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ok so i am going to set up my 30 gallon as a reef tank after christmas, i have a few questions

- Live rock is so expensive, is there anyway to make youro wn live rock, say get one piece and add soem pieces of rocks around for a month and then will it become live?, also same for sand?

- for beginner corals ex.zoas and mushrooms and other, how much watts sohuld i have

- should i get a protein skimmer? any reccomendations for lower priceo ne but good quality

- i will be runnig a aqua clear seventy, shouldi jsut have the regular media in it

-what would u reccomend for power heads for the corals mentioned above

1. you can get dead rock and add a couple of pieces of live rock, yes the same with sand.

2. they can pretty much survive under any light but i would recomend a 150w mh if you can get your hands on one cheaper or some power compacts.

3. if you want air driven ones lee's are ok but not the best hopefully some one else can jump in on this one.

4. if you want you can have normal media in it but most people run carbon in it to soak up chemicals in the water.

5. alot of people like tunze powerheads but there really expensive if i were you i would use 2 1200 LPH powerheads on either side of the tank, n again some one will hopefully jump in.



rabbit

*yeah get some live rock and some dead rock, the dead rock will take a while to seed though so you dont want to get to crazy on stocking.

*im gunna be running my shroom reef under Normal output lights for a little while. so it can be down but more is always better.

*i dont personally use a skimmer, but then again i only have 2 clowns in a 60g tank. if your gunna use a skimmer just shop for the best you can find you really get what you pay for with skimmers

*I use a canister silter but swapped to better media, i got eheim pro filter media which is *meant* to hold alot more bacteria than normal bio balls. i got no carbon in canister but have a internal with some in it. Carbon is something alot of people only add when water gets a bit cloudy. i love carbon so it stays there

*2 1000L powerheads would do a good enough job, brands becomes a personal choice really i have 2 $30 1000L PH's and they have worked great for 6 months now compared to some people who pay way more for same flow rate.