# SW or Planted Tank



## xcooperx (Jun 24, 2006)

If your in my situation what would you do????

I just Bought a Saltwater Package:

29 Gallons with stand
2x65watts Coralife
20lbs Live Sand
40lbs Live rock
20lbs Live Rock (at the Sump)
15 Gallon Sump with 1700 Rio Water Pump
Overlow Box
SeaCLone Protien Skimmer

but im planning to re sell the whole thing except for the 29 gallon and lightning, cause im planning to make another planted tank on it.


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## Gary Greguire (Jan 13, 2007)

did you get any corals with it?

If you set it up I don't recommend reusing the sand most of my reefs are either bare bottom or just a very thin layer..


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## xcooperx (Jun 24, 2006)

no corals and live stock


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## primal (Jan 30, 2007)

If you are willing to absorb the cost of salt for the saltwater, I say go for a SW tank. And get some clown fish! They are adorable... and cheap as far as salt water fish go.


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

you bought it, use it

goby/pistol shrimp & a couple chromis, cleaning crew... good, not too $$$


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I do both salt and planted, but since you bought the salt setup, go with it and enjoy it. 
Just do your research before diving too deep into it, if it's your first salt tank,

I guess I don't understand why you would spend the money on a setup like that if you don't want to use it. Things like live rock and sand don't really appreciate being moved around too often, and you could pick up a more planted tank associated setup for a lot less $$, if that was your plan to start with.


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## Ultimbow (Sep 10, 2005)

If you like to aquascape stay with fw it cheaper and plant will spread better. Coral they just get bigger and most of them have to reproduce to spred around. For what i know about saltwater you aquarium is quite small to have most of the salt water fish


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

If you have the time to setup and maintain a salt water, I say go for that. I wanted to turn my 55gal into a saltwater tank, it's just to much of a second job for me right now. Maybe you could look into something like a zooanthoid tank that'd be very nice. But my advice over all would be check out reefcentral.com. Lots of people, with lots of great advice. I lingered around there before I found here, but never registered, just a TON of info.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

why not do a sw tank? as long as you know the limits and are willing to learn through trial and error (that's how it goes unless youre good at researching), it should be fun.

you can part the sw supplies out, but 3rd hand will not get you a very good price unless you get up trades. IMO, i'd do a sw tank and get another cheap tank at a club function or store sale to make a fw planted tank. 

arent you on nano-reef.com? that should inspire you to get a sw tank going


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## nailalc (Mar 17, 2006)

I agree with the 'you bought as a SW, make it a SW' outlook. Saltwater is my next goal in mind......


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## oblongshrimp (Aug 8, 2006)

you can always try a planted SW tank


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## StaffyBull (Feb 3, 2007)

oblongshrimp said:


> you can always try a planted SW tank


Ive done that. Not so easy though.

Personaly I really enjoyed owning salt water fish. I have also covered the salt water fish spectrum. Having a number of diffrent set ups and owning a little of everything at one point.

You should give it a try since you basicly have every thing. Go and do some nice soft corals mushrooms and polyps are nice a starter coral and come in a number of great colors.

Get some nice shrimp a couple of cool fish and you will be good to go.


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## xcooperx (Jun 24, 2006)

i dry out all the rocks that comes with the package cause of to many algae on it, so what im gonna do to make them live rocks again


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## StaffyBull (Feb 3, 2007)

xcooperx said:


> i dry out all the rocks that comes with the package cause of to many algae on it, so what im gonna do to make them live rocks again


First off thats a No No!

Did you do that to all 60lbs?

Was it hair algae?

You could use it as base rock to build off now but you will need to add some fresh rock to bring life back to it. Cause what you did was kill your bio filter. It will take a fair amount of time for life to grow back on that rock but it can happen. But like I sed you will need some new rock to reseed it.


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## xcooperx (Jun 24, 2006)

yeah hair algae, oh no i dry the whole 60lbs rocks, what if i did not seed them with fresh rocks, how long it will take to make them live again, anyway im not planning to buy fish right now, so whats your estimate months??


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## StaffyBull (Feb 3, 2007)

xcooperx said:


> yeah hair algae, oh no i dry the whole 60lbs rocks, what if i did not seed them with fresh rocks, how long it will take to make them live again, anyway im not planning to buy fish right now, so whats your estimate months??


If you do not try and reseed yes it could take months and cause you other cycling problems.

Will if your live sand is still alive then that will help. The rock you put in your sump will start to build up with Bio life fairly quick. But the rock in the tank will take more time and the coralline algae and some of the other life will need to be reseeded. You won't need alot of new rock maybe 5lbs. Look for some with alot of purple and other life on it. Also when you add some corals those will come on rocks and that will add to it also.

You have alot of rock at the moment basicly to much for a 29gal. I would go through it keep the key peices you like for the tank and sump then chuck the rest unless you know someone that needs base/building rock. After that I would look to pick up a couple fresh peices to have on top or around the the other rock in the tank.

Remmber to leave room for water flow and fish behind the rocks. You really don't want to have some solid mass of rock were dead pockets can form.


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## Gary Greguire (Jan 13, 2007)

I would suggest you log onto reefcentral and do some reading you can order GARF grunge to re seed your live rock at Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation Home Page. Reef tanks are very enjoyable.. Good Luck


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## xcooperx (Jun 24, 2006)

thanks a lot, maybe im just gonna get 5lbs of live rocks to seed the rocks i jave right now, anyway im still working on my planted tanks so i think 3-4 months is good enought to cycle the tank. oh im just gonna use 20G L cause i made my 29 gallon planted,lol im just gonna keep low lights coral on it like mushroom and polyps/zoos, cause its gona be 65watts over 20L, for fish i think 1 clown or 1 firefish will do


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

xcooperx said:


> i dry out all the rocks that comes with the package cause of to many algae on it, so what im gonna do to make them live rocks again


:faint: Oh my gosh, I paid $12/lb for my live rock, so that was a ton of money. That's too bad that you didn't know not to do that.

Thanks again for the tips StaffyBull.  
I should really split this thread if I want to keep picking your mind, so I don't hijack it from it's original intent.


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## xcooperx (Jun 24, 2006)

im not worry, i just post a thread at SW forum, they said that even i did not seed them with live rocks they gonna be live rocks again, but it will take time, 2-3 months.


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## StaffyBull (Feb 3, 2007)

xcooperx said:


> im not worry, i just post a thread at SW forum, they said that even i did not seed them with live rocks they gonna be live rocks again, but it will take time, 2-3 months.


That might be so if your live sand is still live. If not I don't know what else is there to help things re propagate.

How have you kept your sand?


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## xcooperx (Jun 24, 2006)

i put it on a bucket with saltwater on it and 1 rio power for circulation, im just gonna buy 5lbs of live rock and maybe a handful of live sand from our LFS, i think they are enought to start the process


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## StaffyBull (Feb 3, 2007)

JanS said:


> :faint: I paid $12/lb for my live rock


WoW! was that shipped or from a LFS?

XcooperX since your in the LA area if you have any friends that want to set up a reef tank there are a couple of wholesale places that are open to the public were you could go and split a case of live rock. That is another way to go.

Also if your not going to add fish or anything to your tank for some time don't forget to start adding the calcium and other nutrients to get it going. Also put you lights on a timer so you can try to get the coralline algae to start growing again.


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## StaffyBull (Feb 3, 2007)

xcooperx said:


> i put it on a bucket with saltwater on it and 1 rio power for circulation, im just gonna buy 5lbs of live rock and maybe a handful of live sand from our LFS, i think they are enought to start the process


Probley good to go then.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

StaffyBull, that was from our LFS, but I did get a 20% discount on it with my membership. At any rate, it's not cheap, and to lose 60 lbs is too bad when you had it in hand, not knowing that it couldn't be dried out.

It's true that you can get the rock to "live" (or have living things growing in/on it) again, but lots of cool things were killed in the process, and it isn't in essence true live rock anymore.

At any rate, it should be a nice tank again once it's established.


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## xcooperx (Jun 24, 2006)

i just went to my work at lFS today, and get new 40lbs of live rock then i throw the dead rocks i have at the show tank, to make them alive again


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

I ll most prob stick out like a sore thumb saying this, but I think mining for live rocks/corals is cruel. The fact that we need so much tech to maintain a salt water reef tank or the like proves that its very unnatural even if the tank is 6 feet long. Sorry if I offended anyone.


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## StaffyBull (Feb 3, 2007)

stepheus said:


> I ll most prob stick out like a sore thumb saying this, but I think mining for live rocks/corals is cruel. The fact that we need so much tech to maintain a salt water reef tank or the like proves that its very unnatural even if the tank is 6 feet long. Sorry if I offended anyone.


The whole hobby in genral is pretty "cruel" fresh or salt. You can tell your self that I only own animals that are tank raised but were did the ones befor them come from. Tank raised animals equal a small % of the hobby. So if you only find one part of this hobby "cruel" you really need to think more about it.


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