Salt and Pepper

This has been quite the productive weekend. From my earlier post, you can see that the tank finally has water in it. Well, now that water is salted. My friend Kyle and I made a trip to the LFS (Local Fish Store, for those of you keeping score), and I was able to purchase the background, two powerheads, a digital thermometer, and some other miscellaneous equipment. I have a feeling I'll be making many of these "quick" trips to the LFS in the coming weeks. By quick, I mean over an hour, because we walked around and looked at all the fish and corals, and anemones, and.... and...

Here are some pictures:

Here is the tank, now with a black background, two powerheads, the filter running, and salt actively mixing. It takes quite a while for the salt to dissolve, so we put the powerheads lower to the floor of the tank to promote more mixing and dissolving. Thanks again, Kyle, for all your help.

In this shot, you can really see the pile of undissolved salt. It took some time, but it all dissolved pretty well after a while.

A closeup shot of one of the powerheads. This is the Koralia #1. I wanted the #2, because it is more powerful, but the store was out. Supposedly, they will have more in on Thursday. I am going to get the protein skimmer on Friday, so I'll pick up two #2's then, as well. These #1's will then go downstairs into the mixing pails and the quarantine tank.

The filter had a small leak overnight. We were able to fix it without much effort. Note of advice to anybody using one of these cannister filters - make sure with absolute certainty that the gasket between the cannister and lid has zero grit on it. Just one small piece of grit caused a leak in mine, and I'm glad I looked today, otherwise we would have had a small flood after a short while. I'm certainly keeping my eye on it over the next couple of hours, and even days to make sure it doesn't start to leak further. If it does, it certainly is going back to the store.

Here's a shot of the salt being pushed around by the powerhead. As I said, it took a while for it to dissolve, but it seems pretty good now. So, now I will let the saltwater "age" and go for live rock probably next weekend. Until then...

Setup Beginning

I picked up the tank and stand on Tuesday, but due to some other commitments, I wasn't able to set it up until last night. I had my friend, Kyle, helping me level and fill the tank. Thanks again, Dad, for letting me use your fancy level. Oh, yeah, and thanks, Kyle, for your help... hehe... Here are some pictures:

First, we had to level the tank. Kyle helped me shim the front edge up. The shim is a little fuzzy, because I was using my zoom lens, and it didn't want to focus that close. :(

Here is the tank all set up. If you look closely, it also has a few gallons of water in it. We first wiped the tank clean with a damp cloth to try to remove as much dust as possible. Then we started filling:

After we started filling. The tank has about 5 gallons in it here... only 50 to go!

More filling. I'm starting to get really excited at this point. The tank is starting to become a reality. It's funny how when I was doing the research, and shopping around for good prices, I wasn't too excited in terms of it being a reality. Now that I have a tank, and there's water in it, it's definitely a reality. I've started making my decisions about which fish I want to get, and how I want to aquascape with my live rock (once I buy it). I think I was intentionally ignoring that part until the tank was a reality.

Kyle was a good sport, and is helping me with the tank this weekend. I'm sure it's not what he expected to do, but it's going to be a fun weekend, never-the-less.

We set the pump and filter up, and here I am priming the filter. It was pretty cool to watch it get started.

Here is my first "full tank shot", or FTS. As you can see, there is a lot more to go with the setup. Still need a lot of equipment (if the Local Fish Store, LFS will get my stuff in, already - but that's another story). I am going to get a plain black background for the back.

Here is the tank, all aglow. We turned out the lights in the room, and just had the aquarium lights going. As I mentioned in previous posts, I have one bright white and one blue actinic bulb, hence the blue glow. Sitting in the room like this for an hour, and then going into a room with real lights makes everything look REALLY yellow. It's fun.

Just sort of an artistic shot of the blue glow coming out of the back of the stand. There is no sand at the bottom of the tank, yet, so the light passes right through, and since the stand has no back, it glows out the back of the stand. Thought it looked cool.

Feel free to send me comments. If you're an avid aquarist, any advice would be greatly appreciated. If you're a photographer, I'll take advice as well (remember, some of these shots are not meant to look fancy, but just document the process).

BTW - Uncle Jack - thanks for the comment! As you can see, the wall isn't bare anymore. :) As for which fish I plan to get, that's a future post, that I'll probably have up in the next week or two. Don't worry, it's coming! Aquarium-keeping is a slow process. :) Oh, and I can't put those signs up, because my dad's head wouldn't fit through the door after his ego was inflated that much! hehe...

Preparing for the New Aquarium

I did it! I finally ordered my tank, stand, and related equipment. I should hopefully get it by Tuesday, and then I'll be able to start setting up the tank this weekend. After much consideration, I've decided to go for a 55-gal tank, Fish Only with Live Rock (FOWLR) for now. The tank will be 48" wide, 13" deep, and 20" high. I ordered an oak stand, painted black to match the trim on the tank. I probably could have built a stand for significantly less money, but between the time constraints, and wanting a guaranteed good-looking stand, I decided to go with the in-store purchase. I also purchased the following equipment:

Fluval 305 cannister filter
Aqua C Remora protein skimmer
Glo T5 HO fluorescent 48" light fixture 2x54 watt with
1 - 18,000 K Super Bright Aquarium Bulb and
1 - Actinic Blue Spectrum Bulb
250 Watt heater (I will eventually get a second one as a backup)
Aragonite Substrate (dry, not live)
2 - Koralia #3 powerheads
Several smaller items, such as test kits, power strips with surge protection, etc.

I'm sure I am forgetting about a hundred things, but with the tank not even here, I feel like I've got a good head start on things. I am quickly becoming accustomed to driving to my LFS (local fish store), as I am sure I'll be making frequent visits there over the next few weeks. I'm quickly realizing why everybody on the discussion boards claims how much of a money drain all of this is. It's totally going to be worth it, though.

I'm told that if I eventually go to a full reef (meaning, add corals), I will only have to swap the cannister filter for a sump with a refugium, and maybe get some brighter lights. I've seen some setups online where the used the T5 fluorescents for reef tanks, though, so perhaps not. I feel comfortable that if I eventually decide to add corals, it'll be an easy transition, as well as not TOO expensive.

Here is the first set of pictures, showing the preparations I went through before purchasing the tank:

For those of you familiar with my house, this is the living room. The blank wall is where the new setup is going to go. It will be well viewed from several angles - from the couch, from the dining table, coming from the kitchen, and coming from the bedrooms.

With the help of my dad, I changed the outlet to a grounded GFCI outlet. Water and electricity don't exactly mix, and I wanted to be as safe as possible. Snaking the grounding wire down to the basement proved to be a particular problem, but we were able to solve it after two trips to Lowe's. Thanks, Dad!

Again, with the help of my dad, I was able to build quite the sturdy shelf. This is down in the basement, where I will be doing all of my water preparations, as well as housing the quarantine tank. The quarantine tank is made up of the tank and equipment from my old 20-gal. freshwater system that I started in college. Thanks again for all your help, Dad!

Right now, I've got the ability to air sparge four 5-gal pails as well as heat two of them. Eventually, I will be able to prepare more water at a single time, but for now, it will have to do. By sparging air into the water, the chlorine used by the water company will be released sooner, making the water safer for the tank. Until I can afford to get an RO/DI water purifier, this will have to do. Once I get the RO/DI, I might consider getting some corals, but for now, I am sticking to fish only with live rock.

Some of my other equipment: the marine salt mix, a towel at the ready in case of any spills, the light/hood for the 20-gal quarantine tank, and a bucket with a cover, so I can sit when need be.

Let the Adventure Begin

So, after the encouragement of a few friends, I've decided to set up my first saltwater aquarium. I have had several freshwater tanks in the past, and thought that this was a great opportunity to try something more challenging and similarly more rewarding. I am not much of a blogger (most of my friends can tell you that I am just not that into it), however this seems like the best platform to chronicle my attempt at getting this tank going, as well as share in the trials and tribulations of the adventure. I hope to regularly post photos of my progress, and continue to write about the things going on with the tank - both good and bad.

To start, I have done a LOT of research on the topics of reef vs. fish only, setting up a system, water chemistry, tank size, etc. I highly recommend these books if you are interested in learning more:

The New Marine Aquarium: Step-by-Step Setup & Stocking Guide by Michael S. Paletta
The Simple Guide to Marine Aquariums by Jeffrey Kurtz
The Marine Reef Aquarium by Philip Hunt
and especially:
Marine Fishes by Scott W. Michael

Some very informational websites that I've encountered in my web searching are:
Reef Central
Melev's Reef
and
Fish Lore

I highly recommend that if you are interested in getting started in the marine aquarium hobby, take things slowly. Read as much as you can before you make your decisions and start buying equipment. From everything that I can tell so far (and I'm still only a few weeks into this adventure), this hobby is a slow one, that will last a lifetime. Haste makes waste - and I mean wasting all your money when you realized that you did everything wrong, and killed your fish.

Well, thanks for checking out my new blog, and let the adventure begin!