New aquarist

[AxiomOfthruth]

Hello I traded a 90 gal tank for a 150 gal drilled tank with a stand [IMG][/IMG], sump, pump, pluming, and a broken coralife skimmer. I have never had a drilled tank or worked with salt water before and wanted to ask a bunch of questions at once to see how far along I can get in my understanding of things.

In my picture the sump has bio balls which I know I should go ahead and get rid of but I wanted to know any other changes I can make to improve its functioning and the benefit it can provide to my tank.[IMG][/IMG]

I also wanted to know if I should use any kind of sealant on the plumbing fixtures as they use a threaded screw in system, and if this kind of pluming can be made to run silent or if I would need to modify it in anyway.[IMG][/IMG]

I'm hoping to turn this in to a reef tank so I know I will need about a pound of rock per gal and I was hoping to find some help in doing this as cheaply as possible. I would also like some help understanding what kind of sand bed would be best as well as what order I should get things such as lights, skimmer, RO/DI, CUC, Coral, and fish.

O yes one last thing I wanted to make an aqua-scape like this one[IMG][/IMG] and wanted to know if it would be possible in my tank which measures 72x18x24

Thanks in advance for all the help

[charsifer]

That is some very nice aquascaping!!! where can I find out more about aquascaping?

[AxiomOfthruth]

I found that picture looking through forums trying to find aquascapes that I liked, as for general info about aquascaping this is a good site http://www.h2oplusomething.com/index...ping&Itemid=64

[AxiomOfthruth]

You would also do well to look at youtube videos of others doing aquascaping to see more of the step by step of it all. BRS has one or two videos about cutting rock that are a good place to start.
Now I'm probably going to spend the rest of the day looking at and planning aquascapes again thanks for that

this is a good long forum thread on the topic you might like
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...-rockwork.html

[AxiomOfthruth]

I'm thinking of going with LEDs for my lighting to help avoid needing a chiller does anyone know if their are any advantages besides easy programability to buying premade LED units over doing DIY setups?

[AxiomOfthruth]

Ok so I'm going to be getting a nac 9 skimmer and I'm thinking of going with some Chinese made LEDs for about 250 a panel. does anyone know what water level I should have in my sump to help the skimmer function at its best?

[Fretfreak13]

For aquascaping things like that, you normally need to glue the rocks together using some form of epoxy or gell super glue. They make a reef epoxy special for it that dries purple like coraline algea, so it blends in very nice. You could definetly do something like that, just glue the rocks the way you want them so they don't fall and crack your glass/smash coral/fish, etc.

[AxiomOfthruth]

my two concerns with the aquascape that I want are that the picture looks like its from a deep tank and that I might some how mess up my water flow since I dont really know what I'm doing.