Whats necessary....?

[Tuesday]

Hi- I spent an hour and a half in my LFS asking questions. pretty sure the guys there are good guys, but they're also business owners so I wanted to get an opinion other than theirs.
I started my first salt water tank last night. My situations/ filtrations/ tank isn't super ideal, but its a starter tank. Basically its a 33 gallon on the floor. Because of the floor thing (it was a grow out tank and those fish moved into the big kid tank and i figured why the hell not but its not in a place where i can put a stand and i don't have anywhere to move it) because of that, no sump. we're dealing with a canister filter. again, not ideal but its a starter tank. I do freshwater, so I do know about fish keeping, etc. just not the salt. So last night I put salt water in there, live substrate, and I made a dry rock sculpture (and lets be honest, Helen Keller could have done better but again, starter tank) So right now, what's happening is tank, heater, live substrate, pretty good lighting, (I forget the name but i know it has good reviews) canister filter and dry rock.

Now, I know it's cycling. I want something to speed up the cycle. not for fish, but for corals. fish get to wait. for sure.
Im ordering powerbeads here shortly. and a test kit.
but here's what homeboy told me i needed in store. I need to know if all of this is necessary.

polyp-booster
Coral food (necessary, but also, recommendations? Im hearing reefroid, coral feast, and oceans blend coral vibrance)

Now, when I mentioned speeding up the cycle he told me I needed microbe lift nite out 2 and microbe lift special blend eco system in a bottle. are both of those really necessary or can I just use one or the other? or are there any other products you would recommend for speeding up a cycle?


Basically I want this tank coral ready as soon as possible. Im not getting any crazy corals. beginner corals for sure. I was all hard up three days ago "oh yeah im going to wait like six weeks before I add coral" here we are 16 hours later..... thanks!


UPDATE- I basically need to know an order in which I need to get things and what I need before I can add 2-3 pieces of coral, and what can wait until after. I'm also a broke college student so we should try to keep that in mind as well. thanks!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R!

#WelcometoR2R
The coral food probably isnt necessary. As far as your cycle, a bottle of bio spira will help cycle the tank, and I know as how quickly you want this up and running but you've got to slow down. Nothing in this hobby happens quickly, only bad things. That is the best piece of advice there is

 

[BestMomEver]

Welcome to the reef!

So... here we go....

First, most new tanks won’t support any but the most simple corals for 9-12 months. I’m not sure anyone has a definitive answer as to why, but a lot of times when people are having trouble with corals, the tank is relatively new. Try mushrooms and zoanthids first.

Lighting... try to find out the spectrum and par of your lights. Mushrooms and zoas will grow under almost any light but acros will not.

Cycle.... add some Dr Tim’s live bacteria (or similar). There’s a lot of ways to jump start a cycle. But whichever way, plan on an empty tank for at least four weeks.

Don’t worry about coral food yet. Most corals can live off of light and nutrients already in the water. Personally, I rarely feed corals. Fish poop does a great job and I don’t have to remember to do it.

Test kits... I would recommend Salifert, Red Sea, or Hanna checkers. Stay away from API if you can. They are notoriously inaccurate.

Canister filters are fine for a bit but can be nitrate and phosphate factories. Clean it every week and look into a hang-on-back skimmer.

Ask any questions you have. There’s a great thread on starting a new tank. Someone will post a link.

And... welcome again!

 

[RJinPV]

I second and third the other comments. Go slow being the primary advice.

Are you sure you don't want to get it off the floor? It really makes it hard (slow) to do water changes and I can't believe you'll enjoy looking at it. When I was a poor college student a 3/4" piece of plywood the size of the tank footprint and 4 cinder blocks did the trick. Doing it now is better than waiting until you have a lot of livestock

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to r2r !

 

[lapin]

Howdy
Looks like those 2 products are almost the same.
I would go with something that is more common such as TurboStart 900, Dr Tims or Bio-Spira. Then you will need some ammonia to get the bacteria to multiply so you will be able to add fish and or coral in a month. You can read instructions by Dr Tim on how to cycle a tank with his bacteria.
I would save for a small powerhead to add more circulation to the tank which you will need.
Will you be purchasing salt water from your LFS for water changes? What sort of water will you use for topping off the tank due to evaporation?
You will also need to replace the filter media on a regular basis.
You say starter tank. Was it a kit that came with lights and everything? If so, it would help us if you could tell us what brand or .....?