Tank with out live rock

[m and m]

So I am stuck in this weird pradicamind and i think it would be best to set up a tank at my girl freinds for the summer, since my elctric is going to be out for a week or so. If i set up a tank do i NEED live rock? Im thinking about just setting up a 20g and and getting a tunze skimmer and a vortec mp10 ES and just keeping that over here will that work for the coral for the summer? I am trying to do this as cheap (0-250ish) as possable but also have the coral well taken care of and growing this summer. Any saggestions?

 

[Troylee]

lots of water changes and a decent sandbed so you have some where for the bacteria to colonize and it shouldnt be a huge deal..... there is plenty of fo systems with out rock in them but they have high nitrate levels and po4...

 

[m and m]

lots of water changes and a decent sandbed so you have some where for the bacteria to colonize and it shouldnt be a huge deal..... there is plenty of fo systems with out rock in them but they have high nitrate levels and po4...

Yea, the more i think about it the best i think it would to atleast put a few pieces in there. Thanks for the replay i'll just put a few nicer size pieces also to help add a little shade to a few spots for some coral.

 

[ddiver]

Must be driving....:bigsmile:

 

[johnanddawn]

as long as there are no fish and you feed the system light or not at all - you will be fine - i have kept coral tanks without rock many times
but as you said a few peices couldn't hurt

 

[beaslbob]

So I am stuck in this weird pradicamind and i think it would be best to set up a tank at my girl freinds for the summer, since my elctric is going to be out for a week or so. If i set up a tank do i NEED live rock? Im thinking about just setting up a 20g and and getting a tunze skimmer and a vortec mp10 ES and just keeping that over here will that work for the coral for the summer? I am trying to do this as cheap (0-250ish) as possable but also have the coral well taken care of and growing this summer. Any saggestions?

Live rock IMHO is not needed for any tank.

But (again IMHO) plant life of some form is. Like the corraline algae on the live rock. Or even the plant life in the corals themselves.

To keep costs down I would use an in tank refugium with macro algae like chaetomorphia. Just partition the tank with an "egg crate" (1/4 square plastic grid light diffuser) so you have a 2-3" area between the tank wall and th egg crate. then add some side lights to keep the chaeto growing in that area.

but that's just my opinion

Worth at most .02

 

[Aquascaper]

lots of water changes and a decent sandbed so you have some where for the bacteria to colonize and it shouldnt be a huge deal..... there is plenty of fo systems with out rock in them but they have high nitrate levels and po4...

+1-
mechanical filtration that is well maintained is a great addition to this type of set-up

 

[inactive]

Carbonnnn

 

[Bugg_zy]

Hmm... maybee if possible put a HoB filter like and aquaclear on the 20g. Just drop the sponge from it in your current set up to get some bacteria established until the move. Also with the basic back filter you can add media like carbon or phosphate remover etc. Heck I have seen threads where they covert them into mini fuge. That and a mini skimmer would work as a good combo. Live rock not needed. But enough surface area to grow good bacteria to keep up with the bio load is needed. Just my opinion though.