New Guy Intro

[Schmedlab]

Hello everyone. I am recently retired and am in the process of starting up a new saltwater Coralife Biocube 14 in an effort to familiarize myself with saltwater aquariums. I have setup and successfully maintained numerous freshwater tanks over the last 45 years and now that I am retired it is time to try saltwater. I decided to start with a 14 gallon Biocube while I am in the process of renovating an upstairs room in my house where I hope to ultimately setup a much larger saltwater tank if I am successful with the Biocube 14. Currently the Biocube has been running for a week with three live rocks and live sand. One of the live rocks has quite a few invertebrates growing on it which appear to be Mushroom Anemones (not sure). The water is crystal clear, the Anemones are thriving and the salinity is just right but I have not yet performed any other test. I have ordered test kits for ammonia, nitrites, PH and alkalinity.

Now for a newbie question. I purchased three gallons of RO water for topping off from a LFS. I have it in a 5 gallon potable water container that is sealed. Does this RO water have a shelf life? The LFS said that I need to discard it after a couple of weeks. That surprised me. I assumed that if it was held in a proper sealed container, that it would be usable for a lot longer than two weeks. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[tomtom14]

Hi welcome to the forum. I just wanted to say that a smaller tank is actually harder to set up than a bigger one it's just much cheaper.


And no it has no shelf life. RO water is basically just water nothing else at all. As long as you don't open it regularly, allowing dust and things like that to get in it you could keep it for years.

It's just the person at the fish shop wants you to come back and buy more sooner. Hope this helps


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[BigRedsReefs10]

Hi welcome to the forum. I just wanted to say that a smaller tank is actually harder to set up than a bigger one it's just much cheaper.


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This isn't true at all, and gets parroted about all the time. Small tanks aren't hard, IMHO it's easier than a 150 gallon. Large % wc's (every aquarists best friend in times of emergency) are way easier to preform on a nano than a large tank. The key to small tanks is patience and research, with the smaller area you gave to maximize your choices and make sure it will work out long term. Op don't let people scare you away from smaller tanks, they're amazing and easy. Check out the nano reef sub forum in the sw section, theres a bunch of good info in it.

 

[Schmedlab]

Thanks TomTom. That is what I figured on the RO water. And yes, I've read that larger tanks are easier than small tanks but my impatience got the best of me. My renovation project will not be ready for a large tank for at least four months and I just couldn't wait to get started.


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[Schmedlab]

Thanks BigReds. We'll, I'm only a week into it, but so far it seems to be going well. Actually my plan is to continue the Biocube 14 even after I set up a larger tank. I'm sure I will have a lot of newbie questions as the weeks pass by. Thanks again.


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