Question regarding salt & curing live rock

H

Hootiedablofish

Member
We are currently in the process of converting our tank from a fish only to a reef with fish tank. LFS said to use Reef Crystals as our water additive instead of what were currently using is Instant ocean salt. Anyone agree or disagree something better even yet?

As for the live rock we are running a 75gallon tank live sand/currently ~40 lbs of live rock, remora skimmer, 2 fans, and current nova extreme pro 6x54 lightning + coralife 2x54 lights. Using the fluval 405 cannister filter ( I will never go back to a hang on filter again). Hopefully this is good enough for soft corals, and maybe frogspawn. We dont really have any intention on getting into hard corals so decided not to go with a far more expensive metal halide (spelling?)

As far as the question concerning the live rock, we bought 30lbs of Hawaiian base rock as well as 50 more lbs of fiji live rock from oceanproaquatics online. We have a 50 gallon rubbermade bin set up salt ~ .23 and ph ~8.3 along with 1 fan and 2 12 inch bubblers. Besides cleaning the rock when we get it and testing Ammonia I believe everything is good to go. Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated, as we are all aware how the LFS can not always be the most knowledgeable.

Thanks in Advance!
 
Clownfish518

Clownfish518

Razorback
PREMIUM
Instant Ocean is a good salt that mixes up consistently. But it is not a "reef" mix. Reef salts by and large have more calcium, magnesium, and a higher alkalinity. A lot of good reefers uses IO, but they also add in the extra elements when they mix it up. Reef Crystals is very popular. You can male it work either way.

One comment about the Fluval. Canister filters tend to raise nitrates. You are wanting to be as close to 0 nitrates as you can reach, and that will mean cleaning the Fluval a couple times a week. If it were me I would rethink the cannister filter. Most reef tanks don't have it or a HOB filter. Just the rock and a skimmer.

The LR curing setup looks fine. Water changes should be made. Sounds like you have a good plan overall
 
H

Hootiedablofish

Member
Thanks guys for the reply. Ya forgot to mention we do have the heater and that in the setup for the rock. We have never had any problems with our water parameters with our fluval cannister. Only 2 things in terms of water stuff have been inconsistant. Phosphate, was up to 5 finally got it down to 1 - 2 gonna add some more filter media soon to get it down more, and PH, used to range from 7.7-8.0, finally have it around 8.1 - 8.4. Think we were to afraid to put enough of the buffer in at first. Ive thought about putting another fluval 305 in there just for more filteration and water flow but it gets spendy.
 
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