Returning to the hobby

[d and a custom creations]

Ok im not new but ive been out the game for three years.

need advice on latest must haves for my tank

i have a 120g
i have about 100pounds of dead rock
i have a 40g breeder that is chambered to be my sump
i have a 6' light with 2 250w M.H. and 2 4'Actinic
i have about 75 pounds of crush coral and sand mixed
i have home made protein skimmer (forgot the name of the technolegy)


i know i need:
wave maker system (is hyper coralia still good choice?)
live rock
crushed coral

know i am open to sugestions on what i have or what i need.

please help!

 

[Tj51]

On start up you won't need a wave maker, but as you said you will need live rock. you also mentioned your sand bed with crushed coral, once you have water you will need a few damsels to give the bacteria in your tank a reason to multiply, Brightwell has product Macro Bacter 7 which helps stabolize new tanks and is supposed to speed up the cycling process. At this stage, patience (of course you know that). Lighting is good but as you get closer to adding corals and fish you might want to go ahead and buy some new bulbs, and I don't see a harm in getting some macro algae for your sump and have that growing. Have some good test kits, etc.

Tj

 

[ldreefer]

Don't use damsels to start your cycle. It's kind of cruel on the fish and then you'll want to yank them once your tank gets older and that will be frustrating. Just be patient.

 

[Tj51]

@ldreefer wrote:

I guess my question is then how will the nitrofying (sp) bacteria have something to break down?

 

[Haven]

If you have all dead rock, add that and then gets some cured live rock or almost cured rock. There is almost always someone on here selling rock or drop by your lfs and pick up a couple of pieces. Don't use a damsel. There are products out there that will cycle a tank, MB7 is not one of them. It doesn't have enough of the nitrifying bacteria in it to kickstart the cycling process. If you really want to help start a tank quicker, Fritz Turbo Start 900 is an excellent product but ultimately not necessary. It's better to let the tank cycle on it's own though. I recommend getting some rock with some die off and that will produce ammonia, jump starting your cycling process. Just remember, patience is key. Also, pick up a cup of live sand from someone, even an lfs will give you one if you ask.

Haven

 

[bimmerzs]

I would not use a crushed coral substrate, it will just become a detritus trap over time. It is better to use an aragonite based sand imo.

Cheers,

 

[etphi]

@tj51 wrote:

I guess my question is then how will the nitrofying (sp) bacteria have something to break down?"]
you can add food to the tank. I wouldn't recommend adding a damsel

 

[d and a custom creations]

wow thanks guys for all the great advice!!

I have the tank and filtration cleaned out.
Its on the stand and i built a truss to hold the lighting

now i build everything to hold a 6' tank even though my tank is 5'(planning for the future)
I bought all my salt and a 20 lb bag of live sand for refusium.
my plan is to seperate the crushed coral and sand with a big hole strainer
i still cant make up my mind witch i should use.
when i had it upo before i used the crushed coral cause it didnt move around the tank as much as sand does from current of big fish(and i love big fish.lol)

 

[Haven]

If you want a good sand use Tropic Eden Reef Flakes or Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade. It's smaller than crushed coral but a nice larger grain sand. If you go with the latter, rinse it really really well.

 

[McReefer]

I've used Garf Grunge to seed my tanks before. Its not that good of a product but if you just need to seed something 1 pound of that will do it.

As far as equipment goes I guess it depends on how much you want to spend. If I went all out on a tank I would do solatube/led light combo and some MP vortechs.

 

[d and a custom creations]

ok ive been making progress. I got all the rock and crushed coral in. i got the lights mounted up. most of the plumbing is done. I'm starting a build thread with pictures in the next few days. thanks for all your input all. it was greatly apreciated!