Time to set up the 40g breeder

[Badambomb79]

So my bro has a 40 breeder. We have a fluval canister filter. A saltwater test kit a heater a hydrometer 40# live sand 40# dry rock 10# live rock. And salt mix of course. Anything I'm missing to start it up? What should we do first and what's the best way to start the cycle ?

 

[Bectan01]

You will need at least one power head for flow, probably 2. What's your plan for the tank? If trying reef I highly recommend using ro-di water, tap water will cause you all sorts of headaches in the future. I would also recommend a refractometer for measuring salinity, much more accurate than hydrometers. There are some great articles in here about cycling a salt water tank, most people use a raw shrimp from the grocery store or pure ammonia to start the cycle. Will take about 3-4 weeks. Just know too that you will need to clean that canister weekly as they can build nitrates, they are not commonly used in salt but some people do and have had success. A protein skimmer would be a better investment...

 

[Macscale]

I wouldn't hard cycle the aquarium as you have live rock in the tank. Hard cycling can cause damage to the bacteria and why would we want to kill a living thing? Go look at the articles
"Fish-in cycling - Step over to the dark side" and "Soft Cycling the home aquarium" or something like that. Consider soft cycling because I now believe it is a much better way to start a tank.

 

[Badambomb79]

I'm going to be buying water from the water stations in the grocery store parking lot until I get an rodi unit. I'm going to start as a reef tank so I'll get reef friendly fish but probably won't add corals for 6 months.

 

[Sniperhank]

The most important and biggest expense for a reef tank is the lighting. I would figure out what kind of coral you want to keep and figure out where to go from there.
In terms of water, ro/di is best for a reef...but I use distilled water in my reef as my ro/di is still down from bad well water. It works, but just expect algae growth and planning on maintaining nitrate and phosphate levels will also be a prime concern.