Brand new to the forum and the marine hobby

[EliWhitney314]

Well I wanted to do live sand, so do I have to wait until I have the water ready?

 

[daugherty]

Well I wanted to do live sand, so do I have to wait until I have the water ready?

yes ir every thing in the sand will die

 

[EliWhitney314]

so I should just have no substrate until everything is in order. So I should just get the skimmer and salt for now. Then get the light, and then the sand?

 

[daugherty]

this is what i would do

salt,sand, rock, skimmer, light


you will need a hydrometer or a refractometer to tell if you have the right salinity or not

 

[EliWhitney314]

you mean buy it in that order? I assume
Once the salt is good, how long should I wait before I put in the live sand?

What temp should I keep the water at? 80?

 

[daugherty]

yes in that order
with out saltwater in the tank there is no reason to buy sand or rock because it will die, than a skimmer and the last thing you need is a light but wait until you know for shure what kinds of coral you want.

 

[EliWhitney314]

Most people were saying halide because the tank was deep. I want to do hard coral, but I think I should wait until I get the hold of a marine aquarium. It seems that most of the coral I like is hard though.

 

[daugherty]

are you looking at sps corals? as for lights i would get a 150mh or a 250mh and the bulbs i would get something in the 14k to 20k color temps

 

[EliWhitney314]

I have no idea what sps coral is. And I am clueless to what lights you are talking about.

 

[daugherty]

sps- small poylp stony coral.
lsp-large polyp stony
softie- soft corals

Saltwater Reef Aquariums: Live Coral for Saltwater Coral Reef Aquariums

 

[daugherty]

here is a light that i would consider

i would get the 20in or the 24in pro 250watt Mh

Reef Aquarium Metal Halide Lighting: SunPod HQI Metal Halide Fixtures with Lunar Lights

 

[EliWhitney314]

That's a little out of my price range at the moment.

 

[ltljoker]

Try looking on craigslist and see if you can find a used one more in your price range. I find alot of things on craigslist:D

 

[dcantucson]

Also check some forum's classifieds that might have a regional section that would be close.

 

[EliWhitney314]

I found a 250 watt halide for 125 and it was only used for a week.

Well I called the guy from the craigslist and told him I was interested in the light and the live sand, but I had to wait until the salt/ salinity of the tank was set. He said he would give me all the treated salt water I needed with the sand, and snails and all the other goodies? My question is, will that work? I mean if it's established water and live sand, will it be okay to put it straight into the tank?

 

[yote]

Yeah,it'd be fine to add to your tank.But you'll probably want to have some extra water mixed up so you can finish topping off.

 

[daugherty]

yote beat me to it so what he said

 

[EliWhitney314]

topping off? you mean just filling her up all the way? haha

 

[EliWhitney314]

It's about 50 minutes away from my house, what do I need to do when transporting this? Do I need to keep the water or the live sand at a certain temp.? Any tips?

 

[yote]

Just make sure it stays wet.Not damp,but soppy wet.The temps not gonna be that critical right now.