First salt tank

[milli23]

I'm trying to do my research in preparation for my first saltwater tank. I'm looking for a little advice. This will be primarily a fish-only tank at first (29 gal). I've read about live sand, but is seems to be in the context of tanks with coral. Do I need live sand in my tank? I have an excellent LFS, but they are very much into coral growth, plus they sell live sand, so I'm looking for some objective advice.

Also, any other tips of the trade for a first-timer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

[dattack]

If it's a fish only system, I wouldn't worry about live sand.  That's because in a reef system, live sand works great as a biological filtration if the sand is 4 to 6 inches deep.  Anaeorbic bacteria will help in terms of denitrification.  However, with a 29 gallon tank, 4-6 inches of sand would be unrealistic because it will take up the majority of the tank.

Also, live sand needs to have a fauna such as bristleworms, brittlestars, copepods that help in the detritus.  However, if you have a fish that eats these, then you live sand will be useless and will accumulate a lot of crud.

If you want sand, consider using silica sand at your Home Depot or Lowe's at $5 for a 50 lb bag just for looks.

I think it's more important for you to have live rocks in both fish only and reef tanks.  You can use some base rock such as tufa or lace rock which will eventually become live after a month or so and will grow like live rock if you seed it with some real live rock such as fiji/marshall/manono.

[colesea]

Live rock, live rock, live rock.

Research, research research.

If it is to be a fish only tank, please, stay away from the big fish. Morays look cute, but they grow huge. So do most triggers. Angels you have to look up the species, some are relatively small, others are very big. But research size of fish, very important, because in a year from now, 29 gallons is going to be very tiny indeed<G>.
~~Colesea