hi I am new to saltwater and have a few questions about starting a new tank, if anyone could give me some friendly advice it would be great as I am having a hard time getting answers from anyone at my LFS and I am starting to feel like they will say anything trying to sell products you don't need or want, they are always rude and talk down to you like they are better then you and lol and im not spending $18 a LB on live rock from tanks with ich. So doing my own research I mostly I hear you need at least 1LB rock per gallon or more for a reef tank, but I am just wondering if you still need that much live rock if you only had one fish? or a very small bio-load? and the second question I have is if you add a sump/water volume to your system then would you need to also add more rock? lbs per gal? Any Friendly advice would be very helpful thanks
Noob Question?
dale
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2012
- Location
- Sarnia, Ontario
the more rock the better either way.. there are many options for filtration with money being the only limit.. $3 a pound is average for live rock from another reefer.. take your time is by far the best advice to be given... and get the best skimmer you could afford.. save up for it if you need to...
ColbytheClown
Member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2016
- Location
- Mississauga
I agree completely with Dale, patience is key. Don't do what I did and rush into it. What size tank are you thinking of?
I have a few different tanks that are empty I could go with, but I was wanting to set up a 20 gallon long as a small frag tank I want to keep it bare bottom with frag racks. I was thinking one small fish and try keeping some soft corals. but im wondering if I can use less then 20lbs of rock and put it to one side of the tank or in a small sump as I only want one fish and I would be doing regular water changes.
dale
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2012
- Location
- Sarnia, Ontario
10 lbs with adding 1 small fish after a couple months should be fine, other forms of filtering can also be used... but no one ever stops there...
You have definitely hit the right spot for questions... your right most lfs are looking to make money and will over sell and sell you something like a sea anemone before your tank should house one... slow is definitely key as previously mentioned. Nutrient export is very important and many methods in doing so... sump system is a great idea .... also as you previously mentioned about putting rock to one side of tank is a great idea as you can grow some coral on that for fragging. Have a refugium in sump as well. One fish will have very little bioload.
thanks guys, do you know if you could use something like siporax or fluval marine bio media pellets only and have no live rock? and mybe a few lbs of LR rubble? ive seen large systems running to a sump with only media and almost no LR at all just not sure if im missing anything. thanks everyone for the advice
LIttle Reef Keeper
Active Member
Great info here so far! I'd still have some liverock, it's aesthetically appealing and gives critters and fish a place to hide.
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shamous113
Active Member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2015
- Location
- Stratford
I went with dry rock, I then did a fish less (ammonia) cycle dosing the tank with a bacteria culture. I then got a seed rock from another member to seed the tank with pods and coralline algae
noobwithatank
Member
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2016
- Location
- stayner
More water means more stable less changes of smaller things affecting the tank. The whole water vs rock thing is simple. Most people with larger tanks have a larger bioload and require more rocks to help sustain the aquarium. You don't need more rocks per say.. but your bacteria in the lr is what you need. It has to be able to balance out due to the bio load.
Lol so if you start with all dry rock and then do a "fish less cycle" how would enough bacteria grow to support your future bio load? Or how would you know what's enough? Just because the bacteria takes care of some rotten food or rock die off and your tests say zero dosnt mean there's enough to keep up with anything else, just an empty tank. It seems to me you will start a new cycle when adding any new livestock regardless as the bacteria needs waste to live and populate your rock. So your tank will ether grow more bacteria after adding to the bioload or the bacteria will die from not enough amonia nitrate or nitrite. So your actually cycling your rock? Not your tank? Lol so what's the difference with a QT tank and any new tank? Why not just do more water changes early on to keep your levels stable while establishing your bacteria population? The ponds per gallon Sounds like bullshit to me just to make people by ROCKS..
shamous113
Active Member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2015
- Location
- Stratford
I did a dry rock fish less cycle using ammonia dosing, at the end I was able to dose 6ppm and have it clear in a couple of hours, as you add live stock you will go thru mini cycles so that's why you only add a few fish at a time. a qt tank has no rock or sand just bare bottom so the medication isn't absorbed.