New to Saltwater

[MichaelR]

You say that nitrates have to reach zero before I can add fish.

However, I'm wondering how that can be achieved if I have crushed coral as a substrate instead of sand (therefore no anaerobic bacteria in the sand - I guess it lives elsewhere?).

Oh, and what exactly is the curing process for live rock? Is that where live rock becomes stripped of it's microorganisms, or when the organisms go through their own mini-cycles in the aquarium? I'm a bit confused on this topic.

[reeffreak]

Originally Posted by MichaelR

Which companies make the best protein skimmers?

And what sort of creatures can I expect with the addition of live rock?

Finally, adding a shrimp and live rock until ammonia and nitries levels are zero will be enough until I add my first fish?

Welcome to the Site!

Protein skimmer varies in price...if your looking for an good affordable skimmer than the Coralife will do just fine.There are others out there better but some can be expensive...Euro-Reef,ASM,AquaC.

There are so many critters can come on live rock copepods,feather duster worms,shrimps,crabs,macro algae,snails,sea slugs,starfish,really the possibilities are endless.Some not always good either,especially for a reef set up but you're going FOWLR.

There is usually enough die off from the live rock that you don't really need to use a shrimp in that circumstance.Once Ammonia and Nitrite is zero,a small water change and add a couple fish.,just don't too many at once.

Good luck and welcome again.

[reeffreak]

Nitrate doesn't need to be at zero just Ammonia and Nitrite.Its always better to keep trates as low as possible(30 or lower).Regular water changes will take care of that.BTW.I would look into using an Aragonite base sand(substrate) instead of crush coral.It has better buffering capacity over the life of your tank.What I mean by this is aragonite slowly dissolves which takes many,many years.As it dissolves it stablilize PH,akalinity and leaches calcium,trace elements into the water which is beneficial for a saltwater setup.

[MichaelR]

I'm sure that there can't be a huge difference between crushed coral and aragonite, can there?

Will I still be fine using the crushed coral?

[Bifferwine]

There is a huge difference. In my opinion crushed coral ends up looking bad a couple months in. I used crush coral and regret my decision, wish I had used aragonite instead.

[reeffreak]

I think so..On top of what I already mention crush coral traps detritus.Meaning it needs to be cleaned often by siphoning during water changes and build up of nitrates.Aragonite base sand never really needs to be clean,snails like nassurius keeps the sandbed stirred and even consumes the detritus.Even certain fish like gobys help also.The choice is really up to you but most people who started with crush coral regret it later on.

Yes you can still have a great tank with crush coral,I just wanted to give you a heads up.

[NewbReefer]

my first saltwater tank we put in crushed coral and it seemed like we could never keep the algea off it and were always having to stir up the top surface to make it look clean, this time i put in aragonite and it seems to be better than the crushed coral we had tried before. im in the middle of the cycle and im getting some algea on the rocks but im getting far less on the aragonite substrate.

[yote]

When I started my 30,I used crushed coral.After about a month it got to looking bad,and the more I tryed to clean it up the worse it got.
Had a brain fart one day and added 30lbs of live sand on top of the crushed coral.
Now im probably going to end up breaking the 30 down and starting it over just get rid of the CC.

[RigoSharon]

ohh yote .." had a bigh laugh"...i use aragonite live sand..for all the reasons my colleagues exposed...