1AaronTravels

Do yourself a favor and buy a RO/DI unit. I'll even help justify the cost of it. You have 149 gallons of empty space, if you buy your water at walgreens and its .50/gal ( don't know just a figure) thats 70.00 in the initial fill up. Now we need to look at evaporation and water changes. Lets say you loose 2 gallons a day over a month thats another 60 gallons or 30.00. So there is 120.00 and you haven't even done the first water change. A RO/DI unit from Marc is 169.00. In about 3 months you will have spent at least that much in water that may or not be as pure as if you had your own unit. No one knows when the last time the filters were changed at Wal-greens so why take the chance.

1. Depends on what you're trying to achieve, but there are a lot of little critters coming with your live rock that like to live in a sand bed. So adding a bag or 2 of sand in the mix is probably a good idea.

2. Build your rock structures first, then add the sand. Otherwise the rocks will slowy sink into it, and any digging critters may undermine them and cause a rock slide.
Add the water as you describe, and I too highly recommend spending the money for your own RO/DI, it's well worth it in the end.
Skip the shrimp if you're using live rock, there will be plenty of organtic die off from your rock to establish the bacteria colonies. If you're getting cured live rock locally then add it straight to your tank, if your ordering it then cure it first in a separate container then add it to the tank. Once the tank's ammonia reads 0, do a water change and you can start slowly stocking the tank.

Phil

i put egg crate down then rock work, or if your using a plenum 1/2 in pvc pipe for stand off egg crate screen crush screen sand, but put down some egg crate to keep pressure points off the glass on the bottom. Use you live rock off the bat will cut way down on your cycle time by prob a month. Yea agree with phil and blown buy your own ro/di unit will save you in the long run take it from some one who has hauled water before it blows.

Hey Aaron just some food for thought on the Marineland reef led lights. I purchased the Double Bright 36” fixture when it came out for my fresh water planted tank. It worked great and I loved it but 6 months after I went away for a week and when I came home and turned it on something shorted out because it would only blink on then shut off. Not sure if it was because of moisture or just a fault in the design. I was able to have it exchanged but there was one returned to my LFS with the same problem and they have a demo that is a little buggy too. Now maybe they have fixed this issue in the reef models but if you are a DIY guy I would suggest building an LED fixture because I think you can get something better for the same price. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks All for all the suggestions and comments. I will be implementing some and saving for others:-)

I really appreciate all the support. Am patiently watching my front window waiting for the FedEx Truck to deliver my Marco Rocks.... Arghh, Patience comes to me very slowly some days:-)


Cheers,
Aaron

I suggest premixing your water and salt before adding it to your tank. Dumping in water, and then salt into the tank can be dangerous, even if in small increments. My first go around with the hobby I tried mixing salt and water inside the tank and had bad results.

Caviar, what happened?

Im not sure if this was something I caused, or just a freak thing, but I actually had pockets of undissolved salt trapped in my substrate. Months after my tank was fully cycled and stocked with a few corals (thankfully inexpensive ones), one of the pockets got mixed back into my water and caused a spike, killing most of them.

I guess a warning is in order, the salt should be added slowly in an area of high flow. the sump return section would be ideal.