very confused

[2e0raf]

hi

i have read all the sticky as sugested by ppl in my last post but i still have some questions.

Firstly can i get away without live rock i have a bucket of corel but no idea if it is live or not. i am presuming the lattter as it dows not smell of the sea and i think its been i a cupboard for a wile.

Secondly ppl are talking abt protine skimmers well in the setup i have been given ther are two. now thay dont seem to fit in the tank properly. you kinda clip them on the side but the collection cut sticke up so you cannot get the hood back on. are you suposed to run these thing all the time or periodicly.

Last question is the setup also has an external canister filter a flouval 304 but there are no mentions of a external flters in the stickies.. pas helm im getting very confused.

 

[RockingCricket]

Raf,
It is possible to do as you are proposing to d (in this and other threads) which is to have a saltwater tank setup as a freshwater tank and have no live rock. That is exactly what my new 3 month old system is. Untill live rock (LR) is added and settled you will have a sterile looking tank which cannot house critters such as Angels and Butterflies who like to graze on the algae and microlife LR contains. Your choice of tank mates is SEVERLY reduced without LR
A system is more interesting and more stable with live rock and the overall success rate is much greater. If you search some of the threads which I've started I'm sure you'll find a lot of help with the setup of your tank. I'm sure you'll have a lot of the same questions and the same persistance in dodging out of the expenses of LR - and you'll also find a lot of good arguements to use it.
I am very new to marine so please tank all I say with a pinch of salt.
The rock you have is not liverock. It sounds very much like what I have aquascaped with which is bleached dead coral To keep interest levels up I have quite a scrubbing cleanup crew - a very large green brittle star, large longspine urchin, arrowcrab, snails and hermits and I plan to keep fish which are not heavily reliant on algae. My tank is very new (and sterile looking) but with regular cleaning of my fluval 404 I am able to keep good water params. I would say run both of your skimmers. Can't have too much especially as you are going down the non live rock route. You wanna run them all the time so either find a way of hanging them on the tank, or consider having a sump underneath your display tank to hang them on.
Regarding the fluval, goto www.hagen.com or hagon.com and find the pdf file of the instructions of the model of fluval you have to help you with it's setup.
I just noticed from other threads that your tank is a mere 30 gal. I would suggest live rock for a tank that small. Mine is a 90 gal so I have a little more lee-way (sp?) I believe. What are live rock prices like in England?

 

[2e0raf]

Thank you

i think i have found away of hanging the protine scimmer in the tank witout it looking too out of place. i have noticed there are two mounts on it one for hanging on your tank and another for placing on a lip . i have a glass lip running on the instde of the tank do with that i can put it in the corner with the heater and the power head. haven quite decided about the canister filter yet i think i will experiment to see if the is much of a diffrance running it.

wil enquire abt the live rock the is a huge marine center not to far form me so will investigate ther and see if i can get some.

the tank is not quite set up yet as i wll have to build a stand i have a rough idea how to do it.

 

[1979camaro]

http://www.garf.org/ has some good info on building a stand

 

[aresgod]

in a 30 gallon I would really suggest getting some live rock, the amount you would need would be minimal in compared to a 90 gallon so that should help keep costs down for you, if your local places LR is too expensive you can look online for dealers that ship to the UK

 

[wayne]

You get a box or 1/2 box from calico who are local to you, or just shoparound online. There's quite a lot of used liverock for sale on ultimatereef.net at the moment I noticed.

I would advise getting some though