I just found out my lfs is shutting down on January 15th, I also brought home a 55 gallon tank recently (pics tomorrow, doing a leak test overnight outside)that came with a bucket of sand, random black pebbles, some type of canister filter and lights, not LED though.
I'm hoping that with a bit of investing I can possibly be prepared to bring home some livestock and be able to safely house them while my tank cycles. The employees are down to sell anything from the display tanks and I know I will be able to get some super deals.
This is my first salt tank, I was going to take a few months to set it up and research everything but both my partner and I love corals so I need the low down on all the essentials in case I can bring home a bunch at a discount in 2 weeks.
I always did fishless cycles in my fresh tanks, is that possible with salt? I was going to buy live rock and sea water from this store Friday. I don't have an RO/DI system and will probably buy one, so cheap/good model links are appreciated.
The fish we saw today and really wanted he called a "barnacle bunny" or buddy-- I couldn't find it on image search. It was this tiny tube guy with red eyes, living in the rock in a picotope they had on sale. It was $300, so if I need to I could buy that ten gallon thingy and keep a few fish innit while the main tank cycles.
We want a couple mandarin gobies, a Valentini puffer or a cow fish, not sure if 55 gallons is big enough though. Also considering Eels we saw.
Am I being reasonable? I have nothing to do but this before school starts in February. I need to build a sump/refugium or whatever else too, and if I need to order things online like a new filter and all the test kits, I would like to place an order by Friday too.
Thanks, shopping lists you can suggest would help a lot!
Add to:
-LEDs (ack $$)
-test kits reef and/or salt API master drip kit
-skimmer
-sump (types? DIY?)
-power head (strength? models?)
-live rock (how many pounds for 55g?)
I'm hoping that with a bit of investing I can possibly be prepared to bring home some livestock and be able to safely house them while my tank cycles. The employees are down to sell anything from the display tanks and I know I will be able to get some super deals.
This is my first salt tank, I was going to take a few months to set it up and research everything but both my partner and I love corals so I need the low down on all the essentials in case I can bring home a bunch at a discount in 2 weeks.
I always did fishless cycles in my fresh tanks, is that possible with salt? I was going to buy live rock and sea water from this store Friday. I don't have an RO/DI system and will probably buy one, so cheap/good model links are appreciated.
The fish we saw today and really wanted he called a "barnacle bunny" or buddy-- I couldn't find it on image search. It was this tiny tube guy with red eyes, living in the rock in a picotope they had on sale. It was $300, so if I need to I could buy that ten gallon thingy and keep a few fish innit while the main tank cycles.
We want a couple mandarin gobies, a Valentini puffer or a cow fish, not sure if 55 gallons is big enough though. Also considering Eels we saw.
Am I being reasonable? I have nothing to do but this before school starts in February. I need to build a sump/refugium or whatever else too, and if I need to order things online like a new filter and all the test kits, I would like to place an order by Friday too.
Thanks, shopping lists you can suggest would help a lot!
Add to:
-LEDs (ack $$)
-test kits reef and/or salt API master drip kit
-skimmer
-sump (types? DIY?)
-power head (strength? models?)
-live rock (how many pounds for 55g?)