I need help lol

[fishytime]

I would agree with almost everything said, except for the dry rock....I hate dry rock....it will cause you nothing but trouble and I will bet my life that Marko rock is not lighter than good live rock....it is basically petrified live rock, so I seriously doubt it will ever have the capacity to be as good as live rock.....dry rock could take anywhere from a couple monthes to a year (or more) before you will be able to count it as part of your biological filtration.....for the 25-30 pounds that you will need for that size tank, I would bite the bullet and get all live rock.....start a tank with 100% live rock and you need to be patient, start a tank with dry rock and you will have to be REALLY patient....I know others will chime in and say that they never had any issues with using dry rock, but I work at a LFS and see and hear about the problems on almost a daily basis...

[jorjef]

And cured rock and pest free rock are NOT the same thing. You can have cured live rock that still have critters in it. I also vote live rock vs. dry/base rock. But I'm very impatient lol

[CM125]

The live rock we got came with some critters, almost all good! And reduced our cycle time, its nice to have purple in a brand new tank.

[Triggz]

Originally Posted by fishytime

I would agree with almost everything said, except for the dry rock....I hate dry rock....it will cause you nothing but trouble and I will bet my life that Marko rock is not lighter than good live rock....it is basically petrified live rock, so I seriously doubt it will ever have the capacity to be as good as live rock.....dry rock could take anywhere from a couple monthes to a year (or more) before you will be able to count it as part of your biological filtration.....for the 25-30 pounds that you will need for that size tank, I would bite the bullet and get all live rock.....start a tank with 100% live rock and you need to be patient, start a tank with dry rock and you will have to be REALLY patient....I know others will chime in and say that they never had any issues with using dry rock, but I work at a LFS and see and hear about the problems on almost a daily basis...

+1!

I am a firm believer that true liverock is the lifeblood of your system. Personally, I like using really fresh liverock when cycling a new aquarium. Usually the liverock will kick in the cycle for you. You may get a few bad crabs, the odd shrimp but I really think the good (different shades of coraline, nice macro algaes, good critters) outweighs the bad. I usually leave the sand out for a weeks if I go this route. This way you can easily siphon out any "crap" that falls off the rocks while its curing. Get in there and give them a shake or hit them with a powerhead/turkey baster to flush out as much die off as possible.

Liverock is def a tricky subject.... gonna get a lot of opinions on this one. Either way you go take your time, sounds like your on the right track

[FFGirl]

Originally Posted by Triggz

+1!

I am a firm believer that true liverock is the lifeblood of your system. Personally, I like using really fresh liverock when cycling a new aquarium. Usually the liverock will kick in the cycle for you. You may get a few bad crabs, the odd shrimp but I really think the good (different shades of coraline, nice macro algaes, good critters) outweighs the bad. I usually leave the sand out for a weeks if I go this route. This way you can easily siphon out any "crap" that falls off the rocks while its curing. Get in there and give them a shake or hit them with a powerhead/turkey baster to flush out as much die off as possible.

Liverock is def a tricky subject.... gonna get a lot of opinions on this one. Either way you go take your time, sounds like your on the right track

Thanks so much for the advise I do want to go the live rock route I never thought of leaving the sand out to keep clean up easier
All of you guys are awesome I so appreciate all of the time you have all given me!!!

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by FFGirl

Also, chemicals needed for a healthy reef and when do I add them, or do I at all? And then the shrimp with a cleaning crew if I supplement their food? Or do the shrimp come in once there are fish
Thanks again everyone!! You guys are awesome!!

You won't need to add any chemicals to your tank for some time. Any good salt will have what you need to cycle your tank, keep fish and soft corals. When you start adding LPS or SPS corals they will start depleting calcium and other minerals from your system. The salt you use may still be sufficient and you should never add any chemicals to your tank without testing the water to see if you actually need to or not. As far as shrimp go I would wait until your tank is fully cycled and ready for fish. Shrimp are great for getting excess food that makes it by the fish and scavange enough food that you don't have to purposely feed them.