a few newbie questions

[garnto]

if i were to buy base rock and seed it with a couple live rocks. would i get all the vibrant purples and everything ,on the base rock, i see on pics of live rock?

i have a 30 pound bag of aragonite. if i were to buy a bag of play sand from lowes. then get a little bit of LS and mix it all together would i be in the clear as far as sand goes?

 

[billdogg]

yes on the live rock. I would avoid the playsand - it is silca based, and although you will get many who will say it is ok to use, it will offer NO buffering to the water. Petsmart sells #30 aragonite for $19.95 here - i would just stick with that

 

[cyacop]

will the lighting not have an effect on what his live rocks do?

 

[ChrisKirkland]

Yes IMO (in my opinion) you will probably notice that the rocks towards the top of the tank have more color this would be because of the difference in lighting.

 

[KarlBob]

Not only would Lowes sand not buffer the water, some people believe it would encourage nuisance algae growth due to its silica content.

I have seen people mention a particular brand of play sand that is suitable for use in your tank, but it's a special order from the hardware store. I don't remember the brand right now, but it seems to be unavailable most of the time, anyway.

 

[garnto]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13278062#post13278062 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ChrisKirkland
Yes IMO (in my opinion) you will probably notice that the rocks towards the top of the tank have more color this would be because of the difference in lighting.

what lighting would you reccomend to get the best color on a budget? currently i have w/e the stock bulbs are that came with it(not at home so i cant check) but would be willing to upgrade if it was affordable

so if i buy base rock and seed it with fiji rock. all my base rock will then have all the colors and everything of the fiji correct?

 

[ChrisKirkland]

What size tank is it and the dimensions of the tank specifically height. Yes what ever you seed the base rock with will have the same colors and growth of species as the live rock it is seeded with.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Some pointers that I have picked up..
You can buy base rock or you can find live rock on e bay for pretty cheap with shipping. Live rock is more than just being purple.
Play sand (silica sand) is not good for 2 reasons other than the above. First if it is caught in the magnet, it will scratch the glass easier than argonite. Second, burrowing critters (I've read) dont like the sharp edges of play sand and things are less likely to burrow or sand sift.

 

[Sock Puppet]

Or just get some live rock froma friend--small piece will do the trick,just need to have patience.

 

[casablanca]

Hi,
I'm not newbie, I'm a virgin fish tank owner. I've never had any fish tank in my life. Now my husband and I decided to get 150 gallons marine tank to mount it into the wall.
I've been in aquarium store recently, asked the store employee a lot of questions.

I asked him, if I can go to the beach and pick up the sand, some live rocks there. I live in 20 minutes from Ft.Lauderdale beach, Florida.
He told me not to do it, but buy the sand and other stuff from the store only, they specially treated it. Same sand, hm... I'm not following. Why I can not pick up the sand, treat it myself and put into fish tank? If store can do it, why I can not?
Did he just saw obviously that I have no idea about fish tanks or is it really impossible to bring the sand and rocks from the ocean and quarantine it , or treat it myself?

Also, can I got the fish from Key West for example, or from somewhere else and relocate it in home marine tank?

 

[Roy G. Biv]

The idea of not picking things off of the beach is that thats where all of the pollutants in the water collect. Lots of times things are collected a mile plus out to sea.
Lots of people on e bay sell fish collected from the keys.

 

[speddlysmitt]

Check for people selling off their live rock. I picked up mine for $3 a pound instead of the $10 a pound at the LFS. Also for sand I bought bagged live sand at Petco. They had it on sale for $20 a bag instead of $40. Look around you could find some great deals.

 

[casablanca]

Thank you. I will check of course, it's always easy to get everything packed and ready to go. It's not about the price, I already got an idea that we are going into quite expensive hobby.

I think it may be a lot of fun to DIY, to hunt for something directly from the nature, to bring it home and adapt.

Are you always buy everything for fish tank from somebody else prepared even you have an ability to pick it up yourself?

Sorry for being annoying, I want to know everything before we buy the tank.

Probably, it's better to ask that way: is it possible to prepare rocks, fish, etc. for adding in the tank if I got it from the ocean myself? Where can I find information how?

 

[bimmerzs]

Hi,

Here are some links to someone that sells excellent aragonite based sand right in Florida. I live in Texas and we have had a couple of group buy's and had a couple thousand pounds of his sand shipped to us.

Cheers,

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=959328
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=955541
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=905366
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=873871
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=774094

 

[casablanca]

Thanks!