lockkeeper69
Reefing newb
I have a 120 Gal tank on order and thought I had a good plan after talking with my local fish store. I want to have a natural fish tank with fish and invertebrates. No corals for now. May change in future. I have been doing much reading and was talked out of my initial plan by the advice of the "salt water specialist". I traveled a little farther and talked to another individual at that fish store and he confirmed my initial plan. Both are successful and have been in the business for a long time.
I wanted to start with live rock and live sand. The first specialist said that he does not recommend this as why introduce things to your aquarium that you don’t want. With live rock and sand you can not control what you get and you will have problems. He said that the rock and sand I put in will turn into live rock and sand while knowing I have not introduced any unwanted guests or disease.
The second store said that if I put just sand and dry rock in it could not turn into live rock and sand. I think that the rock and sand could become a bacteria filter but not beneficial in any other way. I think you need to introduce coralline to get the correct algae cultures started.
After talking to store two I decided I need to add live rock with the base rock and supplement my sand with live sand. One question is some of the rock recommended was lava rock. I have read that this may not be a good base rock. I was instructed by store one that with all the surface area and light weight it would be an excellent choice. Could I add live rock with lava and other rock to eventually become all live rock and not promote hair algae?
Store one said to use plain sand as the substrate. He said I did not need aragonite sand. I have 150 # of sand on order with the tank. Can I add live aragonite to the sand to seed it and make live sand? With fish and invertebrates (no coral or sponges) need the aragonite to help buffer water?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My head is spinning.
I wanted to start with live rock and live sand. The first specialist said that he does not recommend this as why introduce things to your aquarium that you don’t want. With live rock and sand you can not control what you get and you will have problems. He said that the rock and sand I put in will turn into live rock and sand while knowing I have not introduced any unwanted guests or disease.
The second store said that if I put just sand and dry rock in it could not turn into live rock and sand. I think that the rock and sand could become a bacteria filter but not beneficial in any other way. I think you need to introduce coralline to get the correct algae cultures started.
After talking to store two I decided I need to add live rock with the base rock and supplement my sand with live sand. One question is some of the rock recommended was lava rock. I have read that this may not be a good base rock. I was instructed by store one that with all the surface area and light weight it would be an excellent choice. Could I add live rock with lava and other rock to eventually become all live rock and not promote hair algae?
Store one said to use plain sand as the substrate. He said I did not need aragonite sand. I have 150 # of sand on order with the tank. Can I add live aragonite to the sand to seed it and make live sand? With fish and invertebrates (no coral or sponges) need the aragonite to help buffer water?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My head is spinning.