Hi, just thought of another question. In my 55 G. tank, I placed 30 lbs. of
crushed coral substrate. I now would like to add live sand to this. Is
there any problem with placing 30 lbs.(possible more for a DSB) of live sand
directly ontop of the crushed coral? I'd like to find an answer to this
question before I purchase my live rock and sand.

it wont hurt anything, though it isnt exactly benifitial, if there are fish in it now
clean it alot before adding the sand

consider taking a small corner and piling a little of the cc up, not all of it, maybee
just a fist size area and back filling the remainder of the tank with sand, that will
allow smaller critters that cant live in sand a place to hide, and an area for your
students to see things.

By the way, I 'm thinking
of ordering my live rock and sand from e Tropics.com
http://www.etropicals.com/default.cfm?siteid=40 Any opinions about this
company? Thanks folks. Appreciate any help.

never ordered from them, i place a lot of online orders for fish and supplies, and am
almost always happy.

Oh, just thought of adding some more info. for any of you that might like to
give some pointers. Here is the equipment I have ready to set up:

55 G. glass aquarium

glass is a good choice here

200 W. submersible heater

buy another even a 20W get a good one, use it as a secondary, being at a school, EXPECT
the janators to unplug things, and sprey for bugs when your not looking, cleaning the
glass with cleaner that removes anything with no work, then trying to rub away the
streaks.

Test kit from Red Sea (tests pH, alkilinity, nitrates, ammonia, nitrites,
and I think phosphates (not sure about the last one though, the kit is at
school right now so I can't be sure).

id suggest stearing away from red sea, there not the most reliable, at this point i
wouldnt suggest new test kits, just simply dont buy red sea kits to replace these.

I am planning on setting up a reef tank for my seventh graders. But before
adding corals and then a few fish, I would like to cycle my tank with
liverock and sand, and let this run for a month or so before adding anything
else. Does this sound like a good idea? Any questions or comments would be
appreciated. Thanks.

speaking from kinda 2nd hand experiece (tank i maintain in mothers classroom) give the
janitors your home phone, put it in there special room wherever they will find it BEFORE
they try and fix something, or if they notice something broken. leave notes about what to
do when they sprey/clean .... so that your fish dont become dead, and alwasy have carbon
in the tanks filters and keep it fresh. yea its more time work and $$$(buy in bulk online
its much cheaper) but raid kills, and some janators are not the most educated bunch

Brian McCarty


--
Richard Reynolds