Joining The Salty Side.

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Tigz

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Hi all

I'm a large tropical fish owner who has been given a 4'x2'x1' tank with some ok and rubbish equipment.

The tank is pretty thin, and as I already have my monsters I will be sticking to reef and small cute fish for this Marine tank.
It's too early to start thinking about fish, at the moment I'm trying to get my head around what I need to be adding.

The tank is around 200 litre, I have read I should be looking at adding around 20kg of live rock.
My questions on the rock set up revolves around the placement.

Looking at photos of other tanks throughout the forum, most reed tanks appear to be crammed with live rock.
What are the benifits of adding a large 'wall' of rock, against leaving plenty of swimming space?
Do marine fish prefer shallow water with plenty of hiding spaces?

Does the rock need to be installed before or after the water is added?
How long with the rock remain 'live' once out of the water?


My next questions revolve around the sand.
I have read that 1/2" of sand should be used, others have said an inch of sand.
Is there a 'right/wrong' choice with this?
Again, does the sand remain 'live' out of the water.


Should the water be left to settle for a few days without the filters running?

Thanks for any help.
 
number one you are joining the salty side, the dark side of the salty side is a very different thing :)

LR isyour main filter and many newbies fall into the more = better school of thought, this isnt always the case. walls of rock look good for some scapes but not for others, scape how you like :)

LR stays live as long as it is wet(ish), its shipped in wet newspaper around the world so half an hour in a lidded bucket isnt going to harm it.
rock goes in after your salty water is at temp.

sand beds are down to prefrence again, tbh there is no hard or fast rules in this game, go with what works for you, forget livesand its a waste of time and pennies.

we tend not to use filters but rather go for powerheads for circulation and let the LR and maybe a skimmer deal with the mess.
 
I knew Sorgan would be first on here seeing tht topic title!! Bet he died a little inside when he realised!! :lol:
 
number one you are joining the salty side, the dark side of the salty side is a very different thing

Now I'm interested further, whats the dark side of the salty workd then?
Thanks for the advice, just been to see the LSF and agreed on a price on the rock, at £10 a Kilo I'm happy if a complete wall isn't needed.
I have 200 litres, is it right I need 20KG?

:hi: jump right in the water is great :good:

Thanks, it's a little salty, but nice and warm. ;)
 
The dark side of reefkeeping is the keeping of non photosynthetic corals (and inverts)

Sounds easy but is far from it.... I don't know why but people consider me to be some kind of NPS nut around here!
Almost as if I keep trying to convince people to shed the lights and join me in the shady places.

Don't know what Lewis is joking about, he is firmly stuck on the dark side now :)
 

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