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Red Sea Max for freshwater fish?
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Posted by lesliew z7 NY (My Page) on Sun, Jun 24, 07 at 1:29
| Just bought the Red Sea Max, simply because I like the look, but I really don't want to start with saltwater fish - I will never succeed! Guy at the aquarium place said I was throwing out money if I was going to use the tank for freshwater, because so much of the cost of the tank was for the protein skimmer. He almost made me feel guilty.
Any opinions??? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Red Sea Max for freshwater fish?
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| I am not sure how much it cost, but I just looked at it on the RedSea website. It is really designed for a small reef, not just because of the protien skimmer ( not totally useless for FW) but the lighting, 1 55W 10000K and 1 55W blue atinic, is more for reef/live rock. My opinion is- Why not start with Salt Water? You seem to have a great starter set up for it. It is a little overkill for FW. Start the tank with some good quality Live Rock before adding fish to get it cycled. Once it has started cycling with the live rock add some appropriate sized fish and maybe some small corals and critters.
One of the biggest reasons FW is reccomended first is because of the equiptment expense. IMO a system as I have described, a FOWLR, (FOWLR = Fish Only With Live Rock) is actually easier in alot of ways then FW. It is far more expensive for quality marine sand and live rock, but you are 3/4 the way there in the expense department.
How it works is first you mix your water and add the live rock ( live rock has small critters on it along with coraline algae growth so therefore it is "live") some of the algae and small critters die and start to create ammonia which kicks off the cycle. The ammonia made in turn is food for the benificial bacteria to grow, as well as more algae and then the critters multiply again. Well close to that anyway without getting too in depth.
Other then that,for FW use, I would loose the one 55W bulb and blue atinic and only use the 10000K with some live plants. Well that's my 2 cents. |
RE: Red Sea Max for freshwater fish?
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| You are right. Waste for a freshwater setup, too chicken to try saltwater, so I am selling the whole setup and going with a 65 gallon ALl Clear setup for freshwater. Thanks for the input. |
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