I scored a super amazing deal on a complete setup and I'm super excited! 180 gal tank with stand, hood, led lights, rock, sump, ro/di system, 3 fish, and literally everything I need to get started (at least for now) $450.
Checking in on my plan to see if there are any flaws I'm missing:
Got everything moved in and set up last week. I'm a little nervous about the rock staying in place but even with the power heads they seem ok. Is it better to glue them in place? I'd prefer not to for ease of moving rock if I ever need to, but I'm willing to if needed. I watched videos on how to do the rock but the actual doing it wasn't as easy as watching the video
1st problem - I realized that the hood is easily 100 lbs and I'm small. There is a stick to hold the hood up but I'm too short to even reach up and put it up there. oops - I should have thought about how much I'll open the hood for daily maintenance although I still would have bought it! I saw a couple of hood ideas on the diy forum and I think I'm going to try to cut off the front and use hinges so I can just lift up the front part for daily usage.
I've been monitoring water daily for the last week and I have no ammonia and my nitrates are around 10. This has been steady since setup. I moved all the sand, rock, etc. although it did sit in buckets of water for almost 48 hours so I thought I'd get a bunch of die off. Is it possible that I just maintained the existing biological system? Or should I still expect some type of cycle yet to come? I'm thinking I'll wait until another week before adding the next fish providing everything stays stable? I'm currently working on a tentative stocking plan that I'll post soon. I'll add one or two fish at a time and continue to monitor the water.
When I picked it up the tank was almost completely green and super dirty. I did a little wiping and I sifted the sand a bit. I also put some snails and hermit crabs in there (10 of each). It's WAY better already but I'm getting impatient that they aren't eating fast enough! I don't want to throw too many in there though because they'll starve later. Is 10 of each a reasonable number to maintain long term? (I don't want to do the cleanup packs that quickly get clean but then they all die....so I guess I should be more patient).
I'm also getting some Chaeto and coco pods for the sump. It's only a 20 gal sump so I know I'll need to upgrade that at some point. Was also going to get a Gracilaria to put in the DT.
Just ordered my first aid kit based on recs from Humblefish (thank you!). Figure I may as well have everything on hand so then Murphy's law says I'll never need it (one can hope).
There are 3 LED lights but on one of them the all blue setting isn't working. No idea why. This is really only needed for growing corals, correct? I definitely want to have corals (yes, probably SPS) but that's down the line a bit and then I'll need to research if the lights I have are good enough or if I need to buy new ones. So for now until I figure all that out, I'm not hurting anything by only using the mixed "daytime" lights? I keep them on for probably 8 hours depending on when I'm home.
Ok, feel free to tell me if I'm missing something or if there are flaws.
Checking in on my plan to see if there are any flaws I'm missing:
Got everything moved in and set up last week. I'm a little nervous about the rock staying in place but even with the power heads they seem ok. Is it better to glue them in place? I'd prefer not to for ease of moving rock if I ever need to, but I'm willing to if needed. I watched videos on how to do the rock but the actual doing it wasn't as easy as watching the video
1st problem - I realized that the hood is easily 100 lbs and I'm small. There is a stick to hold the hood up but I'm too short to even reach up and put it up there. oops - I should have thought about how much I'll open the hood for daily maintenance although I still would have bought it! I saw a couple of hood ideas on the diy forum and I think I'm going to try to cut off the front and use hinges so I can just lift up the front part for daily usage.
I've been monitoring water daily for the last week and I have no ammonia and my nitrates are around 10. This has been steady since setup. I moved all the sand, rock, etc. although it did sit in buckets of water for almost 48 hours so I thought I'd get a bunch of die off. Is it possible that I just maintained the existing biological system? Or should I still expect some type of cycle yet to come? I'm thinking I'll wait until another week before adding the next fish providing everything stays stable? I'm currently working on a tentative stocking plan that I'll post soon. I'll add one or two fish at a time and continue to monitor the water.
When I picked it up the tank was almost completely green and super dirty. I did a little wiping and I sifted the sand a bit. I also put some snails and hermit crabs in there (10 of each). It's WAY better already but I'm getting impatient that they aren't eating fast enough! I don't want to throw too many in there though because they'll starve later. Is 10 of each a reasonable number to maintain long term? (I don't want to do the cleanup packs that quickly get clean but then they all die....so I guess I should be more patient).
I'm also getting some Chaeto and coco pods for the sump. It's only a 20 gal sump so I know I'll need to upgrade that at some point. Was also going to get a Gracilaria to put in the DT.
Just ordered my first aid kit based on recs from Humblefish (thank you!). Figure I may as well have everything on hand so then Murphy's law says I'll never need it (one can hope).
There are 3 LED lights but on one of them the all blue setting isn't working. No idea why. This is really only needed for growing corals, correct? I definitely want to have corals (yes, probably SPS) but that's down the line a bit and then I'll need to research if the lights I have are good enough or if I need to buy new ones. So for now until I figure all that out, I'm not hurting anything by only using the mixed "daytime" lights? I keep them on for probably 8 hours depending on when I'm home.
Ok, feel free to tell me if I'm missing something or if there are flaws.
