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Launching tank today. First time reefer.

Martin Riggs

Martin Riggs

Kind of nervous launching my first reef tank. The specs. 55 gallon long, modified aqua clear 110, 60 pounds live sand aragonite and a finnex 300 Watt heater. Was gonna add live sand first then add my saltwater. I'm not mixing myself. Gonna wait for things to settle then run my filter.

How should I mount my heater, horizontal or vertical? Where abouts in middle or at the ends? I have my filter in the middle.

When should I add my live rock?
 
Trio91

Trio91

Administrator
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the mounting of the heater will be a matter of preference. you may want to consider having it somewhere it can be hidden by like a piece of rock or something. Add your live rock, when you plan on adding water to your tank....to keep it "live"

you can add the rock 1st then live sand or add sand then rock....again your call. I personally added the rock to the sand and secured it to the bottom of the glass.....i also epoxy'd the rocks together to give me that bond.

you should look into a HOB protein skimmer
 
njtiger24 aquariums

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
If your not running a sump I suggest mounting the heater horizontal near the sand (but not under the sand). Personally I found that gave nice even heat across my tank. If you could get a hang on back fuge that can hold the heater that works as well (doing the currently with my 36). What Finnex heater did you go with? I had their titaum 300watt on my 54 for 2 years. I had it on my 36 but then it started acting up so I just replaced it with a 250watt finnex heater.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
To re-enforce what has been said, you want to put rock in first so it is in contact with the glass bottom. The issue with putting sand in first and then rock is that any occupant that decides to dig in the sand could easily undermine the rock and cause it to topple over. So rock first then sand.
 
Jeremy Brito

Jeremy Brito

Welcome to the club now empty your wallet jk it's a great hobby be prepared to spend a little to get the right equipment first instead of buying lesser equipment only to replace it when your ready to upgrade any questions feel free to send me a message I'm ran a similar set up for a bit
 
Trio91

Trio91

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Staff member
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Martin Riggs said:
Well this rock thing is messing me up. Was gonna buy rock today and unsure how much I need. Was gonna go with a pound per gallon. I just quoted a ballpark of 5.99 to 9.99 a pound.
Click to expand...
Dry rock would be cheaper...plus being that its dry you avoid adding pests to your tank among other things...you can always seed your tank with something.... like bottled bacteria or rubble from a fellow member. Dry rock also allows you to sculpt your rock work properly being that it can be done outside of the tank
 
njtiger24 aquariums

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
Yes you want aim for about 1 to 2lbs per gal of water. Sometime you can find members who have spare rock to sell at a good deal. Just know if your water is not ready then getting live rock now wouldn't be the way to go. I would get dry rock, which like Marcus said, can be cheaper and pest free. The dry rock will become live rock as it age in your system. I just ordered some dry rock from BulkReefSupply and it nice looking rock.
 
Martin Riggs

Martin Riggs

Finally attacked the tank. Bought 25g of salt then picked up some cool Fiji live rock. As of right now running my heater and a small power head I picked up. Right now we are just a lil cloudy from the sand pick up. And I was purposefully short in salt water because of the vehicle I had and I'm glad I didn't buy 50 gallons right away.
 

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Mark_C

Mark_C

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Hi Martin, welcome aboard. I may have a few pounds of dry rock about if you need it, or if you need any more live I caan pull 2 or 3 pounds from my tank, but it sounds like you're off to a good start.
I pass on the advice I was given when starting this hobby...
'It's much easier to burn hundred dollar bills and pour 20 gallons of water on the floor'.
 
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