1) Is it possible to have just nomral rocks in the saltwater tank instead of live ones? i would want live sand...unless of course you can buy fake sand. Would that make anything any easier?
phil pl is right. You dont need live rock. It is beneficial though. You can use appropriate rock though and given that you desire to use live sand it will quickly be colonized with benifical bacteria. It might take a long, long time for coralline algae to start growing on it though if a few of the clean up crew has some coralline algae on thier shell. This can be remedied by adding a few nuggets of live rock purchased locally and added to the tank. The benefit of coralline algae is that where it grows its hard for algae to get a foot hold. It looks nice too.
2) How do you know how much of the aquarium salt to add?
Follow the directions on the Salt mix. They are usually pretty idiot proof, even I cant screw it up, and that says a lot right there! It may vary a bit as for the amount per a gallon but generaly its somewhere in the neighborhood of a half cup per a gallon as previously mentioned. Remember that the water temp will cause variations in specific garvity, so make sure you test the water at the required temp to get a accurate reading before adding to the tank. You will also want to let it set over night before using it as freshly mixed SW can be a bit on the caustic side when "just mixed".
3) I heard you need a skimmer? do i NEED one or is it just recomended?
In a tank under 20 gallons you wont need a Skimmer. You will need to do frequent small water changes. As a side note...Those who keep corals use skimmers to maintain pristine water quality due to corals intollerance of "dity" water, which can still appear gin clear. For those keeping fish only a Skimmer is highly recommended anyways depending on the bio-load in the tank to remove the heavy nutrient loads from feeding the fish in the tank and all of the watse the fish will in turn generate. This keeps the water within satisfactory parameters longer and it will hopefully remove enough nutrients from the water to prevent excessive algae growth in the tank. A 1 galon water change a week should be suffcient in a six gallon tank.
4) Lets say all i wanted in my 6 gallon was 1 clown fish...what do i need to do?
I would suggest a bigger tank. Thats a pretty small fsh but it wont stay small long even if its a False Perc/True Pec which I believe is the smallest of this species. It can attain a size of 3 inches in captivity and generally a 20 gallon or bigger tank is recomended. Now many reefers get away with one in a 10 gallon but trying that and being successful at it in the long term is something better attempted by a more experienced reefer. Thats not to say it cant be done as someone out there will always prove you wrong at least once, Im just suggesting that its not a good idea. There are some smaller more appropriate fish for a 6 gallon tank.
1)is there anything else i should know if i wanted that 6 gallon?
Im sure there is but we could all author a novel on all the possibilities. If you got some more specific questions please ask. Telling us what all you do have for your tank would help too.
2)Whats the Hydometer for anyways?
This is a device that you will need to use to measure the specific gravity of the SW. You have the swing arm type which are pretty cheap and reasonbly functional. You have a floating thermometer looking one thats probably some what more accurate consistently and a tad more expensive. Then there is the ultimate, a refractometer. These are a bit pricey and are the most accurate. With fish only, the cheaop swing arm type if rinsed after use will be plenty accurate enough as long as you make sure there are no air bubbles on the arm when testing the water.
3)Is there a salt mix you would recomend?
They are all about the same and most come from the same supplier and are just slightly different in composition depending on the brand. If you use one of the major brands you should be just fine in a FO tank. Now if you were keeping SPS corals or Clams I would suggest some of the higher end brands which contain a tad bit higher calcium and trace element levels.
4)is there a hydrometer you would recomend?
See the paragraph a couple of paragraphs above.
HTH's in getting you started. If you have any questions or any gray areas that need some clearing up please ask first! Im sure all of us here would much rather have you ask a gazillion questions than to have to respond to a "911 thread about" fish dying or some other nightmare. The way I see it, is...if you fail then we too have most likely failed as well. JMHO.
