BRAND NEW NANO TANK SETUP - QUESTION PLEASE :)

Hello:

I want to know what to do next. ... I want to know what's the best
route for my live rock, simply because I was told that this is gonna make or
break my nano tank setup.
I have a 15 gallon Hagen, 30 lbs of crushed coral, AquaClear 150, extra
powerheads to put in place when needed, Instant Ocean salt at 1.024. For
Lighting I just bought a 24 " Coralife Lunar Aqualight, Deluxe Series- 1 65
watt True Actinic 03 Blue, 1 65 watt 10,000K daylight, 2 3/4 watt
Blue-Moon-Glow led's. My wife lost her mind when she seen I had paid $244.00
for that light strip, but the reason I did that was for the fact that this
light will allow me to place anything in there and it will grow. I know that
there are certain corals that don't do well in a nano tank, so I'll make
sure not to purchase the "wrong" things when the time comes, but now I need
to know everything I can about Live Rock because that is my next purchase.
One person told me that I should not buy expensive rock because it's
all gonna die while the tank cycle's. Just in case he's right .. I now have
two Mollie's in the tank, for the cycle process. They have been in there for
one week, but the tank has been running for three weeks with just the water
and crushed coral. ( I wanted to run it like that for weeks to get used to
the evaporation amounts on a daily basis).
So, can I get some input on how to buy Live Rock ? I only have two
places in my city to purchase it, one is a rip off and the other is a small
LFS that has some knowledge of Reef systems. What do I look for when
examining the LR in the store?.. it goes for 13 to 14 dollars a pound here
in Nova Scotia, Canada. How do I know if the rock is dead? ... these are
basic questions but I have been reading up quite a bit on nano reefs, but
some of my questions are not answered. One site said to buy FIJI rock cuz
it's the best .. how would I know that? ... you get my point ... please tell
me what to do for my next move into the salt water setup.

PS: I have an 80, 33, 20, and 15 freshwater, brackish already setup here in
my home . I've had tanks for 20 years, I just have never gotten into SW
setups because of the price.

On Wed, 24 May 2006 00:55:54 GMT, "Noah Body"
wrote:

Hello:

I want to know what to do next. ... I want to know what's the best
route for my live rock, simply because I was told that this is gonna make or
break my nano tank setup.

I have just set up a 15 gal reef, having broken down a large tank I
had some old/clean live rock that I used in it. My own experience of
buying live rock is that more than anything the amount of time it has
spent being "seeded", ie allowed to stabilise in a tank situation, the
better. I guess that is more important than the actual type of the
rock. Dealers obviously want to maximise throughput, and much of what
is sold as "seeded" is poor quality as it's still got things
decomposing on it. The last thing you want in a small tank. The new
rock I have added so far to this tank is very healthly corraline
covered stuff sold as polyp rock, decomposition should not be an
issue. For a small tank I'd go for as much high quality rock like
this as you can get and not the cheapest live rock you can find. Has
the dealer any clean mature pieces that have been in his tanks for a
good while? Maybe being sold as polyp rock, but perhaps with not too
many polyps so that you can negotiate a reasonable price. That's the
sort of rock I'd prefer for a new small tank, rather than the mucky
brown looking stuff.

Steve

What you want to look for is light weight porous rock with
lots of nooks and crannies. And look at how much life is
growing on it. Instead of getting enough rock to do the
tank, just pick out pieces from time to time slowly get
the pieces you want. That way you will be less likely to
feel you made a bad choice on your purchase of live rock.

Also when you go to the store, ask the person at the store
what to look for in good live rock. Then listen to his
answer and make your judgment on whether he has your best
interest in mind.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Steve wrote on 5/24/2006 5:46 AM:
On Wed, 24 May 2006 00:55:54 GMT, "Noah Body"
wrote:

Hello:

I want to know what to do next. ... I want to know what's the best
route for my live rock, simply because I was told that this is gonna make or
break my nano tank setup.

I have just set up a 15 gal reef, having broken down a large tank I
had some old/clean live rock that I used in it. My own experience of
buying live rock is that more than anything the amount of time it has
spent being "seeded", ie allowed to stabilise in a tank situation, the
better. I guess that is more important than the actual type of the
rock. Dealers obviously want to maximise throughput, and much of what
is sold as "seeded" is poor quality as it's still got things
decomposing on it. The last thing you want in a small tank. The new
rock I have added so far to this tank is very healthly corraline
covered stuff sold as polyp rock, decomposition should not be an
issue. For a small tank I'd go for as much high quality rock like
this as you can get and not the cheapest live rock you can find. Has
the dealer any clean mature pieces that have been in his tanks for a
good while? Maybe being sold as polyp rock, but perhaps with not too
many polyps so that you can negotiate a reasonable price. That's the
sort of rock I'd prefer for a new small tank, rather than the mucky
brown looking stuff.

Steve

Hey Wayne

Why didn't you point the person to you know who!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man that
dude was a trip, but I have a feeling he got spanked.

lol, and I just updated my web site, and he is not here to
make fun of the added stuff :-)
Oh well, so much for free publicity :-)
hehehe

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Roy wrote on 5/25/2006 10:52 AM:
Hey Wayne

Why didn't you point the person to you know who!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man that
dude was a trip, but I have a feeling he got spanked.

Thanks for your reply Steve. I understand exactly what you mean. Simply
asking the LFS guy if the LR is mature and not still decomposing makes
perfect sense to me. My system is undergoing the setup cycle and the last
thing it needs is decomposing matter on the newly purchased rock causing
even more of a spike of amonia. I did notice that they keep their LR in
blue plastic tote boxes on the floor with a simple light over about four
boxes each. The problem with me is, when I look at that LR, I just don't
know what to look for to see the condition of it. I look at pictures of
newly purchased rock in tanks on the net here and I just can't notice
anything from rock to rock, tank to tank, but one site showed closeup's of
their rocks and I could see the blue algae and red algae on it .... so of
course this was a good quality rock. My problem is .. I just don't have a
choice of what I buy because their is only two places to purchase it and one
is like a "chain" store and I refuse to give them my money. The other store
is small, but they have about six big tanks, and 10 small tanks of reef
setups, and also about 8 Nano tanks setup. And as far as buying it online
and having it sent to me ... I just read that this guy bought 60lbs and it
showed up all DEAD, he wrote that the stink of the dead rock was so bad that
his wife tried to wash it while he was at work ... which I assume is not a
good thing to do either.
Thanks again for your reply Steve. I am reading up each and everynight
about reef keeping, because I know that this is the best way to have a
trouble free first reef tank.
PS: Anybody else reading this, please feel free to add to my discussion
about purchasing Live Rock. . . thanks in advance.

Charlie
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

Not sure what it's like there for mail order (i'm from the UK) but i got my
rock from a discount on-line marine retialer. Thier website had pictures of
the rock and also told you where it came from and how they cure it and for
how long.
When i recieved the rock it was amazing it had orange/pink/purple corraline
algea on it and didn't smell at all like it was still curing. Since it has
been in the tank for about 3 weeks now i have plenty of feather dusters
poking out of it along with a whole host of tubeworms! Also one peice
actually has a green & blue sponge growing on it -AMAZING!

Dave


"Noah Body" wrote in message
...
Hello:

I want to know what to do next. ... I want to know what's the best
route for my live rock, simply because I was told that this is gonna make
or break my nano tank setup.
I have a 15 gallon Hagen, 30 lbs of crushed coral, AquaClear 150,
extra powerheads to put in place when needed, Instant Ocean salt at 1.024.
For Lighting I just bought a 24 " Coralife Lunar Aqualight, Deluxe Series-
1 65 watt True Actinic 03 Blue, 1 65 watt 10,000K daylight, 2 3/4 watt
Blue-Moon-Glow led's. My wife lost her mind when she seen I had paid
$244.00 for that light strip, but the reason I did that was for the fact
that this light will allow me to place anything in there and it will grow.
I know that there are certain corals that don't do well in a nano tank, so
I'll make sure not to purchase the "wrong" things when the time comes, but
now I need to know everything I can about Live Rock because that is my
next purchase.
One person told me that I should not buy expensive rock because it's
all gonna die while the tank cycle's. Just in case he's right .. I now
have two Mollie's in the tank, for the cycle process. They have been in
there for one week, but the tank has been running for three weeks with
just the water and crushed coral. ( I wanted to run it like that for weeks
to get used to the evaporation amounts on a daily basis).
So, can I get some input on how to buy Live Rock ? I only have two
places in my city to purchase it, one is a rip off and the other is a
small LFS that has some knowledge of Reef systems. What do I look for when
examining the LR in the store?.. it goes for 13 to 14 dollars a pound here
in Nova Scotia, Canada. How do I know if the rock is dead? ... these are
basic questions but I have been reading up quite a bit on nano reefs, but
some of my questions are not answered. One site said to buy FIJI rock cuz
it's the best .. how would I know that? ... you get my point ... please
tell me what to do for my next move into the salt water setup.

PS: I have an 80, 33, 20, and 15 freshwater, brackish already setup here
in my home . I've had tanks for 20 years, I just have never gotten into SW
setups because of the price.

I got live rock from Drs Foster and Smith on line. They have nano tank rock
as well. I was pleased with my rock, but purchased uncured rock and cured it
myself with info I gleaned from the internet. I was overzealous in my curing
and scrubbing, though, as it took months and months for feather dusters to
re-appear. Its been a year now, and I'm just now getting little sponges here
and there. I was pleased with it, though. I have lost of purple, pink and
red coraline algae. (Its not red coraline, not red slime, trust me).
I used the rock to cycle the tank. It arrived in excellent shape. I chose
uncured on purpose, just because I wanted to do it all myself. It was sort
of a pain in the @ss, but it was a LOT less than $13/lb.


"dave" wrote in message
...
Not sure what it's like there for mail order (i'm from the UK) but i got
my rock from a discount on-line marine retialer. Thier website had
pictures of the rock and also told you where it came from and how they
cure it and for how long.
When i recieved the rock it was amazing it had orange/pink/purple
corraline algea on it and didn't smell at all like it was still curing.
Since it has been in the tank for about 3 weeks now i have plenty of
feather dusters poking out of it along with a whole host of tubeworms!
Also one peice actually has a green & blue sponge growing on it -AMAZING!

Dave


"Noah Body" wrote in message
...
Hello:

I want to know what to do next. ... I want to know what's the best
route for my live rock, simply because I was told that this is gonna make
or break my nano tank setup.
I have a 15 gallon Hagen, 30 lbs of crushed coral, AquaClear 150,
extra powerheads to put in place when needed, Instant Ocean salt at
1.024. For Lighting I just bought a 24 " Coralife Lunar Aqualight, Deluxe
Series- 1 65 watt True Actinic 03 Blue, 1 65 watt 10,000K daylight, 2 3/4
watt Blue-Moon-Glow led's. My wife lost her mind when she seen I had paid
$244.00 for that light strip, but the reason I did that was for the fact
that this light will allow me to place anything in there and it will
grow. I know that there are certain corals that don't do well in a nano
tank, so I'll make sure not to purchase the "wrong" things when the time
comes, but now I need to know everything I can about Live Rock because
that is my next purchase.
One person told me that I should not buy expensive rock because it's
all gonna die while the tank cycle's. Just in case he's right .. I now
have two Mollie's in the tank, for the cycle process. They have been in
there for one week, but the tank has been running for three weeks with
just the water and crushed coral. ( I wanted to run it like that for
weeks to get used to the evaporation amounts on a daily basis).
So, can I get some input on how to buy Live Rock ? I only have two
places in my city to purchase it, one is a rip off and the other is a
small LFS that has some knowledge of Reef systems. What do I look for
when examining the LR in the store?.. it goes for 13 to 14 dollars a
pound here in Nova Scotia, Canada. How do I know if the rock is dead? ...
these are basic questions but I have been reading up quite a bit on nano
reefs, but some of my questions are not answered. One site said to buy
FIJI rock cuz it's the best .. how would I know that? ... you get my
point ... please tell me what to do for my next move into the salt water
setup.

PS: I have an 80, 33, 20, and 15 freshwater, brackish already setup here
in my home . I've had tanks for 20 years, I just have never gotten into
SW setups because of the price.