Ok for those of you that do not know, i just joined last night. Im picking up a used 14 gallon tank on Saturday and i want to do a Nano reef in it. I'm new to salt water, experienced with fresh water.
I've been doing a lot of research, and i've come up with a game plan on starting this, and wanted to run it by you guys. I want to make sure im very thorough because, in short, I've never done this and i don't want to screw it up.
1) Acquire tank. Clean it thoroughly.
2) Go to LFS. Acquire powerhead, filter, heater, and instant ocean stuff (recomendations on the salt water mix anyone?)
3) Go to the Grocery store, get 15 gallons RO water.
4) Install the above items, and fill the tank with water. Turn everything on to make sure it functions.
5) Mix salt until i have a SG of 1.026 (I think that was the ideal salinity, i'll be sure to double check)
6) Give the tank two days. One day to come up to temperature, and another to verify temerature stability.
7) Return to the LFS, buy live rock, and live sand. I intend on getting 14 lbs Pacific live rock, and enough sand to have about a 3" base. I've read that 1lb per gallon, and a deeper live sand base makes for a better system if you do NOT intend to use a power skimmer.
8 ) Add/arrange the rock and sand.
9) Begin cycle
How am i doing so far?
I've been doing a lot of research, and i've come up with a game plan on starting this, and wanted to run it by you guys. I want to make sure im very thorough because, in short, I've never done this and i don't want to screw it up.
1) Acquire tank. Clean it thoroughly.
2) Go to LFS. Acquire powerhead, filter, heater, and instant ocean stuff (recomendations on the salt water mix anyone?)
3) Go to the Grocery store, get 15 gallons RO water.
4) Install the above items, and fill the tank with water. Turn everything on to make sure it functions.
5) Mix salt until i have a SG of 1.026 (I think that was the ideal salinity, i'll be sure to double check)
6) Give the tank two days. One day to come up to temperature, and another to verify temerature stability.
7) Return to the LFS, buy live rock, and live sand. I intend on getting 14 lbs Pacific live rock, and enough sand to have about a 3" base. I've read that 1lb per gallon, and a deeper live sand base makes for a better system if you do NOT intend to use a power skimmer.
8 ) Add/arrange the rock and sand.
9) Begin cycle
How am i doing so far?
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