Live rock is on it's way - Help us get it right...

[RickHarris]

[We have a 100 gallon tank, it's 21 inches in height 18 inches deep and 60 inches long.

So far we have 2-30 lb bags of CaribSea Aragonite sugar-sized sand. Also we have 3-20lb bags of Natures Ocean Bio-Active Live Aragonite. There is a petstore in town w/ live sand as well. Now, we have to decide what combination of sand to make up 150 lbs more. (what do you think?) This will total 250 lbs of sand.

We will buy a heater and bring home enough RO water before the live rock gets here-which should be Friday.

Our plan is to get the sand and water in the tank by tomorrow (Wed). The water should be heated to temp before the rock gets here. But, does it matter that the water won't be heated before it comes in contact w/ a partially live sand bed?

I want opinions on how we should treat the live rock when it arrives. And, depending on how much 90lbs of live rock really is... will adding base rock at the same time be okay? Also, would you recommend some type of support in the sand under the rock or not?

oh... and what about lighting -can we delay buying our complete lighting set up... since it will only be rock and sand in the tank for now? we only have 90 watts @ this point. Our planned set up will give us 692 watts-eventually.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Nancy Harris]

 

[melev]

[Hi Nancy! Congrats on your new set-up.

You've already got 120lbs of aragonite, so I'd not want to change that with a different type, although the beach sand I use would only cost you $30 for another 120lbs. However, it is not aragonite, it is more than likely silicate. You can buy aragonite online more cheaply even including shipping, but it looks like you need the sand now. I guess I'd suggest you buy 3 or 4 more bags of the sugarfine stuff.

The "live" sand that comes in sealed bags probably puts up with a number of temperature fluctuations, but I'd guess it would be alright. You could heat the water as your adding it to the tank. Be sure to get some live sand (LS) from some of the club members to seed your sand bed as well. I'll give you a cup.

First of all, smell it to make sure it smells clean and not rotten. If it reaks it is uncured, or at least has some significant die-off on it. If it smells fresh, it is ready to use.

You can definitely put base rock in your tank with your LR, and in 6 months the base rock will also be live.

Some people put the rock on the glass bottom then the sand around it. Positive: It can't fall down or topple. Negative: You'll lose 4 to 6" of visible rock.

Others put it on the sand. Positive: Easy to move and change appearances. Negative: If you have a burrowing fish it could cause a collapse or shifting of your pile of rock.

FWIW, I put my rock on the sandbed.

90w will be good enough for now to feed the coralline algae. If you see small polyps and mushrooms and stuff on the rock, it will need light, but it isn't critical at this point. Those were freebies.

A guy just set up a brand new 330g tank in his home, and has been posting about it on Reef Central. He put all the sand in first, then turned on his RO/DI unit to add water ever so slowly. After 2 days the tank was about 2/3 full, and barely cloudy at all. By the third day, he put in all his LR that he had so far, and within hours the water was crystal clear.

You said you are buying your RO water, so I'm guessing that it will be in jugs/buckets. Put a platter on your sand bed and pour the water on platter to reduce the dust cloud you'll likely get.

Or if you are patient, set the bucket higher than the tank, and use airline tubing to siphon the water into the tank. It will take forever, but your tank should remain nice and clear.

Be sure to tell us how it goes, and post some pictures of your progress!]

 

[RickHarris]

[Marc

Thanks for all the info- we really appreciate it.

We live in Wichita Falls to cups of club sand will be hard to come by...

The aragonite we bought is sugar fine, the store had sea floor special grade reef-sand too. It's more coarse. The bags say to use the sugar fine on top and the reef sand on bottom. Sound okay to you? (by the way, it's not the bags that convinced us to buy that way- it was the stores current supply.) we'll return what we don't use...

***Oh- one more question what do ya'll use to black out the back of the tank?

thanks
Nancy]

 

[Kc189]

[When I added the water to my sand I used a trash bag and laid it over the sand bed then put my water in just any idea. As for the "live Rock" as Marc said if it has a smells bad its uncured but that can work to your advantage in MHO it will cycle your tank without putting fish in it which is the best way IMO. That way you dont have those damsels running around beating up all your cool fish. If you do use play sand be sure do lay it down FIRST do you use it for your top layer.


I am fairly new but this worked well for me.

Keith]

 

[Richard]

[I used my old plastic tape on back for freshwater and sprayed
painted it black and taped it back on..]

 

[melev]

@RickHarris wrote:

[Someone was at the last meeting from Wichita Falls. If you come to the next meeting, which is at my house, I'll be happy to send you home with a couple of cups from two different tanks. Others could bring some along as well, probably.

Sand: Usually the fine stuff falls through the coarse stuff over time. Just don't be too surprised by that. Some reefs in Europe seem to mix up their substrate with all different sizes of sand. It looks kind of natural to me. You bought the best sand for reef aquariums. Aragonite is pure calcium based sand. That is what we all want and usually can't afford. Well, we can, but it hurts. The guys on the East Coast buy 60 lb bags of it at Home Depot for $3.50 each!!! :angry:

You can find backgrounds for sale at most pet shops. You buy it by the foot. One side has a picture, the other side is black. Just tape it on. Be sure to run a good seal across the top part so you don't have moisture or salt getting trapped between the background and the glass.]

 

[Kevin Trotman]

[@RickHarris wrote:

The rule here is going to be diversity. First off, don't buy any live sand yet. In fact, here's a plan for you to build from. Use your sugar size sand and the other 3 bags of bio-sand you have and then put the water in with it, pre-mixed. You can add whatever other type or grain size of sand looks good after that. You just predominantly want sugar size sand, but not all that size. Get at least 3 to 4" of sand total. Let your tank settle out for at least two days (the cloud of sand will settle) and feed your tank some kind of food for the couple fo days as if there were already 7 or 8 fish in it at least. Then after 2 to 7 days of that, put your rock in with your pumps blowing directly on its exposed surfaces, but not on the sand. Turn on your filters and start filtering out the stuff the rock puts off and keep feeding the tank as if it were stocked. After about a week, go to your pet store and get about 2 pounds of rubble from the bottom of their live rock bin, just small pieces that'll have lots of bacteria on them and get maybe a chromis or two or some small fish that you're not going to get attached to (cheap) and feed them sparingly, once every two days with a frozen cube of emerald entre. About 3 weeks later all your amonia, nitrite, and hopefully nitrate will test somewhere near zero (after a really good spike although I've never had toxic levels of AM or NI doing this), then you can go on from there. At about the 2 months mark, order a live sand bed infusion kit from IPSF.com or similar place. And trade a few cups of sand with club members every now and then as Marc suggested. This will give you much better sand bed. Live sand from most local fish stores isn't going to give you much. The fun is in seeing all the diversity that comes from the infusion kits, tiny starfish, shrimps, etc.

No, as long as you don't buy live sand to activate it. Live sand at this point is a waste of money. All the diversity will die as the tank cycles. Add things in small steps. Bacteria first, then infusion kit, etc. Anything other than bacteria would die in live sand (the stuff that would normally be in an infusion kit).

There are things that will hopefully be alive in the rock that are more delicate than your average fish would be and just as exciting. It is living. I got a sea cucumber out of a pack of live rock once. It is normally covered with feather dusters, shrimp, copepods, things probably too small to notice at first, but as they invade your tank you'll get used to them. It is rock, ya know, but try to get it in water as soon as you can, make sure the tank is 76 to 80 degrees, etc.

It's not as much as you might think. Two medium size boxes worth(2ftx1ft). Adding base rock is fine. Supports aren't needed, but it depends on how you want to arrange your rock and if you can get it arranged the way you want it naturally. I'm horrible at aqua-scaping, so I never get that creative.

Yes. Not a big deal w/o corals.

Hope you guys enjoy the tank!!]

 

[RickHarris]

[we have the sand in- not the live sand as suggested... also, Kevin you said "bacteria 1st" where is our bacteria gonna come from? the live rock alone?

the tank's pretty cloudy, but we expected that... How about the foam/film on top- is that normal and what should we do 'bout it?

Also, Rick and Melinda (our daughter) had the ro water at 1.024 before they put it in the tank, but it was at 1.017 two hours after they put it in...

baby steps, I know...
thanks again
Nancy
(we're the family from Wichita Falls @ the last meeting)]

 

[melev]

[Your salinity probably changed because of temperature plus the massive particulates clouding the water itself.

You can scoop off the junk off the top with a spoon or sponge, and get rid of it because it won't go away on its own.

I'm big on clean tanks.

I thought you mentioned you had a couple of bags of Live Sand. Those would have some starter bacteria in it. You want that on the surface.]

 

[RickHarris]

[Marc,

yeah, I re-read and understand now that the bio stuff will be our bacteria...

thanks
Nancy]

 

[Kevin Trotman]

[@RickHarris wrote:

Yes, it will. Even without it you'll still have the right kind of bacteria take off. If your sand bed is deep enough it will create a low-oxygen zone that will cultivate the right type of bacteria to eat nitrates from traces that are already there. If you feed the tank a lot the first couple of days you'll also start cultivating some bateria that eat ammonia and nitrites. They are everywhere anyway, but using the bio-sand will get them going faster. If it gets going good then the waste in your tank (fish poop and uneaten food) is ammonia compounds which will be turned to nitrite, then turn to nitrate (another nitrogen compound) and then absorbed by your deep sand bed and broken down and CO2 will be released as a by-product and trace amounts of sulfer will collect in the sand bed turning it green. So, you have a waste export method.]