New Tank, New To Saltwater

I have a 20 gallon hexagon tank.

So far I am getting fijI pink sand, reefcleaners rock (15 lbs), 5ish lbs live rock from lfs, a hydor nano 425 pump (possibly another smaller one if needed) , PENSON & CO. Salinity Refractometer (from amazon), some bio spira, instant ocean salt, and an aqueon pro 100w heater.
I will use seachem prime to condition my water as well.
I won't be putting coral in for a long while if at all.

Is there anything I am missing or anything I need to change or should this be good?

 

Oh, yes! I forgot to mention I plan on buying this as well


I am mainly getting the prime for my freshwater tanks actually




Are there better options for rodi? or should that be the best cheap option???

 

You need calibration fluid for the refractometer

 

I was planning on just using distilled water to calibrate. Or is this not a proper way of doing it? (really new to this lol)

 

honestly, you are better off getting the calibration fluid to be sure that it is done right. The stuff lasts for quite awhile and you are going to want to make sure that it is calibrated quite often. ( I did mine at least once a month and always found it to be a little bit "off" when I'd do it).

 

HI Ryan. Congrats on setting up your first salty tank. Are you planning on running additional filtration on this system? I just don't think that 5 lbs. of live rock will be enough to hold a strong cycle in a 20 gallon tank.

Oh, yes! I forgot to mention I plan on buying this as well
Are there better options for rodi? or should that be the best cheap option???

Hmmmm, I don't know about that unit, but I usually recommend picking up a RODI system from BRS, (Bulk Reef Supply.) I find those to be the best cheaper option because the are very easy to maintain and don't use proprietary parts or filter media. With a RODI system you will have to replace carbon, resins and membranes from time to time. If the system you're looking at doesn't use standardized parts, you may be stuck buying those things from the same manufacturer for the life of your system. For this reason, I usually recommend looking at RODI systems by Bulk Reef Supply, as they do not use proprietary parts.

 

HI Ryan. Congrats on setting up your first salty tank. Are you planning on running additional filtration on this system? I just don't think that 5 lbs. of live rock will be enough to hold a strong cycle in a 20 gallon tank.



Hmmmm, I don't know about that unit, but I usually recommend picking up a RODI system from BRS, (Bulk Reef Supply.) I find those to be the best cheaper option because the are very easy to maintain and don't use proprietary parts or filter media. With a RODI system you will have to replace carbon, resins and membranes from time to time. If the system you're looking at doesn't use standardized parts, you may be stuck buying those things from the same manufacturer for the life of your system. For this reason, I usually recommend looking at RODI systems by Bulk Reef Supply, as they do not use proprietary parts.

Just a cheap hob filter I had leftover. I also will use bio spira to start cycling. I also will be using chemI pure blue after the cycle runs

 

OK, so Bio Spira is bottled bacteria, and ChemI Pure is great for a number of things, but neither is filter media that will host the beneficial bacteria needed to maintain the nitrogen cycle. In freshwater tanks, people generally rely on some sort of porous biomedia within their filters, but in saltwater tanks we mostly rely on rock within the tank to host the BB. 5 pounds of rock will not be able to host enough beneficial bacteria for a fully stocked 20 gallon tank.

So, you will either need more rock, or to use a decent amount of biomedia in a filter to make up for a lack of rock. This is not to say that you need more live rock though, because there's no reason not to use dry rock in a tank.... it will become live before long. A general, yet imperfect rule in saltwater tanks is to have about 1 lb. of rock per gallon of water. The rule is imperfect because it doesn't take into account the porosity levels in different types of rocks. A dense heavy rock will have less area for BB to colonize, whereas a light porous rock of the same size will have more area for BB to colonize.

 

reefcleaners rock (15 lbs)

I am using dry rock also! 15 lbs of reefcleaner florida rock.

 

My mistake... I apologize for missing that, but was only trying to help. No insult intended!

 

What type of water will u use? Ro or rodi? Tap water isn't ur best friend... even with prime

 

I plan on using distilled water at first until I can afford a good rodI unit. I was going to buy the one listed above in this topic, however I have had a few comments against them.

 

Another poster did a direct comparison between the results of using distilled water vs RODI water and the results were night and day. His tank was covered with brown algae after two days with the distilled water and barely had any after 7 days of using RODI water. Most LFS sell RODI/Saltwater pre-mix and this is the route I would recommend going until you can afford the RODI unit and it probably won't cost much more than the distilled would.