My first saltwater tank- bio32

moorjames · Dec 30, 2020

A couple weeks ago I decided that talking for 15 years about getting a saltwater tank was enough and I just needed to start somewhere. I knew nothing about the hobby other than the water has some elements I’ll need to monitor. After a trip to my LFS I came home with the Biocube 32 with an overpriced stand. Put it all together and the next day I added some
Filters (none of which I knew anything about), some water and live rock. The next day I added some power heads and some bacteria.
Well a couple hundred dollars of stuff I didn’t need and here I am. I’m about 3 weeks in and almost done with the nitrogen cycle. Still takes about 2 days to eat up the ammonia so hopefully will be done in a couple days. Can’t wait to add fish- or even turn the light on lol

Dom · Dec 30, 2020

Nice setup. Careful with that digital thermometer... they are notoriously inaccurate.

moorjames · Dec 30, 2020

Oh snap- didn’t know that. Anything in particular you would recommend?

RobW · Dec 30, 2020

Welcome to the hobby!

MNFish · Dec 30, 2020

Nice set up, I love the way you placed the rocks.
Good luck and welcome to addiction...

Dom · Dec 30, 2020

moorjames said:
Oh snap- didn’t know that. Anything in particular you would recommend?

I have a good old-fashioned glass thermometer which I purchased from a laboratory supply site.

But I also use a temperature controller, where the heater and a fan for cooling are connected.

This is a picture of my DIY controller. A temperature sensor connected to the controller drops into the sump (or tank). It is wired into 110vac outlet. one side is the heater and the other, the 12v power adapter for a cooling fan.