Helping a friend getting started

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

degbowl

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Nov 22, 2003
Messages
352
Location
Long Island NY
I have had my sw up for about 18 months now. I have a friend that wants to set up a tank. The first thing I did was give him a copy of The New Marine Aquarium. He has been doing fw for 40 yrs. Does anyone know where to get playsand in the NY area? He is setting up a 70 gal tank. I also was looking for base rock. I bought mine from HI Rocks on ebay. The site hirocks.com is no longer working and he hasn't sold anything on ebay for over a year. Any suggestions for good base rock at a good price? I have a feeling my friend is going to rush into it. I just want to steer him the right way. Thanks for any help.
Jim
 
Good job giving him a book. Tell him to read up as much as he can before he starts and you can help him along the way.

For base rock- I've heard a lot of good about marcorocks.com, though I've never used them.
 
Even though base rock is Ok to use I would suggest some LR to help seed the BR. Maybe around 15-20 lbs. You dont have to do this but it would speed up the process.
 
melosu58 said:
Even though base rock is Ok to use I would suggest some LR to help seed the BR. Maybe around 15-20 lbs. You dont have to do this but it would speed up the process.

That was the plan. With a 70 gal tank I don't want him buying 100 lbs of LR. I think 20 lbs LR would be enough.
 
IMO, the majority of the rock should be good live rock..base rock can take MONTHS to seed.
 
I agree. Starting a SW tank, especially a larger one is a very spendy venture. Using a combination of LR and BS is a good way to save on some start-up costs. That said, the more LR you can start with the faster your tank will cycle and the faster your BS will develope.
 
Back
Top Bottom