It's been a while...help appreciated!

[Blindloser1080]

Hey there! Let me introduce myself first off! My name is Josh, I live in Lynnwood, WA (about 15 min north of Seattle). I used to be an avid aquarist, but have pretty much forgotten almost everything

I used to have a 38G reef setup, I moved out of my sisters place, taught her how to take care of it and well...she never did. She slowly let the water drain out of it, never fed anything, and it all died. When I saw it there was about 10" of water in it, and the only living thing was my purple lobster that was hiding underneath the live rock.

Now I moved, took my old aquarium with me, and am wanting to start up again! Here's my setup so far:

38G tank, Prizm protien skimmer, Filstar XP3 canister filter. (Would love to have bigger tank, but apartment only allows 40G max.

I'm just starting over and would like a little bit of guidance if possible! I don't have a huge budget, and am buying one at a time (unless it's live rock/crushed coral combo)

Questions:

1) Can pumice be used as a base rock, and live rock put over top? If not, what do/can I use as a base rock? or do I even need it?

2) Last time I used crushed coral, is that still pretty good, or is there better?

3) Lighting. I have the standard light that came with the aquarium it is a Life-Glo that is 24" long, and 20W. What is a decent/good priced bulb to replace with?

4) (Anybody in Seattle area) know where to buy saltwater items? Or even a good website? I've been looking at liveaquaria.com, but they are a little bit spendy.

Thanks for any and all help!

[RyanG]

First of welcome to Living Reefs. The best reefing site on the net IMO. Now down to the business at hand.

1. Base rock can be bought for 2-3 bucks a lb. How much Live Rock do you have now? You want to aim for 1-2lbs per gallon. Please dont use pumice. Base rock is just a cheaper way to get live rock and if you live rock is still wet, and has been kept wet it will seed the base.

2. You can use crushed coral yes, it isnt ideal as it is a good trap for detrious(CRAP) you should consider aragonite sand or a calcium carbonate based sand(not silica based) basically if you put white vinegar on it and it fizzes its safe for use.

3. Lighting all depends on if you only want to keep fish or if you want to keep coral. If you want to keep fish just replace the 20w bulb with another in the 10k to 20k wavelength. If you want to keep corals plan on seriously upgrading your lighting.

4. Not from the washington area but the following websites are good and others will add to the list Im sure.
www.drsfosterandsmith.com
www.marinedepot.com
www.garf.org

May I suggest that you pick up a copy of The Conscientous Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner and check out the articles section of this forum to read up on some more up to date reef keeping philosophies. Again welcome to Living Reefs!

[Blindloser1080]

RyanG,

Thanks man for the reply! I actually just went out and bought a copy of The Conscientious Marine Aquarist at Petco.

I don't have any of the live rock left over from the old tank. The live rock dried up, and so did the crushed coral. The liverock was thrown away and the crushed coral was so hard on the bottom of the tank, that I had to soak in water for 24 hrs to get to be able to remove from tank.

I will look into the lighting. I've had bulb anemones in the past (my sister bought one with "Nemo" for my niece) and I'm kinda wanting to do the mini-reef thing. I'll have to check craigslist to see if there's anything out there.

Thanks again!

Josh

[Doc]

I agree with ryan on his direction. A nice power compact light will give you enough light to grow some easy coral for your "mini-reef" and they are not too expensive.

look to get a protein skimmer when you can. Are you planning a sump or a HOB filter?

-Doc

[Blindloser1080]

Doc,

I already have a Red Sea Prizm protien skimmer, and a Filstar XP3 canister filter.

Prizm:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...fm?pcatid=7928

xP3:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...fm?pcatid=3602

My brother-in-law used to work for a pet store, so I used to get everything for cost. But he's now in China, so I've lost my hook-ups

What power compact light would you recommend for my setup?

[Bifferwine]

Hi and welcome!

Use aragonite sand instead of crushed coral. Crushed coral trap detritus, leads to nitrate problems, and burrowing animals can't live in it.

You will need a better light if you are to keep anemones or corals. The single bulb you have won't be sufficient. Check out T5 fixtures, they would be perfect for your tank.

Don't use pumice either -- you should use rock from the ocean (calcium carbonate based). Who knows what kind of metals pumice could contain and leach out.

[RyanG]

If you want to keep an anenome(shouldnt until tank is mature about one year) you need to keep your light in the 8-9watts per gallon range. If it were me I would look into a four bulb T5 fixture. Individual reflectors would be nice but not a must. Be prepared for the sticker shock.

[reeffreak]

1)Some LFS and online vendor sell dry base rocks and live base rock.Both are generally much cheaper than live rock.No live rock is needed with live base but you will need several pounds of live rock to seed dry rocks.

Call first,they may have stock problems.(dry rocks)
http://www.marcorocks.com/

example of live base rocks.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...91&pcatid=2391

2)Use aragonite sand-superior buffering capacity,better denitrying,better for burrowing fauna,less detritus getting trapped-overall much better substrate than crush coral or any other type.I would go with a sugar-size grain size.

3)You will need to upgrade the lighting for clams,corals and anemones.The Nova Extreme(T5-HO) would make a good fixture for almost all corals provided the tank isn't very deep,less than 16''-18''.A more ideal fixture with at least 4 bulbs w/ individual reflectors will put out even more light then the Extreme.

Nova Extreme(4 bulb/one parabolic reflector/lunar lights)
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...2&pcatid=12772

Nova Pro(6 bulbs/individual reflectors)
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...ode=Current-T5

Tek(4 bulbs/individual reflectors)
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_...unlight_Supply

4)Sorry,can't help there.I do use all the websites that I linked.

Good luck and welcome.

[yote]

Every body else already has you covered.So Welcome to the reef.

[Blindloser1080]

You guys are really helpin me out, thanks!

How much of a difference is 2 bulbs going to make compared to 4 bulbs? Also...I just measure the width of my tank to get the size I need right? I was possibly looking at this seup here:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...pcatid=16 770

Compared to this setup:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...2&pcatid=12772

How about this for substrate? I dont know if 40 lbs is going to be enough or not.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...26&pcatid=7326