saltwater 55g questions

[kaianuanu]

i have a few questions about starting a saltwater tank in a 55g.

1. do i need to have live rock if i use man-made filters instead of natural filteration?

2. what is the fastest method of cycling?

3. i want to have a sand bottom tank(no live rock), is this possible, if so how would it be achieved?

4. do i have 2 use some type of bacterial suplement be it live rock, live sand, or chemical(liquid) bacterial supplements?

[cocoa_pleco]

i have a few questions about starting a saltwater tank in a 55g.

1. do i need to have live rock if i use man-made filters instead of natural filteration?
Its possible, but LR-less tanks are not beginner friendly, harder to maintain, and not natural

2. what is the fastest method of cycling?
getting dead rock and letting it cure, or just get cured rock from the start

3. i want to have a sand bottom tank(no live rock), is this possible, if so how would it be achieved?
use live sand or aragonite, but LR IS RECOMMENDED

4. do i have 2 use some type of bacterial suplement be it live rock, live sand, or chemical(liquid) bacterial supplements?
If you use a balanced salt mix and do weekly water changes, you should have to add few dosings of chemicals, always test your levels though

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[Dave66]

1. No filtration is more natural and then live rock, and the presence of it plus a layer of live sand can, when the tank is mature, close the Nitrogen cycle.

2. There isn't one. A month to six weeks no matter what shortcut you try to use.

3. See number 1.

4. Not at all. The Live rock and sand will contain all the bacteria the tank will need.

5. Check my book list, particularly the salt water section.

Dave

[kaianuanu]

1. when you say lr less tanks does that apply even if you have live sand or other bacterial supplements

2. what do you mean by "letting cured rock die off"

3.could using man-made filteration, live sand, and other bacterial supplements be as easy as using LR

[cocoa_pleco]

sorry, screwed up on the die off thing, its been a long day. lol. like dave said, you should wait 6 months

You should always use LR, its the source of filtration and great source of marine life. If the price scares you, you can always get dead rock, which is about $1/lb. only thing is you have to cure it yourself (takes a few months)

Nothing will ever compete with LR's power, nothing i can think of to this date will do in a marine aquarium what live rock does

[kaianuanu]

could I just have a couple of pounds of lr in the back corners + a good man-made filter?

and for the easiest setups is man-made filteration out of the question?

oh, and what exactly does cure mean?

[cocoa_pleco]

easiest tank is using 1.5-2lbs/g LR. You can, however, use 0.5lbs-1lb/g LR and a man made filter

[kaianuanu]

i'm likin the 1/2-1lb. of LR + a power filter

and what does "cure Mean"

[cocoa_pleco]

cured is where the rock has life on it, and the critters can break ammonia down. LR also homes copepods which fish nibble on

[kaianuanu]

but won't i have to put it in the ocean to get those "critters" (not including corals and other inverts)