LIve Sand and Lighting

[mo-mo]

No I am not truying to win the free crabs by posting so much. I am just starting and very curious. I got my hands on some real clean clean sand. I was wondering if I use it is there a way to activate it(make it live) or will it eventually do its own thing. And for a 90 gallon what size and type and how many lights would you recommend. Thank you all for the info and promptness of answering. Later

 

[mo-mo]

Or how about this buy this clean cheap sand and purchase a small bag aof sand bacteria ato liven it up. And about the lighting. I am starting off with fish and working my way to coral. Is it a bad thing to have strong light even with medium light coral. and do i turn the lights off at night.

 

[slb243]

The sand will eventually become alive on its own, but it will take some time, in my opinion. Be careful if you don't add any bacteria, because the sand can turn nasty if it gets too much organic material down there in an anaerobic environment. I would add bacteria to give it a jump start. Don't buy expensive lighting from your local fish store. It is very overpriced. I would reccomend 2 175 watt metal halides (10000 K or 12000 K bulbs) or 3 110 watt VHO. If you can't afford this, try 4 40 watt normal output tubes. I don't have experience with power compacts. Good websites to order lights from on the internet include www.championlighting.com or www.aquaticlight.com or www.***********.com for metal halide, www.als.com for power compact, and www.thatpetplace.com for normal output or VHO.