Hi everyone, back as promised after recuperating from surgery.
Can't wait for my tank to be set up again. As the topic suggests I've decided to try marine for the first time, my time spent with tropical came to a pinnacle , to me at least, in keeping discus and getting successful spawns from fish pairing off in my main tank.
Now, I've done plenty of reading and research, but as with most things these days, there's so much conflicting opinion out there that as a complete novice to saltwater I'm left with a quandary.
Regarding decor, I've been looking at simple ocean rock, live rock or artificial rock (Carib Sea). Most advice is favouring live rock, quoting it adds to and helps maintain biological filtration.........Ok, me thinks, what happens to this "live rock" when you're cycling a completely new set up? Also, I want to aqua-scape prior to filling, maybe fixing pieces together with stainless steel bar for stability. This could take a few days, won't it die off? I may be showing my ignorance here, but also how do you control what's going into your tank if you don't quarantine this rock? I invested heavily in my planted discus aquarium to have the set up I wanted from the outset, not changing it once it was aquascaped, I favour a "hands out" approach once my tanks are stocked, putting aside routine maintenance, and want that more so this time. So, I'm happy to spend my tank fund on what's really needed and don't want to cut corners at the most crucial point, setting up.
I have: Aqua One 350 ltr aquarium. 2 x Eheim pro 350 externals, twin T5 tubes, Eheim UV, and three small circulating pumps I plan on positioning discretely in my rockwork. I can see the benefits of the highly porous live/artificial rock, I used seachem matrix and denitrate, similar actions I guess. That said, it's costly and with me wanting to keep 4-6 fish, with quality media in my externals shouldn't there be more than sufficient bio filtration to cope?
I'm pretty much sorted on all aspects of this set up except for this décor question.......I thought my rock work would be purely decorative, not so apparently. Coral sand substrate, opinions on what sits on top would be most helpful as set up is imminent once it's decided.
Thanks
Can't wait for my tank to be set up again. As the topic suggests I've decided to try marine for the first time, my time spent with tropical came to a pinnacle , to me at least, in keeping discus and getting successful spawns from fish pairing off in my main tank.
Now, I've done plenty of reading and research, but as with most things these days, there's so much conflicting opinion out there that as a complete novice to saltwater I'm left with a quandary.
Regarding decor, I've been looking at simple ocean rock, live rock or artificial rock (Carib Sea). Most advice is favouring live rock, quoting it adds to and helps maintain biological filtration.........Ok, me thinks, what happens to this "live rock" when you're cycling a completely new set up? Also, I want to aqua-scape prior to filling, maybe fixing pieces together with stainless steel bar for stability. This could take a few days, won't it die off? I may be showing my ignorance here, but also how do you control what's going into your tank if you don't quarantine this rock? I invested heavily in my planted discus aquarium to have the set up I wanted from the outset, not changing it once it was aquascaped, I favour a "hands out" approach once my tanks are stocked, putting aside routine maintenance, and want that more so this time. So, I'm happy to spend my tank fund on what's really needed and don't want to cut corners at the most crucial point, setting up.
I have: Aqua One 350 ltr aquarium. 2 x Eheim pro 350 externals, twin T5 tubes, Eheim UV, and three small circulating pumps I plan on positioning discretely in my rockwork. I can see the benefits of the highly porous live/artificial rock, I used seachem matrix and denitrate, similar actions I guess. That said, it's costly and with me wanting to keep 4-6 fish, with quality media in my externals shouldn't there be more than sufficient bio filtration to cope?
I'm pretty much sorted on all aspects of this set up except for this décor question.......I thought my rock work would be purely decorative, not so apparently. Coral sand substrate, opinions on what sits on top would be most helpful as set up is imminent once it's decided.
Thanks
