~New to saltwater - 29gal w/15 gal sump~

<u>Recent Updates:</u> RO/DI, TDS Meter & all sand, DIY skimmer. Made our first batch of water yesterday, only 15 gal because we need a big container for the rest to start up :) Need some salt and a few lbs of live rock and we'll have it going!
 
Good luck, this hobby is all about peaks and valleys at first. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes amazing!
 
Made 60 gal of water and mixed salt in 50 because that's what was made up and it was enough! Just filled it up and turned it on about 45 min ago! 50 lbs of rock (agrocrete) and 70 lbs of sand (40 is live). Finally feel accomplished.. now a few lbs of live rock and some chaeto and hopefully a short cycle. We'll start with some chromis :)
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Butch;757452 wrote: Cant wait to see how the rock you made looks once it clears up.
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Haha yeah ;) It does look good though! I aquascaped the left side and my boyfriend did the right lol
 
Some testing:
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No live rock or chaeto yet.. gonna wait and see how the tests go, hopefully soon though. *Salinity is the same, forgot to jot it down*
 
Well, we're taking a step back today! We bought 30lbs CaribSea Aragonite & also 40lbs CaribSea Ocean Direct Live Sand and since Saturday the cloudiness is not going away. It'll settle down over night but as soon as you disturb the sand bed it's like a milk storm! I contacted CaribSea about the problem and they say it could take 2 weeks until it's no longer cloudy, but they'll send us some "very effective water clarifier". Forget that......

So, needless to say we'll be spending probably over an hour or 2 rinsing all of this sand and hopefully eliminating all the dust, then putting our rock and sand back into the water. I'm sure it's not going to be easy getting all of the sand out of the water. How fun!!!!
 
Rinsed our sand for 2 hours and put it back in our tank yesterday. It was terribly cloudy last night but today it's 50% better :)

James found a guy on Craigslist last night who has live rock for $2 a pound, we'll be picking some up tonight! It'll be in saltwater til our tank is clear but atleast we will have live rock!
 
So, we drained our tank yesterday and rinsed white residue from everything. Put all rock including our live rock back in tank. Made a whole new batch of saltwater and at 11:40pm we were back up and running with a little cloudiness. Now it's perfectly clear and we're just waiting for it to cycle. Such a relief!
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Now comes the hardest part of this hobby. Waiting on the cycle. :-) Take this time to do lots of reading. It will really pay off in a few weeks. You are going to be amazed at what you see coming alive in the tank before you ever put anything in it.
 
rdnelson99;759391 wrote: Now comes the hardest part of this hobby. Waiting on the cycle. :-) Take this time to do lots of reading. It will really pay off in a few weeks. You are going to be amazed at what you see coming alive in the tank before you ever put anything in it.
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We're just so relieved to actually be cycling now! We're just running and testing, no decomposing shrimp. There is some dead stuff on the live rock so I'm sure it'll cycle w/o doing anything else. Or, atleast we hope it cycles on it's own :D
 
If it doesn't start on it's own it can be done easily with the decaying shrimp or pure ammonia. Just be sure it is pure ammonia. If you go that route let me know and I will walk you through it.
 
rdnelson99;759412 wrote: If it doesn't start on it's own it can be done easily with the decaying shrimp or pure ammonia. Just be sure it is pure ammonia. If you go that route let me know and I will walk you through it.
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We'll see what happens in the next week or 2.. we'll update when/if there are changes.
 
I know people that pee in there water to start there tanks :D

Sent from my LG-LG855 using Tapatalk 2
 
NathanNano;759469 wrote: I know people that pee in there water to start there tanks :D

Sent from my LG-LG855 using Tapatalk 2
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LOL... maybe as a last resort........or not!
 
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