Hi everyone, Im getting back into the aquarium hobby after a 6ish year break, and I have a few questions about getting resetup and what, if anything has changed in 6 years. I have a 75g tank that ill be picking up tomorrow, and I own a largish trickle filter, an old light fixture and some other odds and ends of equipment.
The plan has been to start the tank with a mix of aragmax/live sand, and some live rock, and use the trickle filter(yes I understand they are nitrate traps). Once the tank is cycled then to run it as a fish only with reef safe fish until such time as the lighting, and lack of rockwork can be corrected to switch over to a full reef, removing the bio balls from the filter at that time.
Equipment will be: 75g tank with overflow box to wet/dry tricklefilter-sump, DIY protien skimmer, 2 x 175w metalhalide lights (will need to rebuild canopy for 48" tank) current bulbs are old and the spectrum is shot, but I was planning to use them on the fish only set up as is until I can do a bulb replacement and maybe add some actinics.
Questions:
1. Would I be better off not using filter media at all, and if so would a 45lb box of live rock plus an inch or so of mixed aragamax/aragalive sand be enough bio filter (with skimmer) to handle the tank fish only until more rockwork could be added.
1a. I found
Marcorocks tonight, he sells dry fiji rock, I cant see any reason why his rock wouldnt recolonize over time and become very clean live rock. Does anyone have any experience with his product or a strong feeling one way or the other on it, It looks to be a cheap way to put a high volume of rock in the tank quicker.
2. Will using the old halides while the tank is set up fish only be inviting issues for later? At this point they are noticeably dimmer and putting out more yellowish light than new bulbs would be, will this cause major algae issues?