New to saltwater

[renogaw]

before you buy the sand, get some baserock and place it strategically on your glass so you can easily stack more rock on it. then put the sand in.
before you do that, i'd suggest getting some eggcrate and putting it on the bottom of the tank so the baserock is on it, and not making pressure points on the glass.
other than that, keep your sand all one style. it's ok to get fine sand, but one sand lower is good as well. you just don't want too many different sizes.

 

[lexluethar]

Eggcrate on the bottom... that is a great freaking idea!

 

[toejam]

Were do you get egg crates? I saw a forum of a guys pictures using egg crates to set up his reefs. It looked amazing.
So the sand around the egg crate will never be disturbed? I do the water change I don't stir up the sand?
Will the sand need cleaned?

 

[lexluethar]

You can buy eggcrate at home depo.
When doing water changes, you shouldn't be "dumping" water into the aquarium so it shouldn't disturb the sandbed.
If you get actual sand or fine aragonite it will not need to be cleaned b/c the pieces or so small that food and debri won't go inbetween them. Leaving them on the sand surface for your cleanup crew to eat or for your current to take away and be filtered out. This is why if you get crushed coral you have to clean it out regularly, because food and fish poop get in there and need to be vacumed out before causing nitrate problems.

 

[1journeyman]

Welcome to the forums.
A couple of things to note;
Using tap water is bad. Some people get away with it; most eventually begin posting things like "Why are my corals sick", "Why can't I keep inverts alive", "why do I have so much nuisance algae", etc. De-chlorinators remove chlorine. Yippee. What about the phosphates, heavy metals (including copper, for instance) and such found in your water?
The coral to buffer your pH thing is odd. I'm not sure where the pet store was going with this. I will say that saltwater tanks have pH much more basic than FW tanks. a SW tank needs a pH around 8.4. Crushed coral will not break down in that basic a pH and will therefore in no way buffer your water.

 

[kjr_trig]

Just to interject one thing.....
Reef Tank....DON'T USE TAP WATER
Aggressive Tank with no corals or invertebrates....Treated Tap Water....=OK

 

[renogaw]

ehh, i dump my waterchange water, but my tank is a 90g and my sand is more than an arms length away from the top of the tank
as for egg crate, it is bought in the lighting section of most hardware stores, and is a 2x4' sheet of:

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by LexLuethar
Eggcrate on the bottom... that is a great freaking idea!

looks pretty cool under neath the tank my pistol shrimp doesn't like it though, but who cares.

 

[toejam]

I went to home depot tonight and asked 4 or 5 people about egg crates and they all had the same response, What? So I will tomorrow go to the hardware store.
The local fish store only had 3 small bags of white sand. He said more would come Thursday, I had a hard time getting him to sell me sand, he loves his crushed coral.
Does the R/O water at Walmart that has a green cap only say drinking water? It does say anything about R/O it says sodium free I think.

 

[grumpygils]

Originally Posted by toejam
I went to home depot tonight and asked 4 or 5 people about egg crates and they all had the same response, What? So I will tomorrow go to the hardware store.
The local fish store only had 3 small bags of white sand. He said more would come Thursday, I had a hard time getting him to sell me sand, he loves his crushed coral.
Does the R/O water at Walmart that has a green cap only say drinking water? It does say anything about R/O it says sodium free I think.
Ha,
Same thing happened to me about the egg crate at Home Depot. It is in the lighting section and is a ceiling tile that typically covers flourescent lights. It is white and has 1/2 inch open squares. They come in aboyt 3' by 2' pieces.
Mc

 

[lexluethar]

At walmart is says RO water, if you look closely at the label it says reverse osmosis water - this is what you want. It has a purple cap and says distilled water, this is the best you'll get at wallyworld

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by toejam
I went to home depot tonight and asked 4 or 5 people about egg crates and they all had the same response, What? So I will tomorrow go to the hardware store.
The local fish store only had 3 small bags of white sand. He said more would come Thursday, I had a hard time getting him to sell me sand, he loves his crushed coral.
Does the R/O water at Walmart that has a green cap only say drinking water? It does say anything about R/O it says sodium free I think.

it's in the lighting department of all homedepots. try there