fishrule101

I have a marineland bio wheel filter. The gph is 150.will all the bactria died that was for freshwater?? or does the bacteria survie in both FW and SW??

fishrule101

What about my question on reef crystals??

Tumbleweed

Bacteria is different, so it will all die.

I don't use reaf crystals and I would recomend that you get a reef water test kit and test your water before adding and suplements to it. I use Instant Ocean salt mix, and have not as of yet needed to add any minerals to the water.
My rule of thumb is don't add it if you can't test for it.

fishrule101

You said that i can add 1 medium fish and 2-3 small ones. What would be the small fish??

fishrule101

I'm also getting a skimmr a cheap one. I wasen't planning on getting a skimmer anyways,but tell me if this one is ok. At least tell me if it would do something cause i read the reviews for it and many people are saying it is an awesome skimmmer and should be worth more. The name of the skimmer is Visi-Jet Protein Skimmer. i'm getting all my new fish supplies from drsfosterandsmith.

Tumbleweed

a small fish would be something like Chromis. that would be a good choice.

The protein skimmer looks ok. Anything is better then nothing, it is whether you want to spend the money on it or not.

fishrule101

OK i am just one final step from having my FOWLR, but i need to make a hard chose. I was looking at RO Units in drsfostersmith.com and notice RO Units are not that expensive. I found one that is named Corallife Pure-Flo 2 and found that i want to have an RO Unit but if i buy that i won't have any money left for my life rock. So should i buy the RO Unit or live rock?? If i do buy the RO Unit i won't be able to buy live rock for like a week and my fish supplies will arrive sometime this week. Can I setup my tank and then add live rock a week later??

Tumbleweed

You want to buy the RO unit first. You actually want an RO/DI unit, not just an RO unit. Yes you an add the live rock later, just make sure you cure it in a seperate tank first, or if there is no fish in the tank yet you can cure it in your main tank. You want to use the RO/DI water in your tank from the start. This will make everything else easier later.

Here is a link to the RO/DI unit that i bought. It works great and it produces 100gph. I think that the Corallife only does 24gph. These are both at optimal conditions, but that is still roughly 4X faster. It may not sound important, but just think of it as an emergancy back up. You can make new water a lot faster in case of an emergancy.

http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html

ray

is there an article on RO/DI units that you could link us too or anything... I understand needing RO but i'm still unclear what that DI takes out of the watter...

ray

http://www.fishlore.com/reverse_osmo...ionization.htm
this is a little article on it... it still gives very little on deionization... if RO will make the water 99% pure do we really need the DI to make it that 99.9% pure? i know water quality is a big deal... but how much of a big deal is this DI thing?

fishrule101

Would 22 lbs of live rock be enough to help get the tank cycled?? I 'll add more later and does it matter what kind of live rock it is??

ray

oh yeah that should be fine... then maybe just add a few more lbs when you can... the recomended is 1-1.5lb per gal. but usually with smaller tanks i think everyone recomends staying around the 1lb mark or so... but thats should start you cycleing...
from what i understand not all rock is created equal... so in many ways it does matter what kind of live rock it is... but i'm gonna leave that part of the question up to some of the people that have been doing this a little longer than a month! haha
good luck with everything fishrule101!

Tumbleweed

Here is a link to a FAQ about RO/DI water systems. Hope that answers your questions.

http://reefcentral.com/modules.php?n...showpage&pid=2

fishrule101

Thanks for the help Tumbleweed!!!

Tumbleweed

Welcome

fishrule101

Is it ok if i added a skunk shrimp??

Tumbleweed

You should be able to. I have 2 in my tank.

fishrule101

What are some peaceful fish that are active and colorful?