yearofthenick
Active Member
PART 1:
Okay, so here's an itemized list with a crash-course mixed in....
I agree with JerryAtrick, first thing you should do is get the tank cycled, then as you gather more info and learn more about fish and reef systems, you'd be ready to take the plunge.
Before you add anything to your tank, be sure you have the bare necessities as far as equipment goes. Right now because you're not adding any fish, you won't need any filtration just yet, so you're cool there...
The live rock needs to be kept at 76-82 degrees, and for a 39 gallon I would get a 150w heater. Any heater will do. Some people like to get the fancy ones, but every heater will wear out over time. Eheim is like the rolls royce of fish equipment but their heaters are actually pretty reasonable. Marineland makes good heaters too, and offers a lifetime warranty against defects.
Secondly, Get some water flow in there by purchasing two powerheads for each side of your tank. You should get something that can do 10-20x your tank volume in one hour. So for a 39 gallon, go for 390gph-780gph. Again, get at least two of them and put them on either side of your tank. Koralia's are very commonly used in the hobby, but anything will work. You can get the cheaper rio ones that stick to the bottom, but the suction cups never really stick well, and you're going to want to put your powerheads up high somewhere so you can direct them at your rock.
Once you get those two things.....
1. Fill tank with saltwater:
This could be anything. As JerryAtrick suggested, one option is by using Reverse Osmosis Water and adding a salt mixture. Personally, I'd pick the easiest route for you, which would be purchasing saltwater from your Local Fish Store (or "LFS" is what we like to call it). This is better because the salt is already mixed in and ready to go. Generally you can find both RO water and salt water at any LFS... they commonly sell both. Expect to pay in the ballpark of $0.39/gallon for RO water and $0.79 for mixed salt water. If you want to save a few pennies (it's really not saving you much money by the way), you can get the RO and mix the salt yourself, but because this is your first time, I'd prefer you make it as fool proof as possible.
Also, your tank's water will evaporate over time, and because the salt does not evaporate with the water, you will want to top off your tank with RO so your salt content doesn't get too high - make sense? That's also why LFS's commonly sell RO water as well... for you to top-off.
2. Add Live Rock
A great next step. People on the forums use words like "cured" and "uncured" because there is a difference. Live rock is actually live, meaning it's got the bacteria on it and the tank will need it to break down the detritus (fish poop and uneaten fish food). If your live rock is uncured, that means it has stuff on it that is dying or will die off (which is totally normal for uncured rock). It's actually great that stuff is dying off because that gives the bacteria on the rock a chance to eat and reproduce, getting strong enough to handle all kinds of detritus. However, this "cycle" is toxic to any live fish. There's a huge debate about that but we'll save it for later.
Anyway, you want to ask your LFS if the rock they have for sale is cured or not. Also, ask them what they consider to be "cured" live rock. Some LFS's (the really bad ones) just throw freshly shipped rock in their tanks and tell you it's cured, but because there's still all kinds of crap on the rock that is dying off because it was shipped, it will kill all your livestock in your tank if you put it in - so be careful of that if you plan to add live rock in the future and have fish or whatever livestock you have.
As for RIGHT NOW, because your tank needs to cycle, you can get whatever live rock you want. As for pricing, I've seen live rock as cheap as $3.99/lb uncured, all the way up to $9.99/lb for fiji quality cured. Also, it's good to check your local classified ad's because sometimes you'll find people getting out of the hobby and will sell you all their live rock for like $40. I had a guy on craigslist selling 300lb's of live rock at $1/lb!!! That's a great deal!
Be right back with more....
Okay, so here's an itemized list with a crash-course mixed in....
I agree with JerryAtrick, first thing you should do is get the tank cycled, then as you gather more info and learn more about fish and reef systems, you'd be ready to take the plunge.
Before you add anything to your tank, be sure you have the bare necessities as far as equipment goes. Right now because you're not adding any fish, you won't need any filtration just yet, so you're cool there...
The live rock needs to be kept at 76-82 degrees, and for a 39 gallon I would get a 150w heater. Any heater will do. Some people like to get the fancy ones, but every heater will wear out over time. Eheim is like the rolls royce of fish equipment but their heaters are actually pretty reasonable. Marineland makes good heaters too, and offers a lifetime warranty against defects.
Secondly, Get some water flow in there by purchasing two powerheads for each side of your tank. You should get something that can do 10-20x your tank volume in one hour. So for a 39 gallon, go for 390gph-780gph. Again, get at least two of them and put them on either side of your tank. Koralia's are very commonly used in the hobby, but anything will work. You can get the cheaper rio ones that stick to the bottom, but the suction cups never really stick well, and you're going to want to put your powerheads up high somewhere so you can direct them at your rock.
Once you get those two things.....
1. Fill tank with saltwater:
This could be anything. As JerryAtrick suggested, one option is by using Reverse Osmosis Water and adding a salt mixture. Personally, I'd pick the easiest route for you, which would be purchasing saltwater from your Local Fish Store (or "LFS" is what we like to call it). This is better because the salt is already mixed in and ready to go. Generally you can find both RO water and salt water at any LFS... they commonly sell both. Expect to pay in the ballpark of $0.39/gallon for RO water and $0.79 for mixed salt water. If you want to save a few pennies (it's really not saving you much money by the way), you can get the RO and mix the salt yourself, but because this is your first time, I'd prefer you make it as fool proof as possible.
Also, your tank's water will evaporate over time, and because the salt does not evaporate with the water, you will want to top off your tank with RO so your salt content doesn't get too high - make sense? That's also why LFS's commonly sell RO water as well... for you to top-off.
2. Add Live Rock
A great next step. People on the forums use words like "cured" and "uncured" because there is a difference. Live rock is actually live, meaning it's got the bacteria on it and the tank will need it to break down the detritus (fish poop and uneaten fish food). If your live rock is uncured, that means it has stuff on it that is dying or will die off (which is totally normal for uncured rock). It's actually great that stuff is dying off because that gives the bacteria on the rock a chance to eat and reproduce, getting strong enough to handle all kinds of detritus. However, this "cycle" is toxic to any live fish. There's a huge debate about that but we'll save it for later.
Anyway, you want to ask your LFS if the rock they have for sale is cured or not. Also, ask them what they consider to be "cured" live rock. Some LFS's (the really bad ones) just throw freshly shipped rock in their tanks and tell you it's cured, but because there's still all kinds of crap on the rock that is dying off because it was shipped, it will kill all your livestock in your tank if you put it in - so be careful of that if you plan to add live rock in the future and have fish or whatever livestock you have.
As for RIGHT NOW, because your tank needs to cycle, you can get whatever live rock you want. As for pricing, I've seen live rock as cheap as $3.99/lb uncured, all the way up to $9.99/lb for fiji quality cured. Also, it's good to check your local classified ad's because sometimes you'll find people getting out of the hobby and will sell you all their live rock for like $40. I had a guy on craigslist selling 300lb's of live rock at $1/lb!!! That's a great deal!
Be right back with more....
