Some questions for a 30 gallon FOWLR

[s9o3]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. Figured I'd make the inaugural post in the FOWLR subboard. My name is Steve, currently living in Charlottetown. I'm pretty new to the whole aquarium thing and I am in the process of setting up a 30gal SW tank. FOWLR for now, maybe coral in the future. Found out I'll have to move in about 6 months so not until at least after that. I have a few questions I'm looking to have clarified.

1. Right now I have an AC30 for filtration (new sponge/biomax/carbon in it). From what I understand I'll need a better filter for SW. There's someone in my area listing a Remora Pro protein skimmer for 100$, and google tells me these retail for $200+. Would this in addition to the AC30 be sufficient for my filtration needs?
2. A bought a couple small pieces of live rock at my LFS (~4lbs) to get the tank cycling. It's quite expensive at my LFS at $12+/lb. How much live rock should I eventually have? There's also someone locally online selling some fiji "base" rock, it was live rock, but has been out of aquarium for a while (but not let to dry out). Can I use some of this instead?

Thanks for any help!

[RiverStone]

Welcome to ECAS & the forum I'm not a salty but there's lots on here who are, so I'm sure you will get your questions answered relatively quickly. I've been following several threads of people going through the same as you ( http://www.eastcoastaquariumsociety....2857-125G-Reef ) and it appears that they use lots of base rock (not live) and some live to start because you're right live rock is very expensive. Like I said though I'm not a salty so take whatever I say as a grain of salt and wait for the experts to chip in. Once again welcome

[Small Fry]

Welcome to the forums. Not a salty either but hope to be in the future. Good luck with your tank and post pics as you go to get great feed back from the members on here.

[gonewyld]

Hey s9o3 the Remora pro @ $100 is a steal for that price. It however is not a filter is it a skimmer and will aid in nutrient reduction.
As for the rock...you ultimately want to end up with approx the same LBS as your water volume so about 30....the more the merrier as this is indeed your filtration, you can use the HOB filter for some nitrification bacteria, but beware when you change out the filters you could cause your tank to cycle.

if you make it to Halifax we have rock for 8.99 for premium rock and lower for the base type rock. You will need LIVE stuff to see any dry rock.

[Glenn]

Welcome to ecas. I'll be following this thread closely because I may also attempt a nano fowlr. Good luck!

[MikeD]

Hey s903...
Check out http://www.ecoliverock.org they sell man-made live rock for about 3.50 lbs also free shipping which is always good, I have a thread with a few pics of our 70 gallon which has 100 lbs of rock in it.

[carriej]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. Figured I'd make the inaugural post in the FOWLR subboard. My name is Steve, currently living in Charlottetown. I'm pretty new to the whole aquarium thing and I am in the process of setting up a 30gal SW tank. FOWLR for now, maybe coral in the future. Found out I'll have to move in about 6 months so not until at least after that. I have a few questions I'm looking to have clarified.

1. Right now I have an AC30 for filtration (new sponge/biomax/carbon in it). From what I understand I'll need a better filter for SW. There's someone in my area listing a Remora Pro protein skimmer for 100$, and google tells me these retail for $200+. Would this in addition to the AC30 be sufficient for my filtration needs?
   A lot of people use sumps for saltwater, as the filtering process works a little different than fresh. You can use a HOB with success but as Dave said you could cause a cycle when changing your filters, which you will have to do often because it will become what I like to call a nitrate factory
   
2. A bought a couple small pieces of live rock at my LFS (~4lbs) to get the tank cycling. It's quite expensive at my LFS at $12+/lb. How much live rock should I eventually have? There's also someone locally online selling some fiji "base" rock, it was live rock, but has been out of aquarium for a while (but not let to dry out). Can I use some of this instead?
   What I did, because I am cheap.. hehe, was I bought base rock and just purchased a few pieces of live to seed the rest. It's a slower cycling process, but I could not afford ~500+ dollars to fill my tank with live rock. I also wanted all the critters, etc that come with purchased live rock. The live rock that Mike bought (eco live rock) is live rock with beneficial bacteria, but because it is man made and "sterile" it does not come with critters. Some people like this, as bad things can come on your rock too. They do however have a premium live rock which I believe does, but it's 7.50$/lb which is what you can get it for locally, so might as well support the locals.. :)

Thanks for any help!

[Staceym]

Welcome to ECAS Steve! Great to see another Islander on board :) I have a nano SW tank as well. I am still learning a lot about it and there are a lot of great people here to get advice from, good luck in your adventure!

[Kribber]

Welcome to ECAS

[s9o3]

Thanks for all the replies so far. So I understand I'll need 30+ lbs of live rock. What ratio of live rock to base rock can I get away with? Right now I just have a couple small pieces of live rock, about 4 lbs. If I bought another big piece or two to bring that to around 10lbs and put in 20lbs of base rock, would that work?

[carriej]

I'm using 100lbs of base and 10lbs of live.. lol

[demon4bbl]

that'll work ,it'll just take some time to seed the dry rock,
if you plan on live sand ,it'll help too .

and Welcome by the way!

[Carmelita]

welcome
!

[ivorylace]

glad to meet you and welcome!

[isis]

hi. i going to do a 30gal sw tank too. just need help. all i need is live rock and sand, salt and a filter of some sort lol. help would be great. thanks and wecome to ecas

[Sapphire]

Carrie said what I was going to say, so I will just say hello :)

Welcome to the forum!

[Baillie]

Welcome man!

[Nuggs]

Thread Necromancy

[carriej]

Thread necromancy of the highest level.

[Convict]

Thread necromancy of the highest level.

Not as bad as Nugg's last week with a 10 year old thread hehe