LFS Advice sounds fishy (sorry)

[tjara03]

obviously you will get views from every side on this site. i used CC in my first tank and its been about six months and the CC does not look nearly as nice as it did when i first got it. my 55 gal has a 50lbs DSB and i love it and it looks AWESOME!!! for yout tank i think 45# of LR will be perfect. the best thing i can tell you to do is.. Read Read Read and then read some more after that. i spend about 3 hours a day reading about this wonderful hobby. check out this site.. navigate it well i actually learned alot from it plus its pretty cool....

http://www.melevsreef.com/

HTH!!! Good Luck and keep asking questions.. i know i will!!

 

[wparsons]

Thanks for the encouragement and advice, Tjara!

 

[wparsons]

I've been perusing the Melev's Reef site, and it's great! Thanks for the link!

 

[tjara03]

your welcome thats why were all here! i learned alot through that site.. HTH!!!

 

[DragonForce]

Let's see.......first.....try and picture your tank with 45-70 lbs of live rock in it. How much room will your fish have to swim in? Along with that, since the majority of your internal tank volume will be consumed with rock, how many fish do you think you'll be able to put in it? second..........with all that LR in it and all the nitrification going on, what do you think the chances will be that you'll be free of hair and other algae growing wild because you don't have a skimmer or some other kind of mechanical filtration to remove waste and export nutrients that WILL be given off by the rock including the ever loving nutrient PHOSPHATE?..............and you'll need massive circulation to keep the detritus in suspension so it can be captured by some kind of filter to get rid of it because it won't be able to break down fast enough............so with sand you'll and all the circulation you'll need you'll have massive sand storms..........CC will not give you that problem because it has weight to it. Don't let anybody fool you......sand collects and retains detritus also. Your tank will look like a rocky mountain snowstorm if you have the proper circulation. Third.....refugium.....why? Your LFS guy is right...........for his suggestion of faux rock at least, because you won't have the nutrient problem therefore you wouldn't need a vehicle for nutrient export. With LR in the tank, the skimmer will do that for you and as far as the bak/pak combo.........not a bad choice.........you'll get nutrient export and mechanical filtration.

Your LFS guy trying to KISS it for you.

Your local guy isn't far off track..........he just didn't explain it very well to you

Just about everything in this post I disagree with minus the bak pak 2 skimmer.

 

[lando]

Let's see.......first.....try and picture your tank with 45-70 lbs of live rock in it. How much room will your fish have to swim in? Along with that, since the majority of your internal tank volume will be consumed with rock, how many fish do you think you'll be able to put in it?

I have well over 160lbs of LR in my 72gal reef. There is still plenty of room for my fish to swim. You will be surprised just how little 70lbs of LR will look in your tank. Honestly, with a 35gal tank you will be limited in the number of fish you can have. Big swimmers are out of the question anyways. You can still have a very nice selection, even with lots of LR. You can never have enough LR.

with all that LR in it and all the nitrification going on, what do you think the chances will be that you'll be free of hair and other algae growing wild because you don't have a skimmer or some other kind of mechanical filtration to remove waste and export nutrients that WILL be given off by the rock including the ever loving nutrient PHOSPHATE?

I agree a skimmer will certainly be beneficial. However, keep in mind that most PO4 is introduced into the tank via food and poor source water. The "nutrients" produced by the nitrification prcess are not a main contributer to PO4.

and you'll need massive circulation to keep the detritus in suspension so it can be captured by some kind of filter to get rid of it because it won't be able to break down fast enough............so with sand you'll and all the circulation you'll need you'll have massive sand storms..........CC will not give you that problem because it has weight to it. Don't let anybody fool you......sand collects and retains detritus also

I turn my tank's water volume over more then 25x per hour. I have four power heads and a return pump from my sump providing circulation. I have a LS bed and no sand storm what so ever. LS does not collect and trap detritus to the extent that CC does. It is a much better substrate.
The advice you were given at the LFS just seems a bit out-dated. While it may work, there are much better options out there that will help you be successful in this hobby.

 

[seaham358]

wparsons, keep doing your home work and you will be just fine in the end. 45 lbs is a great start to a tank your size and once you get it in the wat you will know if you need to add more so you can get the aqua scape the way you like.
Using the NO fixture that came with the tank is fine for a FO tank. I have the URI bulbs in my NO light and they give a great look to the tank. I run 1 white and 1 super actinic.

Don, not sure where your getting your info/facts from but I have to disagree with them also. They seem Old School, Im not saying they wont work but in the long run you will have more issues then others running the new set up with LR and LS.

Lr is the best filtration we can get for your tanks and no mechanical filtration is needed, I do not consider sumps filtration. HOB and canister filters are not needed in every tank, but they do have their place.