Beginner setup

[dattack]

Ok I need some help in my first setup.  
Please make some changes to this list if I can incorrect.

1.  Buy sea salt and mix with RO water and place in bucket waiting to fill.
2.  Put sand in 30 gallon tank and place salt water.  No live sand yet.
3.  Add couple of raw shrimps and cycle.  Wait a couple of weeks for nitrate/ammonia spike then wait for it to go down?
4.  Start fluval filtration? Start skimming?
5.  Add some live sand and live rock to seed?
6.  When nitrates/ammonia 0 add a couple of damsels?

Question do I need a canister filter if I have enough live rock and sand?  My LFS stated I shouldn't use any filter except a powerhead for circulation because the sand and live rock can take care of all of that.  
But I don't want to start out to fast because all the live rock can be expensive.  Is there any cheaper alternative than buying live sand for 2-3 bucks a lb.  Can I use pool sand or something and seed with a couple of lbs of live sand.
Really confused.  I think I have been reading up too much and everybody has a different approach as I know now.  hehe

[Ovrclckd]

Wow... A LFS that recommends live rock for all your biological filtration... most lfs would try to push another filter at you. Its really all you need, you don't even need live sand.

Anyways, fill the tank with water minus a little more than the depth of your sand bed. Add the salt, and mix it in the tank with powerheads until reasonably clear (a few hours). Just buy regular sand (silica, or aragonite is preferable, but more expensive), but wash it very well (ive had some really really cloudy tanks). Once the sand is washed well, put it back into its bag, and cut one corner and apply the sand like you would apply icing to a cake with one of those icing bag things.

You need a source of bacteria right from the start, so at least buy some rock. You really should buy all of it at the start, because the rock cycles as well. Add a few shrimp, cycle the tank. Forget about the fluval, if you have 30 lbs of good rock in that tank and good water movement, theres absolutely no need. Buy a skimmer a two weeks to a month after you start. A skimmer will slow down the cycle.

Damsels are easy, but they tend to be aggressive. Good beginner fish in my experience are clowns, cardinals, and firefish, as they are easy, peaceful, and nice fish than most damsels.

[dattack]

Ok was wondering, when I am cycling, how much intense lighting needs to be on?  
Doesn't silica sand cause a lot of algae growth?

[geoffgarcia]

I'm toying with the idea of playing with a 10-30 gallon tank myself..I have a few extra questions that aren't up here.
1) What brand hydrometer do you recommend? or are they all the same?
2) HOW do you clean the sand before you put it in the tank?
3) HOW do you mix the salt and the water? A little more info than the obvious would help here...explain it for a dummy please
4) Is salt = salt...why are there so many different companies that make it and such varying prices?

5) How much does one travel with Live Rock?obviously not in a little fishy bag
6) how much live rock per gallon should one expect? 1 lb per gallon?
7) If i have 40watts of lighting (50/50 and acticnic) what size tank is that enough for? 10-15-20-30 gallon??

Things I have learned:
1) Need to get a Red Sea Prizm skimmer (<50$)
2) Need to cycle with coctail shrimp
3) get 2-3" sand for a base
4) get nitrate test kits

[Ovrclckd]

1) What brand hydrometer do you recommend? or are they all the same?

I use a Full Range Hydrometer by Aquarium Systems (its like $6 US online, I paid $25 Canadian ), but its pretty good. Next step would be a refractometer at $100+.

2) HOW do you clean the sand before you put it in the tank?

I like super reef grade aragonite by CaribSea, it comes prewashed, with only a little bit of dust, which settles perfectly fine.

3) HOW do you mix the salt and the water? A little more info than the obvious would help here...explain it for a dummy please

Grab a bucket (or a larger container), fill with water roughly the same temp as your aquarium, add about 1/2 cup per gallon of salt, mix using your hand/a spoon etc. until the salt is dissolved (a few minutes). Throw a powerhead in and let mix for a good hour, then take a salinity reading, adjust as necessary. When you get the salinity right, mix overnight (the ph starts out really high (sometimes over 9), once mixed it stabilizes).

4) Is salt = salt...why are there so many different companies that make it and such varying prices?

Everybody makes their salt with varying amounts of trace elements, buffers etc. There are some really, really good brands... unfortunately, they are never seen in stores anymore, because bigger companies caused them to shrink their operations. Of the big brands, instant ocean is good.

5) How much does one travel with Live Rock?obviously not in a little fishy bag

Do they have thicker, larger bags used when they sell full grown oscars and the like? They might put in that, I sold rock and placed it dry in a styrofoam shipping container (they get them when they get fish in).

6) how much live rock per gallon should one expect? 1 lb per gallon?

If its good rock, and you pick out pieces that are light for their size, then 1 lb per gallon is a starting figure, which you may or may not want to adjust to suit your tastes. I find that 1.5 lbs per gallon of high quality rock is enought to fill the back of most tanks (if you stack it well and get the right size pieces) across and about 1/2 to 2/3 up.

7) If i have 40watts of lighting (50/50 and acticnic) what size tank is that enough for? 10-15-20-30 gallon?? What are you going for? A reef or fish only? With that lighting (id switch the actinic for a 10k bulb actually, thats very blue as you have it right there...), you can keep soft corals, mushrooms, polyps, possibly small lps corals like the bubble coral etc. in a 10 gallon, anything larger you really need more light. Fish only, if you can see the fish, your ok

Things I have learned:
1) Need to get a Red Sea Prizm skimmer (<50$)
I hope you meant >$50, its about $70-$80 online.

[dattack]

After reading up on reef tanks, asking questions on the various forums, and talking to my LFS, I have finally setup my reef tank.  I initially bought premade saltwater at the LFS for 49cents a gallon which is about 13 bucks for my 30 gallon tank.  I have the saltwater mix but I was a little too lazy to mix it up and my R/O machine puts out only 5-10 gallon a day.  
I only covered my bottom with about 1/4 inch of live sand (aragonite).  I have found out that aragonite is kinda expensive at about 1$/lb but if you live in the Eastern U.S., you can get aragonite at Home Depot for 5$ for 50lbs.  It's call southdown sand for kiddy pools.  Oh well, going to wait on the sand.  
I bought 60lbs of live rock from someone tearing down his reef for only 80$.  It was good rock without any algae and had good coraline algae growth.
I placed a skimmer on the tank and two powerheads and no filters at all.  The tank is cycling right now with one damsel and no nitrates and this point.  I think the amount of live rock and the bacteria it already had from the established tank helps nitrifying bacteria a lot.
Lastly, I am waiting for my Metal Halide that I bought from Ebay.  Everything looks good so far and I will wait 3-4 weeks before anything else is added.

[geoffgarcia]

OBK-actually you can get the Red Sea Prisms online for under 50$ used fairly easily. Watch ebay

Dattack-Congrats on the setup!!! I think I'm going to pass on the hold reef desire myself. Rather than spend my load on a 30gallon reef I think I'd much rather have an enormous 150gallon freshwater (think it works out to be around the same amount of $$$

Good luck to ya all!

[dattack]

I was following ebay for the prism skimmer too and those fools actually pay the same price as what you get online for a new one.  I am serious.  I saw 2 prisms in the last two week sell for about $70.  I bid only 45$.  hehe ;D

[geoffgarcia]

yah there are fools out there everywhere... I just sold a broken laser disk player on ebay and got 150$ for it. If your patient and keep bidding on 40-45$ you'll get one..just look at the past auctions for proof.