I would personally start it the same as I would start a reef. The basics are the same:
75-90 lbs of Live Rock (depending on how "full" you want the tank to look, and how many hiding spaces you want the fish to have)
4-6" Deep sand Bed. This is great for denitrification. Completes the nitrogen cycle, converting nitrates into nitrogen gas. Make sure youuse oolite live sand to have the correct grain size and the appropriate bacteria and microfauna to benefit the sandbed.
A quality protein skimmer
I would set up the sand bed and rock and let that run for a couple weeks until I started to see a good pod (reef bugs) population and some coraline algae forming on the glass. I would test Alkalinity and Calcium religously to make sure they stayed in their parameters of 400-450 ppm Calcium and 8-12 dKH Alkalinity.
Once Calcium and Alkalinity stabilized (there might be a gentle flux in calcium because of the coraline algae growth) I would test all my parameters: Calcium, Alkalinity, pH, Nitrates, Nitrites and Ammonia. If everything is going good, I might add my first fish.
What kind of fish are you thinking?
And Welcome to the Forum!
75-90 lbs of Live Rock (depending on how "full" you want the tank to look, and how many hiding spaces you want the fish to have)
4-6" Deep sand Bed. This is great for denitrification. Completes the nitrogen cycle, converting nitrates into nitrogen gas. Make sure youuse oolite live sand to have the correct grain size and the appropriate bacteria and microfauna to benefit the sandbed.
A quality protein skimmer
I would set up the sand bed and rock and let that run for a couple weeks until I started to see a good pod (reef bugs) population and some coraline algae forming on the glass. I would test Alkalinity and Calcium religously to make sure they stayed in their parameters of 400-450 ppm Calcium and 8-12 dKH Alkalinity.
Once Calcium and Alkalinity stabilized (there might be a gentle flux in calcium because of the coraline algae growth) I would test all my parameters: Calcium, Alkalinity, pH, Nitrates, Nitrites and Ammonia. If everything is going good, I might add my first fish.
What kind of fish are you thinking?
And Welcome to the Forum!