A few general questions

I believe it is $0.25 per gallon. Well after you put sand and your rock in your tank will be less than 55gal. I personally keep two 50gal containers full. One is my RO/DI and one is premade salt water. You are certainly going to need extra RO for topping off your tank. You will need to top your tanks off daily to keep your salinity stable and compensate for the evaporated water. So you will want a tleast an extra 5-10 gallons laying around for this purpose.
 
Do you think I should leave the back of the aquarium stand open? Since the glass is tempered, I won't be drilling into it. I don't think I would have drilled into it either way.

Also I've seen a few videos where the top of the stand was open and when they went into the stand you could see the sand under it. Would that also be beneficial? I don't really know what you should be looking for in the bottom of the sand, or if looking at it would help at all.
 
Sorry for the late reply. Drilling isn't hard though it can be stessful but unless you are going to setup for a sump it would be pointless to drill.
It doesn't really matter if the bottom of the stand is open or closed. It doesn't do anything other than save the company money becasue they can use less wood.. Do which ever you want as long as the plastic frame on the tank is supported.Make sure to level your stand and tank.
 
My stuff finally got here yesterday. I'm really excited about the rock. I Got 2 REALLY big pieces and then 6 more medium ones. The only question is what on earth do I do with all the little pieces that chipped off and are on the bottom of the box. Can I do something with that or should I just throw it out?
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awesome, looks like some nice pieces. he irregular pieces should fit together nicely. Shouldn't look like a pile of rocks. I keep all my small pieces to use for coral mounts.
 
Hopefully I can start my cycling by Monday. Gotta finish the stand over the weekend and aquascape. I'll let it cycle and probably throw out the water and cycle it again just for the practice before I throw in the live rock.
 
Certainly post pics once the stand is skinned. It is always exciting to see new setups.

Honestly there is no use in cycling twice because is don't really work that way. Once your cycle is done your beneficial bacteria will exist in your rock and sand bed. So unless you dry out the sand and rock the bacteria will still exist even if you swap all the water. One helpful hit will be if you haven't purchased your skimmer yet and want to start your tank it might be helpful to do larger sized water changes than the typical 10% weekly.

Keep us updated!
 
Ok so now I have another question (Ah sorry I have soooo many.) Should I cycle my tank before or after I have live rock/sand? I'm not sure if adding the rock and sand will screw up a completed cycle, but on the other hand I worry that It will kill any beneficial hitchhikers if I put them in pre-cycle. And do you know if Fish and Phipps has any of either in stock?

I only need 10-15lbs of both and looking around online the shipping is just going to kill me.
 
Ray should have a few pieces of rock and may have a bag of live sand, just ring him up. And as much as I hate to mention them Stelas carries a bag from time to time. Petco almost always carries a bag of the sand. You only need one small bag. As to whether the rock or sand will screw up your cycle really depends on how you go about it. If you were to cycle your tank then order live rock/sand offline it could affect your cycle. The reason is because they will not ship the rock in water as it would cost a fortune to ship. Problem is without water a lot of life will begin to die on the rock so when you add it to your system, you will be adding a large amount of decaying matter and that will cause some problems. This is why you can cycle a tank with live rock . If you get some rock from an individuals pre-existing system you should have no problem. You should have no problem just keeping the rock moist from Rays to your house.

I'm sure that a few thing on your live rock may suffer during the cycle but I am just guessing that it would be minimum. The main thing you are after on the rock/ sand is the bacteria and algae, it should be just fine through the cycle and should even help establishing a healthy bacteria colony.

So the short answer is I "personally" would add the live rock and sand when you setup the tank to help establish your bacteria. Another helpful tip is, if you have a light, to add a handful of cheato. As it grows it will help combat the algae, by removing excess nutrients form the water. It will grow and once your cycle has finish you can find a way to secure it in your display, throw it away or give it to another aquarist.

Don't worry about the questions as I enjoy it. I always feel like I'm shooting down peoples idea when I have to explain that the way they are going about something may not be the best method. The ultimate problem is besides the few basics there isn't just one way to do things. You can find many examples on this site of people doing unconventional methods and having great success. I would say they are fewer than the folks keeping to the standard methods. But without experimentation the hobby will never progress. So keep the questions coming just know I'm not the know everything person but I try to do lots of research and try to keep thing as simple as possible.

later
Mitch
 
I'll call him up on Monday. Going to go see what we can do about water today. We went to Cruces last week and I picked up a test kit and a hydrometer and a big bucket of salt. I think it's 160 gallons and I don't know if I really will ever use that much before it goes bad, but I bought it anyway.

The stand is almost done which is nice, and I should have my tank set up by the end of the day.

And it's a good thing you enjoy questions because I have more (:

What kind of fish are notorious jumpers and should I buy a mesh cover or something to keep them from jumping? I remember when I was little, I had 3 fish jump out of my tank when we were gone. Came back and they had dried onto the carpet.
 
The bucket should be fine for a long time. Probably 50 gallons to start and 5 gallons weekly water changes the bucket will last about 5 1/2 months. That is if you don't encounter any issues. Dissolution is the solution so there are alot if instances where the best course of action will be to up you water changes to correct some parameter. Just remember to keep the lid tight on the bucket to prevent moisture from collecting. If it gets alot of moisture in it you will have to chisel it because it will clump together.

The typical jumpers are probably gobys and wrasses but any fish can get spooked and try to flee the scene. You can make a very effective and inexpensive mesh top. Just get the screen kits from the home supply stores but instead of using screen, which will block too much light, get bird netting. It is plastic and is more open and shouldn't melt or block much light. I probably have a bunch of the netting left if you decide to go that route. It comes in a big roll which you won't even use a 10th of. Nice thing is you can make it fit into the plastic rim on the aquarium so the top of your tank will be flush. You can also go around the plumbing for filters.
 
That's good to know because a goby is one of the things I would just love to have. (I really enjoy the goby/pistol pair) As for right now we're using the leftover paneling and setting it on top of the tank but that won't last forever.

I found an LED on sale (like 60$ or something) and I couldn't resist so I got one of those with my bulkheads.

Also, how many Zoa's would you recommend putting in a tank? And should I buy some sort of additive or supplement before I put them in?
 
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I guess the first question is I thought you were not drilling your tank so I'm curious what the bulkhead is for?
Next question would be do you have enough light for Zoas? $60 seems awfully cheap for LEDs, so I'm assuming they are only 1w LEDs and not enough light for corals, only for visual. What brand and model is the LED unit?
If you have enough light then there isn't a specific amount of zoas. I would stress that you should start slow and I would buy a few small frags to try out. I wouldn't spend tons of cash on a large colony or a lot of frags if you are not sure your tank is ready.

There are a lot of different additives but none absolutely needed for Zoas. You also need to be careful if you decide to add any supplements to your systems most can cause major problems if overdosed. I mistakenly dosed too much Bionic two part solution a few weeks ago and lots several pieces of coral and my tank is just now starting to get back to normal. I don't use many supplements at all. I only use two part now and I'm switching to Kalkwasser within the next week but I try to stay away from most of the others because they are expensive and complicate things. Just starting out your tank should be fine as long as you keep up with your maintenance.
Also make sure your tank has fully cycled before adding any coral.
 
I think the corals will be going in last. I was looking somewhere where I think you got 1 polyp frags at a time which seems to be a pretty good idea because that way if I kill it, I haven't wasted a whole ton of money on it.

And it's not a bulkhead, it's power head. I'm never going to remember all these names of things. either way it has suction cups.
 
Ok so, Now I've been well set up! (for now) I got 20lbs of live sand from Stella's, because Ray did not have any, and Stella's did. Then Ray got me some very nice things and I ended up spending waaaaaaay more money that I should have. I got a nice Double bright, i think MH light, 15lbs of Live rock, glass cover for my tank, and he was nice enough to throw in a bottle of Kent Purple Tech (: I would post pictures but all you would see is a big brown cloud. I am very excited though and thoroughly enjoyed Ray. I thought he was a very nice, knowledgeable person.
 
I've never heard of a double bright MH light. Did Ray order it for you. Double Bright is the model of Marinelands LED lights. Is that what you got?? And you may want to get use to spending too much. I've been spending too much since I started this hobby.

A heads up though you may not be able to use that glass top. Cetainly not if you the light you purchased is a metal halide. The glass top is going to trap heat in and raise the temperature your you water to unsafe levels. Certainly keep an eye out for that.

Give your tank a few days and the cloud will settle, good to hear you are starting things. Exciting!!!!
Now you've meet Ray you can see why I purchase from Stelas Last.

Later
Mitch
 
I'm not sure what the light is, it looks like one of those fluorescent lights from a work shop. All the box says is "double bright"
 
Ok, so, this morning, I took a look in my tank and saw a completely empty hole in the back of the tank. Some time in the week, my powerhead slipped off the wall and blew sand everywhere.

While moving my sand around, it sort of raised 2 more questions.
1. I pulled my T-10(that's what it is, I found it in tiny text on the bottom of the box!) light off and the white bulb fell right out. I realize I'd been using my blue light only for who knows how long, probably since we brought it home.

Will that have screwed up my cycle?

and 2. I was scooping sand around and it sort of feels a little barren sand-wise, so I was thinking of buying a bag of actual live sand, with the water and all of that and was wondering if that would screw up my cycle too?

What I tested this morning on day 6, were

Phosphates: 0
Nitrate: 0.25
Nitrite: 0.5
Ammonia 0.25
 
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Ok 1 more, sorry.

My power head dropped again, I'm gunna have to find a way to stop that. I think what's happening is sand is getting in the cups and unsticking them.

But it kicked up some sand in the corner and my water turned this funky, almost bright green.
hwzqmt.jpg


Should I be concerned? Do I need a clean-up crew?
 
If it was a mature tank I'd be more concerned as you could possibly expose some nasties hiding in the sand bed. I would give it a day to settle down and smooth the sandbed back down and use the powerhead to blow it off your rock. You might have to find another method of securing your powerhead. Those suction cups always fail. You may have to purchase a magnetic mount if one is available or if you are crafty you may might make one.

What kind of power head is it? Brand? I could tell you or find another mount if one is out there.
 
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