Hope I am posting this to the correct forum...

[Good Crab]

Hi—I am new to this forum however am not new to Saltwater Tanks in general.

Great forum you guy’s have here. I have been lurking for about a week and reading and gathering some good information that I was not previously knowledgeable on. Nice to meet you…

I have not done Saltwater in years and I am just now getting the monkey on my back again.

First question I have is in regards to setting up a brand new tank—I have little left in terms of accessories from my last aquarium venture and will be starting basically from square one. I want to do a small reef only aquarium of 20 gallons (I know the bigger is safer but I am prepared to monitor the tank daily for anomalies and do all the maintenance necessary. I don’t have room for anything bigger right now) I am going to go slow and be patient—I have the time.

The question is a what would YOU do question. I can’t decide on getting A. one of those The Package from Tampa Bay Saltwater or getting Fiji rock and sand from liveaquaria.com. The Package from Tampa Bay Saltwater comes with 40 pounds of cured Live Rock—20 pounds of Live Sand—20 Blue Legged Crabs—10 Astrea Snails—2 Tiger Tail Cucumbers—a Peppermint Shrimp and a Serpent star. This all sounds well and good and all the information I read from their website is encouraging for success and makes a lot of sense. Seems like if you follow what they say and are patient you will be successful. I get all this in 2 deliveries for 266.00. or B. Order 45 pounds of NOT cured Fiji Live Rock for 119.99 and Live South Pacific Sand; 20 pounds for 74.99 from liveaquaria.com and get the critters and creatures separately. I have mixed emotions on who would be better to do business with and am curious to know which rock will have more goodies on it One is right here in Tampa Florida (I live directly opposite on the other coast) and the other is all the way in Wisconsin.

I plan on going the biological filtration route with three power heads to generate plenty of water movement and turbulence and a good protein skimmer. I will also purchase all the lighting I will need to maintain this reef.

Who would YOU order from and why? (I do know that the rock from liveaquaria.com is Fiji and that from TBS is aquacultured) Money is really not an issue. Success is more important to me and ending up with a healthy flourishing small reef.

Thanks in advance for your response.

 

[morgan24]

If I were you i would see if i could drive right tbs and hand pick my lr so it don't have to go threw that shipping. All you would need is a couple rubbermaid tubs. Then sand is cheap but i bet you could find some play sand for 5 or 6 bucks at a home depote which will become live in time. that way you can cycle your tank with the lr. You wouldn't want to get all those critters inthe packege until your tank was cycled anyway. I have aquacultered rock in my tank and i love it. I also have some fiji. The fiji was a little dull not much color. The aquacultered had lots of color and coraline algea. either way should be fine though. Just take your time and do lots of reading here. Oh and ask lots of questions and you will do great.

 

[Good Crab]

If I were you i would see if i could drive right tbs and hand pick my lr so it don't have to go threw that shipping. All you would need is a couple rubbermaid tubs. Then sand is cheap but i bet you could find some play sand for 5 or 6 bucks at a home depote which will become live in time. that way you can cycle your tank with the lr. You wouldn't want to get all those critters inthe packege until your tank was cycled anyway. I have aquacultered rock in my tank and i love it. I also have some fiji. The fiji was a little dull not much color. The aquacultered had lots of color and coraline algea. either way should be fine though. Just take your time and do lots of reading here. Oh and ask lots of questions and you will do great.

Thanks for your help. Appreciate it...

 

[zuzecawi]

From the environmental standpoint, go TBS!!! Fiji rock is stolen from the reefs at great cost to the ocean, chipped and shattered from where it's been growing for more years than you really want to think, then it is shipped, then packed into tubs somewhere in a warehouse if you're lucky and left in soggy boxes if you're not, by the time it gets to you it's been through three or four stations and is pretty much a ugly stinky mess. My whole set up is aquacultured keys and gulf rock and I LOVE the biodiversity my tank has! My rock can turn play sand into live sand in a matter of days, not weeks or months. And it's still like this even after my whole system crashed while I was on TDY (military duty for you civies). The recuperation of this tank after the gross mismanagement by my so called house sitter is just amazing, and I owe most of it to the quality and quantity of rock I had. I didn't have to bother with detritovore packs, my rock is loaded with spaghetti worms, little urchins, snails, hermits, emerald crabs, stars, pods, pistol shrimp, all sorts of crazy things, clams and oysters like mad, tube worms, x-mas tree worms, just crazy stuff!!!

 

[Good Crab]

From the environmental standpoint, go TBS!!! Fiji rock is stolen from the reefs at great cost to the ocean, chipped and shattered from where it's been growing for more years than you really want to think, then it is shipped, then packed into tubs somewhere in a warehouse if you're lucky and left in soggy boxes if you're not, by the time it gets to you it's been through three or four stations and is pretty much a ugly stinky mess. My whole set up is aquacultured keys and gulf rock and I LOVE the biodiversity my tank has! My rock can turn play sand into live sand in a matter of days, not weeks or months. And it's still like this even after my whole system crashed while I was on TDY (military duty for you civies). The recuperation of this tank after the gross mismanagement by my so called house sitter is just amazing, and I owe most of it to the quality and quantity of rock I had. I didn't have to bother with detritovore packs, my rock is loaded with spaghetti worms, little urchins, snails, hermits, emerald crabs, stars, pods, pistol shrimp, all sorts of crazy things, clams and oysters like mad, tube worms, x-mas tree worms, just crazy stuff!!!

This is invaluable information--thanks for taking the time to write a great informative response!

Mike