Just getting started 40g

[NewFish]

Getting started on this journey.

I have been learning whatever I can retain over the past few months. Now I'm ready as ever to take my chance at my first reef tank. I've dreamed of a saltwater aquarium since I was just a little guy so here it goes.

My plan is to build a minimal maintenance 40 gallon tank for my home. Long term I'll take the gear and lessons learned from this tank to transplant it's contents into a larger tank. But for now the immediate strategy is to use as much information, effort, and technologies as I can to succeed with this minimalist tank.

Day 1,

My goal with this tanks aquascape is a bare bottom tank with that negative-space/minimalist appearance. So to start I'm on the adventure to find some high quality live rock. I'll also want to add more surface area to the tank for all of that lovely bacteria to live so I will be making use of MarinePure bioballs in my AIO tank.

To get the process started I've added some 'live sand' to a 12 gallon tub and my bioballs. Two circulation pumps, a heater, and my Apex to take salinity and tempature measurements. I'll be adding some more water tomorrow. I might even give some of that bottled-bacteria potion a try soon.

Suggestions?

 

[TexanCanuck]

Welcome to the hobby and to R2R! You won't regret either!

The Marinepure bioballs are a great media for adding lots of surface area for bacteria.

I would suggest looking at Brightwell Aquatics' MicroBacter Start XLM as a way to add live nitrifying bacteria to the mix.

With respect to the "live" sand, keep in mind that it is not the SAND that is live ... it's the water in the bag that came with the sand ... so if your plan is to go bare-bottom in your display tank, adding the sand to your tub with the bioballs isn't going to help.

I'd recommend simply soaking the bioballs in a new bucket together with the MicroBacter Start XLM and new salt water (there's instructions on the back of the bottle how to do this).

Also, put your aquascape on the fast track ... the sooner you can get it wet in your tank with the same water flowing through your sump and bioballs, the better off you will be.

With respect to your "quest to find some high quality live rock" ... do you mean actual "live rock" (which you can only get if it's been aquacultured) or are you using live rock as a general term (in which case you are really talking about "dry rock")?

If you are serious about getting true, aquacultured live rock, right now you really only have a choice between KP Aquatics, or Gulf Live Rock.com (normally, I'd put Tampa Bay Saltwater at the top of the list, but they've been shut down due to COVID)

However, if you are like the rest of us and are planning on using dry rock (because true, aquacultured rock is crazy expensive and hard to find), then I highly recommend MarcoRocks ... you can buy it a BRS here:

Bulk Live Rock

Free Shipping on orders over $29! A wide selection of options including shelf, pedestal, foundation, and standard dry live rock.

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Personally, I think the dry rock from "Real Reef Solutions" and CaribSea (the stuff that's essentially been painted purple to look like authentic aquacultured rock) is somewhat over-hyped ... while I'm not an expert, I believe that their claim that the rock is "infused with spored bacteria" is misleading. While it may actually contain bacteria in a spore state, I do not believe that it is bacteria that is helpful in a marine aquarium - I believe that none of the nitrifying bacteria that are so important for biological filtration can exist in a dry state (but I could be wrong).

 

[NewFish]

Appreciate the response..

So the idea of tub soaking the bioballs is to get some of that bacteria from the sand to find a new home in the balls and grow. That might not have been communicated clear enough with the strategy of the article that outlined:

Today is day one...
I added Bioballs and 'live' sand to a bucket...
Heated, circulated, and measured...
Tomorrow, I want to add some more bacteria from some other source like bottle or live rock...

I was checking around at a few shops locally and some folks they know. It sounds like I'll be able to actually get some live rock from some local hobbiests or the shops cure it. While I appreciate the referrals of some shops to buy live rock from I think it will invite a more lively discussion if we can reasonably agree that there is more than just two places that we can buy live rock.

I do want to add some live rock in this bucket soon though. I'll check out those shops and see if it makes sense to buy from .com.

I put in just a few pellets of food with the intention of letting some of that break down to feed the bacteria. If you ha e ever tried something like this process before do you think /or when, might a filter be needed for this bucket to keep the process healthy?

Welcome to the hobby and to R2R! You won't regret either!

The Marinepure bioballs are a great media for adding lots of surface area for bacteria.

I would suggest looking at Brightwell Aquatics' MicroBacter Start XLM as a way to add live nitrifying bacteria to the mix.

With respect to the "live" sand, keep in mind that it is not the SAND that is live ... it's the water in the bag that came with the sand ... so if your plan is to go bare-bottom in your display tank, adding the sand to your tub with the bioballs isn't going to help.

I'd recommend simply soaking the bioballs in a new bucket together with the MicroBacter Start XLM and new salt water (there's instructions on the back of the bottle how to do this).

Also, put your aquascape on the fast track ... the sooner you can get it wet in your tank with the same water flowing through your sump and bioballs, the better off you will be.

With respect to your "quest to find some high quality live rock" ... do you mean actual "live rock" (which you can only get if it's been aquacultured) or are you using live rock as a general term (in which case you are really talking about "dry rock")?

If you are serious about getting true, aquacultured live rock, right now you really only have a choice between KP Aquatics, or Gulf Live Rock.com (normally, I'd put Tampa Bay Saltwater at the top of the list, but they've been shut down due to COVID)

However, if you are like the rest of us and are planning on using dry rock (because true, aquacultured rock is crazy expensive and hard to find), then I highly recommend MarcoRocks ... you can buy it a BRS here:

Bulk Live Rock

Free Shipping on orders over $29! A wide selection of options including shelf, pedestal, foundation, and standard dry live rock.

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Personally, I think the dry rock from "Real Reef Solutions" and CaribSea (the stuff that's essentially been painted purple to look like authentic aquacultured rock) is somewhat over-hyped ... while I'm not an expert, I believe that their claim that the rock is "infused with spored bacteria" is misleading. While it may actually contain bacteria in a spore state, I do not believe that it is bacteria that is helpful in a marine aquarium - I believe that none of the nitrifying bacteria that are so important for biological filtration can exist in a dry state (but I could be wrong).

 

[TexanCanuck]

Yes - we can agree that there are LOTS of places from which you can buy "live rock" - but it is not true aquacultured live rock ... it is almost always dry rock (i.e dug out of the ground somewhere and was essentially sterile) that someone has already cured in their tank for a period of time and through which they have established bacteria colonies, some copepods, maybe some coralline algae, and perhaps some hitchhikers. But the degree of biodiversity will be limited to whatever was already in their tank. Furthermore, a nontrivial amount of this biodiversity will die off once you pull it out of the water, wrap it in wet newspaper, and bring it home.

My point about true aquaculutred live rock - which you only get from pulling it out of the ocean and shipping it wet (in water!) - is that it will have an order of magnitude greater amount of biodiversity in both bacterial cultures, microfauna, and flora (sponges, corals, macroalgae, etc.). 30 years go, this is what "live rock" was as it was the only way you could get it. Unfortunately, because of unethical harvesting practices, this soon became unsustainable, and most of the trade was shut down and the prices skyrocketed. Now, with aquacultured rock becoming more available, it is possible to harvest this rock from the ocean in a sustainable manner - but the prices are still very high.

Personally, I don't think the small incremental benefit you get from buying "cured" live rock from a LFS or fellow aquarist is worth the incremental risk you get from hitchhikers ... I'd prefer to use "dry rock" that you start from scratch and get a good source of bottled bacteria to get it started.

UNLESS you can get true, aquacultured live rock - in which case the benefits are much greater (because of the far great biodiversity) that I'd be willing to live with the hitchhikers.

In my case, I took a hybrid approach ... for my 130 gallon display, I purchased 120 pounds of dry rock that I cycled with bottled bacteria, then once the cycle was completed I added another 20 pounds of true aquacultured rock from KP aquatics, shipped in water. This allows the greater biodiversity to spread to the rest of the rock.

Also, I completely understood your intention of putting the sand in the tub with the bioballs ... my point was that the bacteria you are trying to cross pollinate were never really in the sand to start with ... they were in the water packed along with the sand in the bag. Generally speaking, there has been a general trend in our hobby away from "live sand" and toward "dry sand" because you can get so much more concentrated bacteria cultures from a bottle than what you would find in live sand.

Finally, while I am not sure of the exact chemical differences between Ammonia that is released from decomposing food and the ammonia that is released from the gills of a fish, I do believe there IS an important difference. Therefore, I know many hobbyists (like myself) who no longer initiate the cycle by adding food (in the old days we did it by dropping in a couple of frozen shrimp you could buy at the grocery store), but instead we now add specially formulated nitrogen and phosphorous compounds that are uniquely tailored to enable a controlled development of bacteria.

Take a look at Red Sea's "Reef Mature pro" kit ... it comes with both the bacteria, and a "Bacto-Start" compound

RedSea Reef Mature Pro Kit

Why does BRS recommend this? The Red Sea Reef Mature Pro Kit will help any tank with its biological filtration cycle. Each kit provides the necessary bacteria to innoculate your aquarium as well as the nutrients they need to become established and fully cycle your aquarium, creating a safe...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

This is what I used on my most recent tank.

 

[TexanCanuck]

Forgot to answer your question about a filter ... YES, a filter will definitely help the process - especially the combination of a mechanical filter and protein skimmer.

These devices will get rid of particulate contaminates that would otherwise plug up the porous surfaces of your biomedia while not reducing the nitrogen waste in the water that the bacteria are actively feeding on.