankton (had some amphipods in it too), Reef Worms Diversity Pack (which also had some amphipods in it), and the SurfZone Live Sand Activator Plus years ago. Not sure it was all necessary, since I had live rock (but not live sand).

I love their Strombus snails and the black nerites, and also the micro hermits. I'll probably be buying my cleanup crew from them again when I'm ready for it. I was very happy to see they were still in business after I'd been out of reef tanks for 6 years!

Sorry, can't help with the quantities for that size of a tank! LOL
 
you probably do just as good with some live rock and just let it run its course and cycle out.. Might save ya some money. It sounds like your trying to rush it and get alot of diversity and mature your tank. I think that will just disappoint you. Your tank is still going to have to go thru the cycle process of diatoms and what have you yo mature. Maybe im just misunderstanding you. Good luck with that huge tank either way [smilie=clapping.gif]
 
Not trying to rush anything. I am taking the approach of not adding anyone elses live rock or sand to avoid the initial introduction of nasties. So only way to get some worms and pods culturing will be through companies like ISPF.
 
Amphipods populate rather quickly. I started out with the 12 from his kit, and three weeks later, my fuge was crawling with them. Bristleworms take little time to populate as well. I would just buy six bristleworms and let them multiply over time, and the spaghetti worms are supposed to populate the tank as well (but I have no experience with them).

The live sand activator should have enough fauna to help get your sand bed started. The size I got was about 10 oz by volume of sand, packed in their water.
The mini-hermits are the only hermits I actually like. These little guys are busy bodys, and they are small enough that they wont bulldoze. The strombus grazers are supposed to be capable of succesfully breeding in a tank, but I havent seen any evidence of that yet.

Your bill would be outragous if you bought enough to immediately stock a tank of your size.

I did the mix and match special and then added some mini-stars.

But he also has this, which is a good all in one kit for a good price.----> http://ipsf.com/livesand.html
 
Spar, I'm doing like you, but I'm using my old live rock that has been sitting dry for years. The LFS loaded my fill water with bacteria for me. I'll be hitting up IPSF when I'm ready for sure!

Heath, my strombus snails in my old tanks bred like crazy, I have some pics of them in egg casings in various stages, including when they finally developed noticeable shells and were ready starting to break out of the casings. I also have a couple of pics of one lowering itself from the rock to the sand using a strand like a spider!
 
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