55gallon

I never heard of cycling a tank in the dark. And you'll get algae anyway. It's curable.

You do honestly need a refractometer. You've had enough salinity adventures. A refractometer is a no-battery, nearly indestructible instrument that will save you its purchase price when you have to deal with fish in quarantine or make saltwater for a working tank.
 
My hydrometer seems to be working fine... And boiling the shell in lemon juiced killed everything on it including the aptasia.
 
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Added sand bed
 
Warning!! Boiling rock can be lethal (to you and your household). Have you checked your hydrometer against a calibrated refractometer? Thats would be the only way I would halfway trust a swing arm.
 
It was a seashell and yes I understand the danger of superheating a rock.... Thank you very much for your concern. :)
 
Good read... One of the first ones I read when I joined this forum. Again it was a seashell and I boiled it for five minutes. I guess I probably could had the fan on too. ;)
 
Hey, I'm allergic to all shellfish. I can't boil anything in my home or go bare handed in my tank. And, I lived on the eastern shores most of my life (ate oysters, crabs, lobsters, clams, etc.) Turned 25, juice from a shrimp got in my eyes. And, I spent time in the ER. Missed days at work. Now, I'm extra careful around shellfish. Love them, but love living more.
 
That sand bed seems very deep in the middle. I'd consider tanking it down to 1 or 1.5 inches deep across the tank. I'd also remove the two branching pieces of rock as they look out of place. That's really just a personal preference thing though. Otherwise I think the scape looks pretty good.

As for boiling rock or shells or whatever that has been in saltwater for any period of time, just don't do it. The risk isn't worth it. If there are just a couple zoas on it you could kill yourself, a family member or a pet. It's just not worth it.
 
I hope boiling it killed all of Aiptasia but I dought it. I have seen people try blow torch to remove them and fail, lol
 
Did a water test. Salinity@1.026+ (so I added fresh water), before adding fresh water ammonia was@2ppm, nitrate @0. Pods were sitting around like rats in a sewers last night, feasting on a torquous colored algae. They seemed very happy. Temp was kinda high, 82! Canopy must be aiding in heat retention.... Turned down then on heater in sump.
 
You shouldn't add a cleanup crew until your ammonia is zero.

Also, as for your hydrometer working fine, you really need to make sure. Before I had a refractometer I used 2 different hydrometers, one read 1.030 and one read 1.021. I got lucky in that it was actually 1.025 so both hydrometers were incorrectly reading.
 
I'm getting conflicting comments from several sources. As for now, I'm trusting what I see... I see healthy pods... Once I get lights over the tank the system should jump into hyper drive and from what I understand the cleaning crew will aid in the cycle and are hardy enough to handle the cycle.... Plus I didn't stay with all dry rock. There is mature live rock as well. I will look into getting better testers.
 
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