HERE. WE. GO!!!!!!

[sadrobotz]

Holy cow, friends, I am so pumped. Today I was able to get the rest of my livestock out of one of my 125s and ready to set up the new reef!!! What a day!

I have roughly 80 pounds of live rock in my garage that has been sitting in tubs with water/powerheads/light and will be getting 140 pounds of live sand tonight as well. I am wondering about salt with which to make saltwater. As I am just setting the tank up now and will be letting it cycle and do its thing while I wait to get my lights for it, can I use Instant Ocean, or should I really be looking into getting Fritz or something a little "nicer?" Any advice will be greatly appreciated about anything I wrote, and thanks a ton to everyone, y'all are so awesome and kind.

 

[Stephen8169301]

Holy cow, friends, I am so pumped. Today I was able to get the rest of my livestock out of one of my 125s and ready to set up the new reef!!! What a day!

I have roughly 80 pounds of live rock in my garage that has been sitting in tubs with water/powerheads/light and will be getting 140 pounds of live sand tonight as well. I am wondering about salt with which to make saltwater. As I am just setting the tank up now and will be letting it cycle and do its thing while I wait to get my lights for it, can I use Instant Ocean, or should I really be looking into getting Fritz or something a little "nicer?" Any advice will be greatly appreciated about anything I wrote, and thanks a ton to everyone, y'all are so awesome and kind.

Awesome get that build thread started!

 

[ReefGeezer]

Any advice will be greatly appreciated about anything I wrote, and thanks a ton to everyone, y'all are so awesome and kind.

IO is fine, particularly to start a system. You may decide to change it up after you start to get LPS or SPS corals in the tank, but for now, inexpensive IO is just fine.

 

[sadrobotz]

IO is fine, particularly to start a system. You may decide to change it up after you start to get LPS or SPS corals in the tank, but for now, inexpensive IO is just fine.

great, thank you! and to clarify, can i use the regular instant ocean, or do I need to use the reef crystals?

 

[Stephen8169301]

Do you expect to keep corals?

 

[sadrobotz]

Do you expect to keep corals?

yes, eventually, but i am going to let the tank run and do its thing for a couple months before i start adding them. i will only be adding live rock/sand to start

 

[ReefGeezer]

great, thank you! and to clarify, can i use the regular instant ocean, or do I need to use the reef crystals?

IO is fine. Reef Crystal just has extra levels of some elements in it... alkalinity and magnesium come to mind. You don't need those now. Won't hurt if you use it though. I don't remember there being a big difference in cost.

 

[sadrobotz]

IO is fine. Reef Crystal just has extra levels of some elements in it... alkalinity and magnesium come to mind. You don't need those now. Won't hurt if you use it though. I don't remember there being a big difference in cost.

i see, thank you. i assume that by doing water changes with fritz reef salt (or something similar) and dosing those elements down the road will help to rectify that?

 

[1112-425XL]

I use IO. I add 70% IO and 30% reef crystals. Been happy with that for the last two years.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Either one of the IO versions are good. They have all the properties you need to get started.
Start your build thread soon

 

[Rmckoy]

There are some reefers here that have and still use io purple bucket.
When you add corals later you might have to dose some elements but for cycling it’s good .

 

[ReefGeezer]

i see, thank you. i assume that by doing water changes with fritz reef salt (or something similar) and dosing those elements down the road will help to rectify that?

Yes. Fritz is a fine, reasonably priced salt. I used to use it.