Diary of my first saltwater tank...Awesome.

[Speakerman]

Aight guys thanks. I will keep that in mind next time. Last night I went ahead and added the salt. It should be just right if the directions on the bag were correct. I added 18 cups of salt for about 37 gallons of water...I

Then I put a block of frozen brine shrimp in there...

I'll tell you why I mixed the salt last...I had water in it and then put the sand in....But that sand was soooo dirty that it took me several hours to clean it. simultaneously syphoned water out as I pythoned water in.

I wasn't getting any water flow at all really so I got a big spoon and mixed the water around to get all the salt off the sand.

Today I am going to get my powerheads, install them and then let it churn. I think I also have a guy here in town that I can get some live rock from. I'm also going to get a hydrometer to check the gravity of the water....

Oh yeah and another thing I did was take an extra set of biomedia out of an established freshwater tanks. I figured I'd give it a try. It the bacteria didn't live, then I would get some ammonia...Plus that will give the bacteria some place to grow for now, as well as in the sponge of the skimmer.

Any other suggestions?

Here are some more pics. You can see in the earlier pics that when I started mixing the salt, the water had a certain point of buoyancy....It was really cool looking. A lot of the salt and the brine shrimp mess was just floating in a perfect line about 1/3 the way up the tank.

[SeeDemTails]

I would try to seed you sand bed with a scoop of LS from a reef tank at your LFS......that sand that is more expensivce is more expensive for a reason.

Like people have said above, if you want to be successful in SW, you cannot cheap out on anything.....

And before you buy a hydrometer to check you SG....save your money and buy a 40$ refractometer.

[roka64]

I agree with tails, this is the refracto I have:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113761

[SeeDemTails]

Originally Posted by roka64

I agree with tails, this is the refracto I have:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113761

Thats the one!


One of the best 40$ I spent on my tank

Also, buy a visi-therm stealth heater.....another great buy......1 degree accuracy...and get a coralife dig thermometer to go with it.

[Speakerman]

Aight cool, weel I just got a really cheap hydrometer and the water is perfect right now.

I will have to get one of those refractometers a little bit down the road.

I got a small power head just a little while ago and installed it.

I found a guy in town that is going to hook me up with tons of live rock, corals, and 2x96 w light strip.

I'm going to petsmart right now to get an xP1 and then install that.

I should be getting quite a lot of live rock by friday.

I've got one question though. The water is still pretty murky from the salt...Will that go away with time?

Thanks for the help guys.

[roka64]

Will that go away with time?

Yep, it is still a combo of mixing and the sand, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Speakerman]

Aight thanks for the help bro.

Here is a couple more pics with all the hardware installed. The only thing I am lacking now is the LR and the new light strip for it so I can grow corals.

I'm going to make some sort of background for it....Can anybody give me some good ideas or a creative background? All my freshwater tanks are simply blue.

[roka64]

creative background?

Lost City of Atlantis!

[Speakerman]

Okay here are my favorites. I am going to get a place down the street to blow one up and make it fit the back of my tank.

Which one would you choose for a background?

[angelscrx]

NUmber three is my favorite.