live rock and sand in fish only tank?

[geekygrrlie]

it would be my first marine tank, and a reef tank seems a little advanced to start with. so do i use live rock and sand in a fish only tank?
also, would i have to have inverts in a fish only tank?

 

[carrie1429]

Yes if you want you can use LR and LS, it makes the tank look nicer I think. And you can have inverts, what size tank do you have?

 

[stacy]

It's up to you whether or not to put the LR and LS in a FO tank. It would be beneficial for filtration as well as places for you fish to hide when they want. As far as inverts they will help keep the tank clean by eating algae and detritus. They will also eat leftover food and decaying materials. This also helps your filtration. Make sure that any fish you select will not eat any inverts you have in the tank.

 

[geekygrrlie]

i plan to start with a 55 gallon tank.

 

[stacy]

What are you going to have for filtration? Also what type of fish are you looking at?

 

[geekygrrlie]

the furthest ive gone is to find the tank i plan to buy, and decide on fish only. i figure, since i dont have a lot of money, i will buy everything a little at a time, (equipment i mean) and give a lot of time for the water to cycle before i put in fish, which no, i havent decided on them yet. lol.
im still in the research phase.

 

[stacy]

For filtration you could start with the emperor 400, and a skimmer. You'll get a lot of opinions on the skimmer. I have a sea clone, and the prizm. Both seem to get the job done. The emperor you can find for as low as 35-45 bucks. The skimmer can run anywhere from 75-200 bucks. For a 50 gallon a prizm would do a good job IMO, and runs about 100 bucks. Also you will want to get a couple of powerheads for water circulation. Maxijets IMO are really good, and not to expensive. Since your on a budget you can but playsand and add a bag or 2 of LS on top. You can find quickcrete playsand at most hardware stores. If you have a home depot you could also check to see if they carry southdown. I've never seen it, but alot of the other members say its the best playsand. Some LFS also carry argonite sand by natures ocean that is good to mix with the LS.

 

[panhead]

if you start with lr/ls it could mean that you could avoid changing over in the future even for fish only.

 

[sandy]

I went the way of LR and dsb in my FOWLR (Fish Only w/ Live Rock). It was expensive and I did do *some* of it over time. The tank and stand with glass covers and a lighting strip were about 300.00. The rock and sand were the *real* costs. (along with equipment). I could have saved money buying the rock online and southdown sand instead of 120lbs of the high quality sand, but my 20 gal was way overcrowded and I had to do stuff fast. Never do stuff fast!!!!
I am absolutely amazed every day however with the life growing b/c of the LR. I'm happy I did it this way and it maintains itself pretty well. I do water changes and clean out the filters.
50 gal long, 85 lbs LR(or more - lost count) LR, 120lbs Sand (2 1/2" - 3" deep). 5 Fish (percula clowns, royal gramma, sleeper goby scooter blenny), cleaner shrimp, pepperment shrimp, serpent starfish, various snails and hermits.
Good luck!

 

[fshhub]

welcome aboard, and the answer is yes you can, but no you dont have to(there are other alternatives as well), they are definitely beneficial, and as mentioned, provide food shelter and filtration for your water and fish, not to mention aesthetics, the only draw back is the cost(IMO), but as stated it is definitely easier to do so now then do it in the future
HTH

 

[glazer]

hey Geeky,
Just a thought/suggestion for you. Once you get "bit" the need for a full blown reef tank will surely be overwhelming! As previously stated there is always alternatives. I would definitely do a good sandbed from the get go... you will be very very glad you did. As far as the live rock, although not really necessary it does provide a great look for the tank not to mention the filtration aspect. You can start out by decorating your tank fairly well with nothing more than just interesting shapes of decorative base rock, the dead kind I mean. Most LFS's sell this type of rock rather cheaply, usually just have big bins of it. THEN, as time goes by you can always be on the lookout for that "primo" piece of live rock.. slowly adding pieces here and there with out throwing down a lot of money. The critters and associated "life" on these live pieces will then seed your dead rock as well as the sand bend. Of course this all takes time and that truly is the best way to go about it...
Good luck with your new set up and have a blast!