new setup. what should i upgrade on my innovative marine nuvo 38

[Omri]

Hey there, new to the reefing community. Finally decided on a new tank. my first reef - innovative marine nuvo 38. Going to pick it up and set up tomorrow. looking to make some essential and great upgrades and i need some advice.

looking for advice on lighting. i think I'm going to do LED. Any suggestions on good companies in the US. My brothers currently in china and has access to insanely cheap LED's, so i may ask him to get me some good bulbs if i can figure out what to ask for. What should i request in terms of bulbs, wattage, colors, and other specs?

also should i get any specific brand of live sand? looking for only a thin decorative layer and even considering passing on the sand.

in terms of live rock, I'm a little impatient and really want to buy rock completely covered in coralline algae. is this a bad idea?

 

[AQUARIUM X-CELLENCE]

Hey,
I'll be happy to help you with what ever
Questions you may have.. First things first
What are your dementions of your new
Tank? Are you familiar with maintaining
A reef system ?

 

[rbtwo4]

For LEDs u can talk to Wingo on here. He's pretty good with that stuff. Is ur tank reef ready?

 

[akma]

I'm not a big fan of leds. But for the sand my new favorite is tropic eden mini flakes. I used to use pink fiji on all my tanks, but the tropic eden is much better. It's clean and WHITE.
Lately i've really started liking the "real reef live rock." It's man made, but the shape of the rocks that i've seen are great and porus. Plus, they have the rock dyed so looks like coralline. If you go that route I think liveaquariua has the best prices at the moment.

 

[Omri]

Ok thanks for replying to the thread.

http://innovative-marine.com/nuvo-aquarium/mini38-black-stands.html

Not sure how to paste the link, but above is the aquarium I'm picking up later today, in black.

I know it's aiming high for a newbie, but I'm very responsible when it comes to cleaning, monitoring and maintaining my freshwater tanks, so Im going to just go for it.

I'll be starting with easier to maintain soft corals for the first few months and slowly seqwaying into sps.

First questions are about live rock or dead rock? I like the look of rock with coralline already growing on it so I would like to skip the 10-12 week cycling process to get there but I'm afraid of critters and unwelcome guests coming into my tank on live rock. I've seen some scary threads on that type of stuff.
Is there a store whose live rock I can trust is coming from their established tanks without unwelcomed guests?

Also, should I mix my own water the first time, amending it with salt and other nutrients or should I just buy waters? 38 gallons sounds like a hell of a lot to carry and probably super $$$.

Lastly, what kind of sand? I'm looking only for decorative sand or even considering no sand at all. Thoughts?

Any other advice for day one setup would be appreciated.
What test kits should I buy? I already have the basics from my freshwater systems?

How soon can I put a guest or two in the tank and should I start with the fish or the soft corals?

Thanks in advance

 

[rookie07]

Love the Tank! Its fairly new, so there are not many upgrades that people have experimented with. You can check reefcentral.com, but I do not know of anyone with that tank....but I have considered switching myself!
Your tank will cycle regardless of if you use live sand/rock or dead sand/rock. With that said, you can have a fairly small/short cycle if you use living sand/rock.

You can buy live rock from any store, but you should expect many hitchhikers (some good and some bad).

I suggest you wait on livestock for a month or two while you watch carefully at night to see if there are any nasty hitchhikers if you go the live sand/rock path.

The best way to do it is to buy dead (but clean) rock (like marcorocks.com) and dead (but new/clean) sand and wait the 6-8 weeks it takes to cycle the tank properly. You never know what hitchhikers you pick up from live rock, and you can do a much better job of aquascaping if you do it with marcorocks. If I did not have livestock I would break down both my tanks and start over using marcorocks and sand (I would also build a rock wall to cover the overflow).

For LEDs, I am a big fan of AI LEDs as they work well, look nice and are fairly cheap (in regards to other quality LED units). There are better units out there, but not for the price in my eyes.


Best of luck.

 

[Omri]

thanks for all of your advice! my tank is officially purchased and aquascaped! got the black nuvo 38, and the "real reef live rock." It's man made ones akma recommended - thanks! had quite the malfunction earlier today though - after filling the entire tank, i realized it wasn't leveled and wanted to do things right, so i figured id just empty the water out while i levels the tank. i stupidly emptied the display tank out first and left the back compartments full of water and their seal broke :/ i quickly emptied the back compartments and ran to the local fish store to buy some silicone and reseal it. I hope i did a good job and won't have any problems down the line. any thoughts?

also, i passed on the sand for now. i actually think i might keep it this way. I'm going to try and cover the entire floor with some sort of coral. kind of making a carpet of corals and mixing some cool pops of color along the way. not sure if that works though.

lastly, i havent gotten any lights yet. i looked for wing. dont seem to know how to get a hold of him and i dont want to spend 500-1000 bucks on a lighting fixture. any advice on somewhere good to buy lighting for cheap.

i have some par-38 led light bulbs that are mixed blue and white. can i hang two of those from the ceiling and call it a day? i get those for about 50$ a bulb in the city and can attach them to a cool lighting fixture i already have.
the box says there are 15 blu/white leds
15 watts of power
1500 lumens
base e 27.
would 2 of those be enough to grow corals in my tank and if not, i can get bulbs w different wattage.

 

[skene]

Does the IM not come with its own light? Have you even thought to try it out before you try and see how those really are before you go and use another brand.