[cuttingrass]

Hey everyone im new to this online forum and also new to reef aquariums and have a few questions. First ill give a breef discriiption of my eqiepment. I have 30 gal empty tank, 10 gal. sump with a homemade lexan wet/dry filter, a quiteone pump,pumping 296 gph. A compact light fixture featuring 2x65 watt bulbs, 1 65w 12000k daylight bulb and 1 65 w actinic blub, with 2 led moon lights.I also am looking at and planing on ordering an in sump protien skimmer I was told that this would be enough equipment to run a reef tank, was i told right? also im looking on adding about 3 inches of live sand and about 40 lbs of live rock, but heres the problem im in college and dont have to much money so does anyone have any places where to bye live rock and sand cheap but still have good quality. thanks for you help , bye

[Samper]

Cuttingrass,

First off, a ten gallon sump isn't much and you may have a hard time finding a skimmer to fit in there. Red Sea and Aqua C both make decent hang on skimmers. I'd lose the wet dry filter, they're sort of outdated technology. Your lighting will be fine for keeping softies and lps corals. You may want a little more flow imo. The cheapest way to go for LS is to buy dry aragonite and seed it with live sand from someone elses healthy sandbed. For LR you can buy dry calcium based rock and seed it with a few choice pieces of nice quality LR. Take it slow, stick around and research everything
Good luck

[scubadude]

Hi Cuttingrass and welcome to RL

Ill just piggyback on what Samper said, Also do you have a stand for the tank and is it made to fit the 10g as a sump? How tall is it? The reason I ask is this will decide alot on how much height you can go with on fitting a skimmer in there. You could DIY a skimmer. Are you using an external overflow box? If you can post some pics and/or give us some dimensions, specs, it might help us determine more where you are at, and possibly some approaches.

[cuttingrass]

well tonight when i get off work ill take some measurements and post some photos, well if i can figure out how to post the photos that is,lol. thanks alot for your intrest in helping me out guys.

[Samper]

No problem man
stick around

[cuttingrass]

ok i took the pics and gave the measurements to go with them located right under the pictures in small black print. hope you can help. bye .


http://community.webshots.com/user/cuttingrass

[cuttingrass]

also i forgot to tell you that i am running an external overvflow box.

[Reefland]

Please note that the sand you have is not what we would consider livesand. This may have some bacteria in it but it does not contain polychaete worms and other infauna that makes a truly livesand bed. You should consider picking up a couple of pounds of collected livesand and also maybe a detritivore kit available online.

[cuttingrass]

i know its not real live sand. im using it and then im going to pick up about 5 pounds of real live sand. im just using the agra live as a base so i dont spend so much money.

[scubadude]

What are you using for a return pump(model and name), and how are you gonna plumb it?, returns?, or have you even gotten that far yet? I take it the right side of the 10g sump w/out the eggcrate is the skimmer area? If so what is the foot print? and also height from bottom of sump to clearance (bottom of main tank) Remember with basically any skimmer you are gonna need 2+ Inches for removal of your collection cup.