I'm new, please help.

What I did when I was placing the sand in the tank was alternate dry sand, then wet sand. I also had about 6-8" of water (or about 25%) in the tank before I dumped the sand in. I assumed that would be the easiest way to seed the sand with bacteria. You will lose some of the pink coloring, but the pink sand was about the same granule size as the oolitic from what I saw. Getting live oolitic sand will also work, but tends to be a little more expensive ($30 vs. $22) for the 20lb bag.
What Peredhil meant about the Mag test is that the Reef and Saltwater Master test kits do not come with Magnesium test kits, you will need to purchase one separately.
As far as looking into the lights, I would imagine that your lights will be sitting about 4-6" above the surface, so it will be pretty hard to look into the filaments directly. Just don't stare at them for longer than a couple seconds or you may burn your retinas.

 

i learned something to day. wouldn't moguls need that same uv filter?

 

Nah, moguls actually have UV blocking glass over the filament, whereas HQI doesn't. If you look at a mogul based MH, you will see the same bulb that an HQI has, but the mogul has that huge glass that makes it the entire bulb.
I lsearched around to find backing on this:
Aquarium Lighting Guide - Metal Halide Aquarium Lighting

I have both types, and both have their pros and cons. Now if I hit the lottery, I'd get some of those new high output LEDs.

 

I would skip the mineral mud. In my experience they create more problems than benefits.

 

Yup, mine created some weird white fungus that took forever to kill off!

 

Thanks Mike.

Someone in my area is selling everything, from live sand/rock to live stock. I think I might buy everything from them.

I saw white things looks like worm on the rock. Is this what live rock will look like?

The tank looks healthy, this wil safe me time and money. What do you guys think?

 

So far half like the mub and the other don't.
I might skip it for now.

would your fish eat it?

 

go ahead and get it from him
just wash every thing off in saltwater by swishing it around before you put it in the tank.
use three buckets and go through them in order for the rock ideally the last bucket should stay pretty clear, if not add a fourth bucket. and replace the water in the bucket when it gets really brown.

and for the sand put that in a bucket with saltwater and swish it around. and pour off the water and put new saltwater in it. repeat until water runs clear.

you want the guys sand and rock not his dirt lol;D

also if your in no hurry to set up you can try cooking the rock(not what you think). to cook rock set up a rubber maid container with new saltwater in it a power head(for surface disturbance) and a heater, put the rock in there and close the lead so no light gets in. and every 2 weeks do the three buckets routine and replace the water in the tub. you will do this for two months or until no more dirt falls off the rock.

what this does is supposedly force the bacteria to use the nitrates and phosphates stored in the rocks, and leaves you with more porous less dirty rocks. people have mixed feelings about it, whether its necessary or not. i did it for a month and i don't know if the phosphates or nitrates got used up but my rock was indeed more porous then it had ever been.

 

It depends on what the worms are. I have a couple pics in my gallery with beneficial worms, if they look like that, then it's ok. If they are bristle worms or (I forgot the name of another type) has spikes along it, those are bad. It would be a good idea to quarantine the rock in hyposalinity water to be on the safe side. I would also ask why he is breaking down his tank to rule out the possibility of disease being the reason of selling the tank.
As far as the fungus, I believe that was the reason why my livestock died in the tank. My stingray ended up jaundice, puffer got a fungal infection on his back, and my lion got finrot. It took a matter of less than a day for it to wipe my tank out when I saw the white fungus in the tank, and it spread FAST.
It may not have been the mud that caused it, but it started after I added my fuge to my tank with the mud. Coincidental or not, I wouldn't recommend the mud based on my experience, I would recommend regular or oolitic sand for a fuge.

 

You are right, I don’t want any dirt J.

About cooking the rock, I have never heard of this before. But if I do this does that mean that the live stock such as fish that I got from him will die?


About your rock being porous, how can you tell?

Nice tank and fish.

Where can I find your gallery of worms?

So if I buy the all the live stock, I should do what sostoudt said? I guess it is better safe than sorry.

It is sad that I have to do that because I saw his tank and the corals and fishes are very active.

He told me that at night if he shines a flashlight on to the rock he will see worm come out of the rock. Is that normal? He said that is what the fish eat.