[Venaman]

my friend wants a FO without live rock

is this harder at all?
because i know LR is a great biological filter im wondering if its that much harder without it.
thanks

[eses]

He will have to have some other biological filtration. DSB, or some kind of bio-ball setup in a wet/dry or over the back. Not harder, he just can't have as much of a bioload.

I can't really envision a tank FO or Reef that doesn't have LR though, what does he plan to use for decoration, pastic plants?

[Bughead]

I started out that way. I hadn't done any research and was really stupid when I went to the LFS and said I wanted a big salt water tank to go in the family room of our new house. They sold me a very expensive self contained wet-dry system. They had me put a two inch sand bed and about four decorative corals. My original plan was to have somebody come in and take care of the tank once a month. It didn't take me but a few days to realize I was going to become very passionate about this hobby and there was no way I was going to have somebody else come and mess with my tank.

Anyway, to make a long story the slightest bit shorter, it was only a short time before I started adding live rock. Then my nitrates went sky high and I fought with that for several months. Then I was told to go with more live rock and a deep sand bed and slowly remove the bio-balls. So I did all that. The bio-balls have been out for a year now, the nitrates are still off the charts. I totally hate this tank and now I'm in the process of upgrading it from a 100 to a 180-200------my way!

So if your friend has any inclination toward making this hobby an important thing in his life, discourage him from starting with a FO without natural biological filtration (live rock, deep sand bed).

[Venaman]

ive tried everything to get him to get live rock
trust me its not going to happen. .

but once he gets his first algae bloom or cyano or something he'll end up giving up because he is too cheap
he's going to be running his tank on a normal filtration (canister filter)
no bio filtration
no DSB

but what can you do. .

[fsa]

Venaman,
You don't need live rock to have a f/o only tank. It might be better to have it but you can have a f/o tank without it. It was that way for years. That is what I have. Yes, I do have plastic plants and a couple of bleached corals for decorations. My tank has a 4 inch plenum. Used to have an Emporer 280 filter until about 3 weeks ago when I put on an HOB skimmer. (didn't have room for both as it is a hex). I have no other filtration, just a couple of power heads for water circulation. I have 4 fish, cleaner shrimp, 5 or 6 snails, couple of hermit crabs and a fighting conch. I've thrown some caulerpa into the tank. I let it stay close to the top clinging to some of my plastic plants. I do regular weekly water changes. My tank is a 45 hex and I've had it set up this way for almost 2 years.
I think if he uses a filter similar to the Emporer that has a biowheel, he won't need much else for biological filtration if he keeps his fish load down.
I think his tank will do fine if he goes slow and keeps up with regular maintenance.

[Venaman]

alright thats cool