Maybe setting up a saltwater tank?

[FishandPotterFreak]

Soooo I finally saved up all my birthday money! CHI-CHANG!
Sorry Im super pumped!
Im 13 so bear with me here.
And the questions begin.
I have a 30 gallon tank with the light and powerfilter. I think Im going to start off with a FOWLR tank. I plan on going to petsmart tomorrow and picking up some supplies, such as:
Aqueon circulation pump (500 or 700? Any ideas? And how many?)
A hydrometer
API test kit
Aragonite sand
Instant ocean salt
Then I plan on getting 5 pounds of live rock and 25 pounds of dry rock in a couple days at my LFS. Anything I have left out?
My main questions are about the water. I don't plan on getting an RO/DI unit anytime soon, so until then where do I get the water from? I mentioned distilled water to my mom and she said thats what you can buy at the grocery store. Is that correct? Do you fill up buckets with that type of water then mix it with salt and put it in the tank to get started? Or can I mix it up in the tank to start off? If you cant already tell, Im pretty confused about the whole water situation. LOL!
Soooo many questions!

 

[Mrc8858]

You can get the water from Walmart and for the first mix you could do in your tank as long as there is nothing alive in there yet. Fowlr tanks should be 10-30x your tank volume in gph for flow so in a 30 you'll want 300-900 gph moving in the tank all together. I'd stay in the high end so I'd go 2 nano 425s. Also I'd ditch the hydrometer and get a refractometer but other then that you sound like you are on the right track

 

[FishandPotterFreak]

Thank you soo much!
Do you have any good stocking suggestions?
I love gobies, so is it possible to have an all goby tank?
I was thinking of doing this:
1 firefish
1 watchman goby and Randalls pistol shrimp
1 golden sleeper goby
Any other ideas? Im open to anything!

 

[Beengirl]

I would ask at your LFS if they sell RO water. A lot of LFS do, they just don't advertise it, ya gotta ask. Mine sells it for 0.25/g and another for 0.39/g. I think that's cheaper than Walmart distilled.

 

[obscurereef]

Sounds like a good stock list. Maybe a black (or orange) clownfish, if you like them? Or Banggai cardinal (even though they are nocturnal and don't do much)? Pretty exciting. Can't wait to see it up and running!

 

[Beengirl]

Orange striped cardinals are pretty. Love my skunk cleaner shrimp. Yellowfin flasher wrasse are colorful. There are some small blennies, like the bicolor blenny that are really cute.

 

[Pufferlove]

Maybe a clown goby

 

[FishandPotterFreak]

So I finally took the plunge.
I started 6 days ago! Wooo!
I have tested twice since then, the first time:
PH: 7.4
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
Then the second time:
PH: 8.2
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
So when will my cycle start? I have 14 pounds of LR and 7 pounds of base rock. I also have 30 pounds of sand. All my equipment is working well, by the way(;

 

[Kirky88]

So I finally took the plunge.
I started 6 days ago! Wooo!
I have tested twice since then, the first time:
PH: 7.4
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
Then the second time:
PH: 8.2
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
So when will my cycle start? I have 14 pounds of LR and 7 pounds of base rock. I also have 30 pounds of sand. All my equipment is working well, by the way(;

Your cycle will start when an ammonia source is introduced to your tank there is a couple of ways to do this but I will let more experienced people describe and also I think there may be a sticky about it all

 

[obscurereef]

Congrats on starting up! LR is an ammonia source, but the die-off can be minimal so you probably don't have enough to have a strong cycle. Add another ammonia source to start the cycle let a table shrimp decompose in a net in your tank. Another method is dosing pure ammonia (might find this at a hardware store).

 

[FishandPotterFreak]

So here is our test numbers for today:
Ph: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
We tested the salinity:1.032, but then we added RO water & then it was 1.028
Do I still need to add ammonia to get it to go up?
Thanks!