Setting Up 26g. Bowfront

[cds]

So I am starting to set up a 26g bowfront into a salt water live rock, live fish and maybe as time goes by add corals. Any advice or help would be appreciated. I have my substrate set up. I have 2 HOB filters, with the primary one being a C3 Fluval, the other one is an old whisper 30 that just has bio media in it.
 Where is a good place to get affordable live rock, what are some "unique" fish I could add and who to purchase. Can you bring live rock across the border etc. 
  Trying to keep the build as cheap as possible so what are some good save money secrets, where to look for people selling or giving things away cheap but reputable.
  All help appreciated 

[Che]

use kijiji for dryrock. you can find it for $1 a lbs, then you can scrub it and wash it. then buy a small amount of live rock to seed it. Also, if you plan on keeping corals, take your lighting into consideration. Fish and rock do not need fancy lights but the corals you plan on having will. Ebay LEDs and Flourecents work fine for most coral, but spend good money on the bulbs.

[Che]

i've heard good things about blackbox lighting you can buy on ebay. but have never used them.

[cds]

Thanks Che
 That advice will go along way in helping me start up the live rock and the lighting part always confused me so that helped as well

[seggsy]

I will give some of my findings specifically for coral, since that is what I have known:
- start with RODI water. I went without and had brutal algae issues. Then got RO water from a corner store for 2 years, now have an RODI unit. Prime is not enough
- get a protein skimmer. With a light fish load and minimal feeding, maybe not needed....but I know for coral it is necessary
- consider a GFO reactor - they aren't much money and I found it made a big difference
- I use Reef Crystals for salt - my corals are much happier when I do a 5-10% change a week. I can do monthly, but the corals don't like it
- use a refractometer to measure salinity (I used a float one and killed a bunch of stuff before finding out what I thought was 1.023 was 1.035!)
- my recipe for less algae issues: RODI water, water changes, new quality bulbs (if you do T5), not much lighting time (6-8 hours), underfeed fish

- as for startup, I bought 100lbs of live rock (couple bucks a pound)- took all the rock, sand, and water, threw it into my 75g and had no cycle.

[gabor129]

If you go with the base rock, I can give you a bunch, I think I still have 25 - 30 lbs hanging around! I might be able to drop some in my sump to seed it if you do not need it right of way! I can not say it for sure as I can not remember how much room I got in there! I could defenetly pull some smaller live rock out of there if you like to seed your tank that way!

[gabor129]

Oh I almost forget, I would pull all the sponges from the filters. In my experience, they produce way too much nitrates!

[cds]

Thanks Guys for advice, Gabe I would definetely take you up on the rock. I will pm you.

[Andre]

Only thing I will say to this topic is the tank itself
I had a bowfront 26g that cracked on me. The bottom pane of glass cracked right down the center.
Just wanted to mention that you may want to think how much weight you put onto that glass.
Structurally a bowfront is not as sound as a rectangular shape tank. Just wanted to point that out to you.

I'll never do another bowfront

Just my opinion

[cds]

Thanks Andre, I have had this tank for 15 years as a fresh water with minimal decoaration. You bring up a great point if adding some rock piles. Makes me think I should actually build my rocks to the sides so less weight to the middle, which I have seen some great hardscape done that wat
Happy New Year