Freshie maybe going salt with my 300 gallon?

[Slick Fork]

You want the rock there to provide shelter for fish and inverts, it's fine to have some in the sump but definitely provide enough shelter for your critters.

If it were my setup to convert I would probably add ~150lbs of dry rock, check out CACO reef in Calgary He can probably also set you up with sand. This would be pest free and significantly cheaper than buying liverock from the store or even from other reefers. Being dry you get more rock/lb than you would buying wet rock. Then add the remaining rock as live stuff from a store or another reefer. This will seed the dry rock, which will become live over time. Another good source of beneficial life (pods, brittle stars, etc.) would be handfuls of Chaeto algae from other reefers.

There's no reason whatsoever that you can't start as a "Fish Only with Live Rock" (FOWLR) and save the $$$ on the light and possibly skimmer, and grow into a reef over time.

Good luck

[RedCoralEdmonton]

Yes you can add dry rock in with the live stuff, but you are going to want 300 lbs of rock not 150lb IMHO, if you do want Marco Rock to seed we carry it in the store as well, hell if you arent busy def stop in and we can go over what would be the best way to convert, I have a 300g tank here you can see what we have done!

Steve

[Hustler]

That is a great little tid bit of info
The way I understood "live rock" Was alot like my bio media now
Big sumps need tons of ceramics so I used to have 45 gallon drums with powerheads bubbling away with sacs of them and seed fish to get it live and cycled before a build.
I dont want a full on reef in a week or two... Ill kill it.... But i would like to take a few months building and adding to a frame that will one day next year or the year after look like some of your guys tanks.

[Hustler]

Well after a long and joyful hobby of freshwater monsters Ive finally decided to make the switch to salt and just start very slowly working my way to a reef setup.
I have about a million questions even though Ive studied up and googled and you tubed just about everything i feel like I still need to ask
once i get my fish out of the tank I do a complete tear down, get rid of most of the bio in the sump and then start it like a brand new tank going salt correct?
I would like to get it going soon so I can get the live rock in there and bubbling away with some base rock....Im in no hurry to get fish in there I just want to do it right the first time. Any advice is worth gold to me.

[Milad]

I've never had a fish tank before my 180g. And so far I really havent killed much but I did alot of research. Right now I wish I had a 300g instead of 180g, lol.

[kien]

This will be a great set up and I think you are already on the right track with the correct mindset. You already know that it's going to cost you time and money

As you suggested yourself, just start out slow. Rocks, salt, a few fish. That's really all you need beyond what you already have. Things like sand, skimmer, lights, is sort of a personal choice and usually ends up depending on what your ultimate goals are with the tank.

[e46er]

My advice
Spend the money and do it right the first time
Good skimmer good lights good pumps
I'm on my 4th submerisble pump for a return in 3 years and just moved my 120 today and will be drilling the sump and running external pump that will also run phosphate and Bio pellets they are so much more maintaince free

[Kevotron]

Quality equipment will make life much more easier ie. skimmer, lights, pumps, powerheads etc, sure u might spend lots of money to acquire all these items but in the end it will save you alot of headaches and potential livestock losses which in the end saves the money u originally put into investing these equipment.