lots of questions.....

[slyforestfire]

hello new here and the saltwater side of the aquarium hobby. i have a 49 gal bowfront with a marineland 550 h.o.t. canister, corallife 65 skimmer, and a powerhead. i have a shallow bed of crushed coral, to which i plan to add a layer of live sand. ok so now that the basics are outta the way, questions. after adding the crushed coral my water was cloudy, even with a rinse. i added carbon to the filter to try and capture the culprit but no luck. what else can i do? next, i have stalled out and am getting a lil impatient. this setup has been costly, which i was aware would be the case from the start. i wanna do this right the first time but i cant afford the 60 lbs of live rock ill need all in one shot. is there a way to reduce the cost and not sacrifice the bioload? and final one for now. skimmer has been running for bout 48 hrs now. how long before it starts producing thick foam, is that only after i stock the tank?

 

[Jake1]

You can get dry rock and a few pounds live rock to seed it.

 

[slyforestfire]

thanks jake. havent looked into dry rock yet but i will. probly much cheaper.

 

[Jake1]

Check out bulk reef supply or macro rocks. I have about 50 pounds of reef saver rock from bulk reef supply and about 30 pounds from my old 20 gal in a 75. I love brs rock looks amazing

 

[wysiwyg]

welcome my fellow cheesehead. as stated dry rock and a little liverock to seed is your best bet. i wouldnt waste my money on live sand a waste of money in my eyes. as far as your skimmer how long has your tank been cycling for?

 

[Robert@MD]

Be careful with adding sand to crushed coral, I would go one way or the other and try not to mix. The skimmer will start to collect once waste is introduced from live rock or new fish. Until then, it is unlikely you will get much skim. I would recommend dry rock and dry sand to keep costs down and simply seed the tank with some rubble rocks or even a scoop of water and/or sand from an established aquarium.

The best way to clear up your tank is add fine filter floss and change it out every 24 hours until the tank clears along with carbon. Keep the powerhead running during this time and be sure to change out the filter floss. If the tank is clouding because of bacteria and not particulates, this will clear up on its own within just a few days.

Through my years, the most important thing with new aquariums is learning that patience is a virtue.

 

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[Nemoose]

In our area live rock is about $6 a lb versus $2 for reef rock. So, you can save a lot just seeding with a small amount of live rock. It will reduce your capacity to carry bioload until the rock is well seeded, but again patience is the best in any salt tank. What filter media are your running in the HOB filter? You really don't want to do much bio filtration there, as it can actually become a "nitrate factory". Keep the bio filtration to the rock and sand and just run the HOB for flow and some mechanical filtration. Filter floss or sponges but wash them well and often. You could run some carbon in it also if you want,

 

[slyforestfire]

thank you everyone for the advice. my tank is not cycling yet, it is filled but just with water. i was thinking water polishing pads would do the trick just gotta go pick some up. right now the canister is running a blue foam sleeve and a 1 to 1 mix of carbon and phos remover.

 

[slyforestfire]

levianth i read somewhere on here that adding live sand to crushed coral works on the same principle as seeding live rock. wish i remember where i read that! indeed patience is a virtue, and i am doing way better with this setup than i did when starting my first fw. i wanna do this right

 

[slyforestfire]

just checked out those sites jake. thanks for the referral, your right looks really nice. love that i can choose how much i order. found a 16 lb box of live rock from liveaquaria the rest ill get from brs.

 

[Jake1]

Do you not have any fish stores in town? If not check Craigslist for people braking down tanks. It's cheaper going that way. You will only need a little bit to seed your tank. One softball size rock will seed it.

 

[slyforestfire]

no i dont have any good fish stores locally, unfortunately. i have a petco that has some sw tanks and a horrible reputation for parasites. ill do some looking around.