New to saltwater fish tanks
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Bryson.bobby
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Welcome to R2R
MJD
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I'd be careful about using too much sand, in the long run it can be a hassle to maintain properly, I'd say don't use more than a 20lb bag of live sand. Also make sure you stir it up a decent amount every now and then so there is no build up. As others have said prior, invest into an ro/di unit, you dont have to get a very expensive one, but mixing salt yourself will save you loads of money. You should be good to add your live rock but you probably should get an adequate heater first although im not sure how much not having a heater would hurt the benefical bacteria on the live rock if at all. Good luck! Its quite a journey.
MrWheelock
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Welcome to R2R! Congratulations on your biocube, you have a very good list and lots of solid advice thus far. If you haven't already watching some of the brstv videos on YouTube helped me a lot when i was starting out.
Nanoreefer4ever
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Get good test kits. API saltwater masters are bad
Barnabie Mejia
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as others have said, invest in a solid RO/DI unit ( I would recommend a 6 stage, can never go wrong with a larger unit). Buckets for mixing salt (5 gallon, 2 gallon for fragging and small maintenance). power head with 20-40x turnover at least and controllable if possible, good mix of testing kits (search here for the better test kits from specific brands, I have a few different brands for specific testing).
as far as the sand, I think 1 bag would be good, you don't want it too deep cause it may cause more headaches later. I am using 3.5 - 20lb bags for my 75g and that is more than enough. make sure you rinse the sand well before using it, get all the cloudiness out before you put it in the tank (you'll thank me later, I promise ask @brandon429 about it, he is a ball of knowledge when it comes to sand and sand maintenance.)
even if you're using live rock for the start up, I would recommend getting some seachem stability or aquavitro seed (they're the same product from the same company just different names) and using it for the start up, it will help. grab a small box of marinepure spheres for bacterial hosting.
other than that, have fun with the tank and post pictures for us to drool over!
Thanks,
Barnabie
as far as the sand, I think 1 bag would be good, you don't want it too deep cause it may cause more headaches later. I am using 3.5 - 20lb bags for my 75g and that is more than enough. make sure you rinse the sand well before using it, get all the cloudiness out before you put it in the tank (you'll thank me later, I promise ask @brandon429 about it, he is a ball of knowledge when it comes to sand and sand maintenance.)
even if you're using live rock for the start up, I would recommend getting some seachem stability or aquavitro seed (they're the same product from the same company just different names) and using it for the start up, it will help. grab a small box of marinepure spheres for bacterial hosting.
other than that, have fun with the tank and post pictures for us to drool over!
Thanks,
Barnabie
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