Wow theres a lot of hating and opinions in this thread... so ill try to break it down opinion free
lava Rock= bad (metals)
That orange striped rock i would say bad probbaly has iron
Not all damsels are agressive... there are agressive and non agressive. Green chromis damsels are the least aggresive. yellow tailed damsels are also not agressive. People seem to think becuase one type of fish in a speicies can be aggresive they all are... This is not the case. Damsels are good to get for reefs, just get non agressive ones. Also a flame angel would look good in that tank. They are primarily reef safe as long as you rubberband some nori to a rock for them.
Cycling a tank with a damsel is not Vick bad. Whoever said that is just ... i dont even know the word... stupid comes to mind, but its too uneducated. Vick starved dogs, forced them to fight for food, and in the end killed them if the fight was called and they lost, or let them die in the fight. Now damsels can take a lot of problems, so can clowns. There was a thread on here that a guy went on vaca for 3months i think, came back the water was down to like a foot in the tank, it was all green, everything was dead but teh damsel. The majority of times damsels wont die from cycling. As long as you have adaquate filtration and do waterchanges then the fish wont notice a difference... People think that they are in constant pain and suffering... but they are not... They are pooping in a tank so that bacteria have something to eat... I dont get the cruel part.
Your tank must be cycled because of the fish you have in now. So why are we worrying about the start up cycle. You get a mini cycle everytime you add new fish, or uncured rock... cause ur raiseing the bio count.
Get LR, its cheap. Go on to CList find someone around you thats selling it. No more tahn 3 bucks. Ask them ?'s about the tank it was in and other things about it. When you feel comfortable go with buckets full of saltwater, pick it up, bring it back, and if it was still in water when you got it... you can put it right in your tank... (might get a small cycle if there was some die off in transport)...
And then wheres this long way from buying coral... i mean that makes no sense... a lot of people put it in brand new tanks... whats your wattage. You can pretty much keep any coral (well most). You just have to put them at different places in the tank. When people first started reefing... there were no MH or T-5 lights, they used outside lights or reg desk lights. Corals and survive in almost anything. But the amount of wattage you have depends on how much A: they grow B: intensity of colors. Your not going to brown out and bleach unless your keeping high intensity light corals with like a 20 watt bulb. What is your wattage on your tank (amount of watts/number of gallons).
Base rock is not man made.. most times its just dead LR that was take out of water. So its not living anymore. Yes i guess it could be man made, but most times its just dead LR.
While were on LR there are many different kinds... Fiji , Tonga, pacific shelf, namoli, marshall, Bali alor, Vanuatu, caribean. Base rock is white, thus dead LR. Fiji is best for Bases, and is cheapest. Then it gets exp becuase it is dead corals. They leave their calcium exioskeletons behind and over numerous years they make hard rocks. I have the Alor, marshall, tonga, and fiji in my tanks. They look great. And the tonga and marshal and alor can get up to 12-13 bucks a pound. DONT BUY IT. Go to CList.. i got maby 150 pounds for 2.50 a pound. You can use epoxy putty to kindof weld the pieces togther. A: dont have to worry about rock slides. B: you can build higher and more cool looking designs.
Base rock is not limestone... you dont want limestone in your tank if i recall... BASE IS DEAD LR, ITS WHITE, and its good if your buying your rock for LFS and online. If your going to get it on CList dont buy base just buy LR.
Coralline algae is the easiest thing to get. i had my tank purpled up in a week. It spreads like crazy. If your rocks dont have any on them (almost impossible) then you can A: wait or B: buy Purple Up which is a great attitive. Dont worry about coralline, you will get it, and them you will hate it and wonder why you wanted it becuase it gets everywhere and you have to constantly scrape it off glass. To speed this up though, if you have it in one place, take a rock and rub it against coralline. The coralline will break off and float through ur tank to another rock.
Some people really need to know what they are talking about and get educated before they help.
Ive been in SW for 3 months. I have 2 tanks. I spent a month reading all the threads i could. Ive heard all the story and fixes. And i learned what to do before i did it.
Keys are water parameters, filtration, and matinence. Once you have those everything else will follow.
Didnt mean to insult anyone i just wanted to tell him what was what.
