Just starting have questions

[cusin]

Let me tell you about the set up first that I am planing, also this is my first salt water tank. I want to use a 55 gal. tank. I plan on starting with fish only, live sand, and a power filter. I plan on later adding live rock, lights, power jets, and a sump system...as I get the money and experience. At the moment I am trying to find a used tank maybe with some of the stuff with it.
Is there any other way to get live sand instead of buying it from a fish store...any other brands? Second what about lighting for fish only...is the stock lights okay? Any useful advice you can give me would be great.

thanks,
Matt

[Sarmo]

hi Matt and welcome to reefland. for fish only, your stock light will be fine. as you progress in the hobby you will have to decide what corals you want to keep and they will determine your lighting needs. i know i spent way to much money on lights because i changed what i wanted and had to upgrade lighting again and again.

as far as live sand, what i would do is get aragonite sand (what ever size you like, but smaller grain sizes seems to be less of a nutrient sink) and then get a piece of live rock to "seed" the sand. you are probably going to end up with some live rock eventually, so save the money on "live sand" and just get a piece or two of live rock now. i would bet the cost of dry sand and live rock is less that live sand. if you decide you don't want rock now then i would go with one bag of live sand and the rest dry. the bacteria that you want from live sand will grow if you start slow with only one small fish or by just feeding an empty tank.
live rock will have other small creatures like pods and even possibly corals growing on them.

most important is to be patient and get water test kits.... good luck