Harry C
New Member
I have big plans and a small budget. The end goal is a 75 or 90 gal mixed reef, DSB, and a well seeded rock structure that I plan to buy dry and construct. I know its going to take me the better part of a year to scrape together the scratch to buy all things necessary for putting this project together. For now, I have a friend who is offering me a 39gal cube (one of the two ballasts isn't working but hey its $40!). I've been trying to find as much info on seeding as I can, trying to minimize cost. So here's the plan, please tell me if its a good one or not, as I am new to salt. Can I buy 20lb dry sand, swap a cup or two with a friend to seed it, and then when I'm moving over to my dream tank use the 20lb SSB from the cube to seed the DSB in the larger tank? Also I figured I'd just buy live rock for the cube since its not to much, and I could use it to seed the rock structure I build for the larger tank. Could I get away with putting 10 lb live and 10 lb dry in the cube? I know 1-2lb/gal is ideal, but I don't plan on adding much if any livestock to the cube, really just want to get it started so I can start cycling at seeding some sand and rock, to minimize how long I spend doing the same for the larger tank. Figured at that point I could keep the cube for a quarantine. Sorry I'm so wordy, ultimately I guess my question is will buying dry sand and dry rock and seeding it just going to end up in me cycling longer, but saving some cash? Is this going to work? Oh and can I get away with just the one ballast on the cube for cycling? Can I get away with not replacing the ballast if I keep the cube to FOWLR if I end up adding livestock?
