noob arrival... whats up guys...

[GaryP]

wow guys, definitely lots of good info in those replies!
i did manage to get ahold of some live sand at the fish store yesterday. i went to fish addicts at the advice of witcap4u. those guys were very helpful in helping me get started.

Yea, Felipe and Sarah are good folks.

as careful as i was, the sand went everywhere and im staring at a cloudy tank. i figured i would add all the sand now to avoid clouding the tank later on. its been roughly 16 hrs and its still kinda cloudy. i can see roughly 2 inches into the aquarium but thats about it lol.

That's fine, just part of the process. It will clear up. With the non-live sand, rinse it in a bucket with a hose first to get the "dust" out before adding it.

edit - i figured this one out already V

Good for you. You are already ahead of 95% of the newbies.

quick question about the sand. i purchased one bag of the live sand, fiji something rather. anyhow, the amount of sand that i purchased was not enough to completely fill the bottom of the aquarium. i plan on getting another bag or 2 to square that off. im assuming that i dont need another bag of live sand right?-as i could just use the cheaper non live sand? i like the idea of the live sand bacteria helping out with cleaning but im wondering if the bacteria from the live sand would grow into the non live sand? i dont know if that makes sense on paper. kinda like live rock grows onto dead rock?

"Dead" sand is fine. Like I said earlier, rinse it before adding it to minimize how cloudy it will make your tank. There is some good stuff in that live sand and it will spread to the new sand. You might also want to get a cup full of sand from some other folks to help add bio-diversity to the sand.

concerning the live rock...do you think it is safe to add at this time? i have this underlying idea in my head that since i have tap water in there, the water is cloudy, and i have no idea about the levels in the water(ph, nitrate, nitrite) that i would kill the live sand and live rock. i plan on going to pollys today to pick up some sand and test kit and can get some live rock too.

You can put it in as soon as you finish adding the sand so the live rock doesn't get buried or covered in sand.

i can already tell this is going a attention-intense project for me. not a bad thing, i kinda like this whole elevated feeling of responsibility lol...micro managing at its finest!! :P

Welcome to my world. Its definitely a little past keeping a goldfish in a bowl. It does require some work and commitment, especially in the beginning. You are definitely getting off to a good start. Keep it up. I like to tell folks that we are managing the environment of our aquariums. Some folks kid themselves into thinking that an aquarium is like an ocean in mininature. Well, in some ways that's true, but what mother nature does with huge volumes and surface area we have to do with chemical additives, work, and equipment. At best, we are just getting close to approximating what is happening on an oceanic level. Keep up the good work.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Its how we do our best learning. The best we can hope for is that our critters will survive the worst of our mistakes. If you don't make mistakes you will be the first in the hobby to do so.