35 Gallon tank setup help!

[ge-off707]

Hi everybody,

I am looking at getting a 35 gallon tank with all the normal fresh water setup with it. My plan is to get a basic FOWLR tank going and slowly change it over to include some coral.

So here are the questions:

Can I use this setup to start and just have the existing filter system plus the LR to keep things in check after I cycle the tank? Is there a way to use some dead coral with some LR and LS to get the tank started? this way I can save some of the money for setup, buying 45 pounds or so of LR is a lot of money. Hopefully with that I can get my tank to cycle properly. I know I have some more questions but I can't think of them right now.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[PRDubois]

You can get Part Base Rock mabee $2 lb and some LF to seed the rest.
I suggest you get a Proteen Skimmer from the start and use your existing filter only to run carbon or polish the water.

For a 35gal tank a good skimmer would be:
Octopus Hang On The Back Protein Skimmer BH-100
About $110.00