Questions about marine setup?

[FrAnK3333]

I get thet you have to buy live rock and such but the base rock has confused me. Do I just get a base rock put it in the middle of my tank and have the live rock around it? And also what is the best equiment to buy? And What water do you use if you cant use tap water? Cant you just use the clorine removier?

 

[jflowers]

Best rock is live rock, if you can aquascape your tank with just LR then go for it, base rock is for when your design oversteps your needed LR. 1/2 a kg of LR per gallon Minimum and if you have a certain design use LR for it all if you can.

RO water is best if you can get it. Tap water has nitrAtes, so RO water is the way to go.

Jon

 

[Navarre]

You can use Liverock for the entire tank if you like. Most peple try and save some cash by using base rock... usually Reefbones is ideal for this as it will become liverock over the coming months.

Ro is far better than tap water as it removes 99% of the contaminants. Dechlorinater simple removes Xhlorine but doesnt remove anything else.

 

[FrAnK3333]

Ro?

 

[waterwatereverywhere]

Reverse osmosis. You can either buy your own RO unit which you usually attach to your cold water pipe, or quite a few shops (here in the UK anyway) sell it. RO forces water through a membrane under pressure to remove nearly all of the heavy metals and other pollutants.

 

[FrAnK3333]

So wait I would have to buy water to do water changes? Im going to look up the costs for the units.

 

[FrAnK3333]

I have a very important question about the toye of filter needed. Can I use my hangon filter, or do I have to buy a sump?

 

[J-Money]

You don't have to use a sump. I don't use one. But I have 120lbs of LR and 2 canister filters.

 

[FrAnK3333]

Well I plan on 30 pounds of LR from fiji only 5.99 a pound.WHat baout my air pump do I run that in my SW tank?

 

[yvez9]

you would need powerheads to create a current. corals and marine fish need current to thrive.

the liverock will provide you with your biological filtration if enough water passes through it.

RO water is not very expensive. You can get it for less than a dollar a gallon usually.

 

[Opcn]

Personally I wouldnt bother with 100% live rock, while the extra diversity is nice there are all sorts of light loveing critters that you will kill, and since most LR comes from the ocean it might be best to try to use it responsibly. (yes reefbones do to, but they can come from dead spots while LR can't)

 

[Fishy411]

Airstones Can cause Havoc in a sw tank. Dont use one.

 

[FrAnK3333]

I was goign to buy just 1 powerhead should I buy 2?

 

[FrAnK3333]

I seen the difference on liveaquaria.com and true percula have way more black where as the ocellios dont have a lot of black. Can I just fit a pair and thats it or can more fish fit?

 

[J-Money]

I was goign to buy just 1 powerhead should I buy 2?

The general rule of thumb I've heard everywhere is you want 10x's the water volume being pumped. So you can have 2-100gph powerheads for your 20g. tank, or 1-200gph powerhead. That's supposed to be the minimum, right now i'm doing 12 or 15x's