two for one]

[thefishguy]

I have two questions.
first I am in the process of setting up my 75 gal., so I set up a twenty gallon w/ live sand from the beach, a power head, canister filter and heater. I has been going for about a week. no fish yet, but there seems to be ammonia from the sand. is this okay, also there seems to be this brown muck covering about half the sand bed. is this normal

second
I am setting up a thirty gal. at work. what should I need. just a bottem of the line salt. tank. I was thinking of using a lexan cover, a regular normal output light, a reverse flow undergravel filter, heater. is this good enough and with the under gravel can I use sand or do I have to use gravel. what should I use for rock, remember cheep. is the filtration and circulation good enough thanks.

 

[Devilishturtles]

but there seems to be ammonia from the sand. is this okay, also there seems to be this brown muck covering about half the sand bed. is this normal

This would be normal with the live sand. Your tank is cycling. It's important to note however, that beach sand isn't reccommended, unless you got it from miles off the coast line. Your average popular beach sand contains way more contaminants that is good for your tank. You may want to consider finding a different sand type. Play sand(with no additives/silicates) or pool filter sand can be found for cheap in bulk. Finally, the brown stuff is diatoms. I'd leave them alone, and they will naturally go away on their own once you get enough bacteria in your tank to kill them.

 

[Salttanker]

I would scratch the UG filter as well. This is more trouble than it is worth. Remember, this is SW, so anything done right is not really cheap unless you can get everything at a garage sale. There are some factors to consider like filtration flow, which in your case would be 75g x 10 = 750 gph, and 30g x 10 = 300 gph minimum. LR is the best rock to use, but you can get by with base rock.
I also agree with Devilishturtles by not using sand from the beach. You won't know what, if any, toxic material you may be adding to your tank.

Mike