I really hope you can all help me because I am a University student trying to set up my first saltwater and I am trying to learn the proper way of going about this. For some crazy reason all these products are soooo much more expensive in Canada, I have no idea why. Luckily for me I live in Windsor which borders with Detroit and I can do all my shopping in the US. Ok I have a few more questions I hope you can help me with.
1.) Well my tap water in Windsor is 7.0, will those special substrates alone be able to keep my PH that high???? I was looking at these, which one do you think is the best???
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...shedcoral40lbs
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...kreefsand15lbs
http://www.petsmart.com/global/produ...N=2030144&Ne=2
2.) My tank is a 65 gallon which is 36" x 18" and then its 24" tall. If I were to buy a 40 lb bag of the florida crushed coral would that be enough???? You only want 2 inches in saltwater correct??
3.) K now this is going to be the most important question, because rock is a huge investment. LR here costs like $10 a pound and that times 65 gallons is $650. Although on big als I have found this
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...areefrock50lbs
I didnt know what to think when I say that because it's only $40 for 50lbs!!!!! sounds to good to be true. It says its good to be used for a base rock??? I don't understand something about this. So is this rock actually live rock??? Like if I purchased this 50lbs and then bought 10lbs of stuff from the store which costs $10 a pound, would this be the exact same thing as buying 65lbs of $10 stuff????? Like will this cheaper rock still grow purple algae, small inverts and corals and such?? This may be the deciding factor in me jumping into saltwater because this could cut my costs huge!!!!
4.) Lastly I don't want to get a Protein skimmer right away although I may in the future. Perhaps 6 months down the road. If I have AC 110 and 70. 2 inches of the best substrate (you tell me which one) 50 lbs of that bigals rock and then 10 lbs of the store bought stuff. My stocking was planning on being maybe 5 or 6 different type of clown fish, like the black ones and the tomato and so on. Eventually through in some gobies. How often am I looking at water changes??? And is the substrate strong enough to keep the PH up, do I need to add buffer when adding new water??? or can I just dump in some 7.0 tap water with conditioner and then let the substrate do its job????
Thank You so Much for your help
1.) Well my tap water in Windsor is 7.0, will those special substrates alone be able to keep my PH that high???? I was looking at these, which one do you think is the best???
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...shedcoral40lbs
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...kreefsand15lbs
http://www.petsmart.com/global/produ...N=2030144&Ne=2
2.) My tank is a 65 gallon which is 36" x 18" and then its 24" tall. If I were to buy a 40 lb bag of the florida crushed coral would that be enough???? You only want 2 inches in saltwater correct??
3.) K now this is going to be the most important question, because rock is a huge investment. LR here costs like $10 a pound and that times 65 gallons is $650. Although on big als I have found this
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...areefrock50lbs
I didnt know what to think when I say that because it's only $40 for 50lbs!!!!! sounds to good to be true. It says its good to be used for a base rock??? I don't understand something about this. So is this rock actually live rock??? Like if I purchased this 50lbs and then bought 10lbs of stuff from the store which costs $10 a pound, would this be the exact same thing as buying 65lbs of $10 stuff????? Like will this cheaper rock still grow purple algae, small inverts and corals and such?? This may be the deciding factor in me jumping into saltwater because this could cut my costs huge!!!!
4.) Lastly I don't want to get a Protein skimmer right away although I may in the future. Perhaps 6 months down the road. If I have AC 110 and 70. 2 inches of the best substrate (you tell me which one) 50 lbs of that bigals rock and then 10 lbs of the store bought stuff. My stocking was planning on being maybe 5 or 6 different type of clown fish, like the black ones and the tomato and so on. Eventually through in some gobies. How often am I looking at water changes??? And is the substrate strong enough to keep the PH up, do I need to add buffer when adding new water??? or can I just dump in some 7.0 tap water with conditioner and then let the substrate do its job????
Thank You so Much for your help
