Which Live Rock?

Which Live Rock?
Hello all, I am either going to start a 55 gallon SW tank, or move my 120g
FW to the 55g and make the 120g a SW tank. I do not plan on having Corals
and Inverts at this time, but do like to colorfulness of Corals. My
questions are below is you all can help:

Which live rock should I get? Is the Fuji Live Sand good? They all look
great at http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/...d=24&pCatId=393

1) Is Fiji Live Sand (Crushed scleractinia) good?

2) Which live rock? Will this work with regular lighting (fish only lights)?
Are they truly colorful rocks?

Tonga Branch Live Rock (Scleractinia)

Kaelini Live Rock (Scleractinia)

Tonga Deepwater Live Rock (Scleractinia)

Tonga Ridge Live Rock (Scleractinia pcs.)

Fiji Premium Live Rock (Scleractinia)

3) Should I get a cleaning crew from the start? Or wait for algae to bloom?

4) Should I spend the bucks on a UV Sterilizer?

Thanks for now.... I will have many more questions before I make the
move...

As for live rock, get what you like the looks of. The best place is
eastcoastclams.com but you have to buy quite a bit of it. Live rock will
cycle very hard (usually) so you don't want any fish while it is cycling.
Put in a piece of raw cocktail shrimp from the grocery store to cycle if you
want to be sure you've cycled. Use about 1.5 lbs per gallon as a max and
about 1 lb per gallon as a minimum. www.palmettoreefs.com is another good
place for rock.

I like the Kaelini because it is the lightest/less dense (takes up more
space). All the live rock and most anything else you put into the tank will
get covered with nice puple coraline algae after a while (assuming you keep
the chemistry good).

I wouldn't bother with buying live sand. Good chance the rock cycling will
kill the sand anyway! See if you can trade for some after you cycle with
some local reefers. If you do buy live sand palmettoreefs.com is the place.

Normal output lights will be fine with fish only live rock (FOWLR) but for
corals you will need PC, VHO or MH. Coraline doesn't really need high light
to get to a nice pretty purple.

Get a cleaning crew after you get through the cycle. Watch what you buy for
a cleaning crew if you plan on getting coral later. Once it goes into your
tank you will probably never be able to get it out.

Use only RO/DI water and you should only get a minor algae bloom. If you
spend money on nothing else buy an RO/DI unit, do not put tap water into
your sal****er system. Hair algae is the most depressing thing in the world
and it can take months to years to clean it up.

You need a skimmer to cure the rock. UV is up to you. I personally always
run a UV, but most others do not in a reef system. Once your rock is cured
you can get rid of the skimmer if you want, I always run a skimmer though.


What you'll find is everyone has a slightly different way to do things.
Nothing is really right or wrong, just shades of gray in this hobby.

Jim...


----- Original Message -----
From: "BigHaig"
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria.marine.misc
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 3:11 PM
Subject: Which Live Rock?





"Dave Keyes" wrote in message
.net...
If the tank is to be a FO then a UV sterilizer is ok in my opinion.
It may be helpful to the health of the fish.

If the tank were to be a reef setup then I wouldn't advise use of UV as it
can kill organisms that corals consume.


"Richard Reynolds" wrote in message
news:KKP2b.16679$Qy4.12003@fed1read05...
4) Should I spend the bucks on a UV Sterilizer?

NO!!

Thanks for now.... I will have many more questions before I make the
move...

as for the rest, get what you think you can like the looks of, the rest
is
only minorly
important, also check out some of the flordia based co's that do nothing
but LR, like tbs
then you get aqua cultured often with more life and goodies for only a
fraction more

ask away

--
Richard Reynolds