37 gallon build (697 day update)

Discussion in 'New To The Hobby' started by Fresh2Salt, Aug 30, 2010.

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  1. Fresh2Salt

    Fresh2Salt Feather Duster

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    I'm so confused on what to do now:-/...... Today I went to one of the lfs to see if they had some sand and some base rock ... They first thing the guy said is why do you want to use sand if messes up all your pumps and powerheads and it gets blown around everywhere... He wants me to use crushed coral ..... I dont like they way the coral looks I like they way the sand looks
    Second thing he said is why do you want to use base rock it takes years to set up.... but we have some live rock coming in next week for 7 bucks a pound that would cost me $ 409.00 dollars to get 1.5 pounds per gallon:angry:
    Third thing is the pump i bought is a mag 5 and he said i should have bought a mag 7 and don't use any powerheads:angry:

    So basically he told me the opposite things that I've been reading on this forum and then he made it a point to say well when your tank fails are those people on that forum going to be there for you
     
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  3. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

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    He'll be there for you, for sure - to sell you stuff to fix the problems he caused.

    You definitely don't want crushed coral.

    Live rock vs base rock is somewhat debatable, but live rock can come with all sorts of nasty hitchhikers. It does take a while for base rock to color up, but quite a bit of what's on the live rock will die off in the first 2-3 weeks, and it'll be fairly plain too.

    I got live rock, and had hundreds of gorilla crabs messing up my tank, eating corals, and generally being pests. It took many, many hours of looking into the tank with a flashlight at night to get most of them. I still have a couple, but it's literally only 2 now.

    There may well be ammonia spikes over and over, depending on what kind of stuff comes on the rock. Heaven forbid you get sponges, because they'll die, just at random times, so you'll get pretty random spikes that'll kill or injure your fish and inverts.

    You might get a mantis shrimp, which would eat fish and smash crabs, shrimp and snails in the tank.

    You might get giant flatworms (percellis), which will eat your small snails whole.

    You might get some extra color.

    No powerheads means you'll likely have dead spots, and things that die in those dead spots when they swim into them.

    But you will have a helpful LFS owner, who is willing to sell you all your future remedies.
     
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  4. Fresh2Salt

    Fresh2Salt Feather Duster

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    its just weird to me he owns a saltwater fish store that's all he does ... every tank in his place had crushed coral and there were 3 big display tanks and about 200 hundred 20 gallon long tanks everyone was set up the same
     
  5. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

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    Same at my LFS.

    But look at how many gallons that system is, once you include the sumps. Look at the amount of live rock down there, and possibly the algae filters. There's a big difference in what they do for filtration, and what we do as hobbyists.
     
  6. Fresh2Salt

    Fresh2Salt Feather Duster

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    True good point
     
  7. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

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    I meant, really look. They usually have a serious amount of live rock. At my LFS, they have probably 200# + under each set of 9 tanks.
     
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  9. Fresh2Salt

    Fresh2Salt Feather Duster

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    I did I looked all his sumps they where all full of live rock .... He also said never to use lights or algae on your sumps for a filter.... I guess like anything there are a hundred different ways to get the same end result... I just want to try and get it going the right way
     
  10. blackraven1425

    blackraven1425 Giant Squid

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    LOL.

    [​IMG]

    BTW, that was literally the only way to get the cyano and other algae out of my tank. It beat out bryopsis, dinoflagellates, some bubble algae, film algae, hair algae, and the cyano. I even have a GFO reactor that did nearly nothing.
     
  11. Fresh2Salt

    Fresh2Salt Feather Duster

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    thanks for the feed back blackraven1425 ;)... On a better note UPS did drop off some of my new toys this afternoon

    [​IMG][​IMG]


    and i ran a 5 gallon bucket of water down my DIY overflow seems like it worked fine.... Now im just waiting on my pump to get here
     
  12. grinder37

    grinder37 Whip-Lash Squid

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    He sounds SO much like my lfs owner,he'll sell you a grouper knowing it's going in a nano tank.
     
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