I'm in the process of getting my 55 reef/planted tank running. I went for as lowcost as possible when setting up the tank, using around 100pounds of dead sand and 20 of dry base rock. I added a couple pounds of LR to "liven" it up. It worked great. $400 bucks for a fully setup 55gallon reef is nice!
But it came at the cost of diversity. The local stores all have LR, but it doesn't have much in the way of hitchhikers. My biological filtration is fine, but I have seen no worms, dusters, stars, or anything but maybe a few 'pods. To tell the truth, those are my favorite parts of the reef. The fish and corals are there so my wife will let me keep spending on the bugs.
I looked into the "9 for 99" special from IPSF. Not too bad, it seems. I could get some gracilara (sp) and sargassum, which I wanted in my tank anyway, all kinds of little critters like bristleworms, micro stars and whatnot, amphipods, and even an anthelia frag. For 100 bucks with shipping included, this seems like a good deal.
Is it as good as it sounds?
But it came at the cost of diversity. The local stores all have LR, but it doesn't have much in the way of hitchhikers. My biological filtration is fine, but I have seen no worms, dusters, stars, or anything but maybe a few 'pods. To tell the truth, those are my favorite parts of the reef. The fish and corals are there so my wife will let me keep spending on the bugs.
I looked into the "9 for 99" special from IPSF. Not too bad, it seems. I could get some gracilara (sp) and sargassum, which I wanted in my tank anyway, all kinds of little critters like bristleworms, micro stars and whatnot, amphipods, and even an anthelia frag. For 100 bucks with shipping included, this seems like a good deal.
Is it as good as it sounds?
