hi there fellow reefers!.
so i'm finally taking the leap into the world of saltwater. i have had freshwater for several years. currently running a 75 african cichlid tank. the long term goal is for that to be my salt tank. however, to start i'm going for a shallow long reef in a 20 long. I had it drilled w/a corner overflow and am using an old 10 gal for the sump down below. I have a couple of baffles, a 4 inch sock and a 260 gph eheim return pump. I have spent hours upon hours reading online forums trying to absorb as much as I can and it still seem so overwhelming. I could use any and all advice/support. Last night I filled it up for w/about 25 gals of premixed salt water from lfs. put in 20lbs of fiji pink sand(its not really pink) it is supposed to have bacteria in it. Does anyone have any feedback on using live rock vs. reef saver eco rock. I was reading about it and how by using it you can have your tank be free of apitasia, bubble algae, parasitic isopods, mantis shrimp,acro eating flat worms, little red bugs, fire worms, predatory nudibranchs, pyramidellid snails and other common pests. Half of these things i have never heard of, but they all sounded nasty. This info and the fact that it was half the price of live rock was enough for me to order 25 lbs of it. Did i make a mistake??? Not quite sure what my next step should be? whats this about putting shrimp in a bag in your tank? i assume it is to help w/the cycle. do i need to do this since the sand was supposed to have bacteria in it??? perhaps this is the wrong thread to ask all this. srry if i was just supposed to say hi. i just remembered this is the meet and greet section.....
so i'm finally taking the leap into the world of saltwater. i have had freshwater for several years. currently running a 75 african cichlid tank. the long term goal is for that to be my salt tank. however, to start i'm going for a shallow long reef in a 20 long. I had it drilled w/a corner overflow and am using an old 10 gal for the sump down below. I have a couple of baffles, a 4 inch sock and a 260 gph eheim return pump. I have spent hours upon hours reading online forums trying to absorb as much as I can and it still seem so overwhelming. I could use any and all advice/support. Last night I filled it up for w/about 25 gals of premixed salt water from lfs. put in 20lbs of fiji pink sand(its not really pink) it is supposed to have bacteria in it. Does anyone have any feedback on using live rock vs. reef saver eco rock. I was reading about it and how by using it you can have your tank be free of apitasia, bubble algae, parasitic isopods, mantis shrimp,acro eating flat worms, little red bugs, fire worms, predatory nudibranchs, pyramidellid snails and other common pests. Half of these things i have never heard of, but they all sounded nasty. This info and the fact that it was half the price of live rock was enough for me to order 25 lbs of it. Did i make a mistake??? Not quite sure what my next step should be? whats this about putting shrimp in a bag in your tank? i assume it is to help w/the cycle. do i need to do this since the sand was supposed to have bacteria in it??? perhaps this is the wrong thread to ask all this. srry if i was just supposed to say hi. i just remembered this is the meet and greet section.....
and welcome to RS 
