new tank

[paul wh]

hi all after months of study on here im reading myself for the new tank its 130 gl ok first up im still not sure on thinkness on sand base and amount of live rock
on the sand front is 1 inch enough or should i look to go deeper
on the rock side the suppliers recon 1kg to 10 lt of water (600) appox so 60kg of rock which does not seem much (how ever costs enough)
also do i reduce the rock to the displacement of water
on top of that can i add more rock at a later date
then about the clean up squad how many boys ang girls should i be looking for for a 131 gl tank
cheers paul

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

Hi paul. Congratulations on the new tank. The sand bed depth is usually a personal preference. If you plan on keeping burrowing animals (gobies, pistol shrimp, some species of wrasse, etc...), a deeper sand bed would be better. Say, at least 2 inches. If you wish to maximize the ability of dentrification, an even deeper sand bed would be needed ( at least 5 inches). I have about a 2 inch bed in my tank. The general rule about live rock is 1-2 lbs per hallon of water volume. Much depends on how heavy the planned bioload is going. If you plan on having lots of livestock, have more rock. I have 1.5 lbs of rock per gallon in my tank. If you went with 1.5 lbs per, you would need about 195 lbs. As far as the size of a clean up crew. That depends on what types of snails, crabs ( i dont personally care for crabs ), etc.. there's lots of websites that sell clean up crews and many of them give an idea of how many to have per gallon/ gallons. Just dont get too many as they may end up starving, which could end up as a mass death and possibly sending your tank into a cycle . I think i have about 120 snails in my 75 gallon ( cerith, astrea and nassarus). HTH.

[Reefing Madness]

hi all after months of study on here im reading myself for the new tank its 130 gl ok first up im still not sure on thinkness on sand base and amount of live rock
on the sand front is 1 inch enough or should i look to go deeper
Nope, 1" is fine.

on the rock side the suppliers recon 1kg to 10 lt of water (600) appox so 60kg of rock which does not seem much (how ever costs enough)
also do i reduce the rock to the displacement of water
60kg of Live Rock is about right. No need to reduce for displacement, the more you have the better your filtration. Thats about 132lbs for a 130g tank, and thats right at 1lb per gallon. I advise 1.5lbs per gallon.

60on top of that can i add more rock at a later date
Yup sure can.

then about the clean up squad how many boys ang girls should i be looking for for a 131 gl tank
Your choice here.
Aquarium Algae Reef Cleaner Packages: Algae Eating Fish and Detritus Feeders for Saltwater Aquariums

cheers paul

Hope this helps.