So, I have had fw tanks since I was a child. I currently have several 55gal or larger fw setups that are beautiful. I was given a 125 beautiful acrylic tank with stand and canopy. At first I moved my three fairly large colombian sharks into it so i could up the salinity as they were getting older. As time moved on I realized that I was pretty much at the specific gravity for a sw tank so I changed a few things. I added a protein skimmer, 4 power heads for water movement and took everything out of the canister filter and just have carbon in it. I added a yellow tail damsel, a false percula, a turbo snail, and a sally lightfoot crab. I have had all of this set up and running for about a year. I do water changes every two weeks. Everyone is happy, and healthy and I have had nothing bad happen.
So, after looking online and going to some local sw only fish stores that have beautiful reef display tanks and talking to lfs employees, we started our adventure into getting a reef tank going. The first thing we did was go onto craigslist and get "live rock" we got about 130lbs of uncured rock and then added about 40 lbs of that "live" sand from the lfs.----THEN I FOUND THIS FORUM!!!!!! lol
I know that my current tank inhabitants will have to change, but there are alot of other things that need to change first. My first concerns are getting a ro/di system going and building a large sump. So, before I go any further, here are my first questions.
The stand my tank is on? With the addition of the rock, and now knowing that I have to add alot more sand to get a DSB. How do I know that my stand can hold this weight? And, can I reinforce it?
Secondly, will this rock that I purchased cure with the addition of the real live sand?
Thanks in advance--this forum rocks, and I have learned more in a few days of reading then in a year of talking to lfs employees.
Marcie