Hi to everyone at MASA
Firstly I'd like to say thanks to Crispin for the welcome and second to tell every body out there in the land of MASA that you guys have an awesome (and very informative ) forum. So thanks very much.
Let me first tell out about myself. I'm 25 and live in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town. I'm currently a Masters student at UCT, in the Computer Science Department. I have had freshwater tanks when I was younger and currently maintain a 1.8m x 55cm x 50cm freshwater tank at the College of Magic. Its a very new tank, only been up and running for about a month. I volunteer in teaching magic, mime and clowning at the College of Magic so I've been there for years, since I was 11 1/2. I've really enjoyed the process and the tank and its occupants tremendously. I've always been fascinated with saltwater tanks and would love to start one myself.
I have a few questuons about the setup of a saltwater. I would like to purchase a 1.8m to 2m tank. I'm guessing that the overall dimensions would make it about 500L to 600L. I've heard that many reef keepers use either sumps, canister filters, and power heads, or all combined. What is the best for the size tank I've mentioned, also what do you think of the Fluval FX5 as a main filter?
- The other quesions I have are. Is it best to use argonite as a substrate, or crushed fine coral, or sea sand?
- Where can I get argonite, if its recommended, tufa rock, and live rock, at a farily decent price? (I've notice that settng up a tank this size is going to cost a hell-of-a-lot of cash) Could I go to a clean beach and use the sand from there?
I've already read up about the setup of a new tank and also the time needed for the process of 'live culturaling' and such to 'settle down' I've read I should leave it for 9 months to a year, I'm willing to do this becaise I know the water quality has to be just about absolutely perfect fro any sort of fish, invetebrates, soft and hard corals. So for the time being I just want to get the basic setup of tank done and wait the process out before adding anything else.
So do you have any pearls of wisdom for the start-up and where to get these items, live rock, substrate etc. in the Cape Town area, without costing the heaven and earth; some fish shops are ridicuously expensive eg. R175 per/kg for live rock, jeez.
Hi to all and thanks for a great site.
CheshireCat
