Well...I was on my way into town....

[hookednewbie]

....And came upon a yard sale with a big aquarium sitting on the front lawn. It looked pretty sound and there weren't any scratches, I thought, what the heck I had an aquarium as a kid (goldfish and catfish, not at the same time) it'd be fun to do one again. I had 60 dollars on me and it just fit in the back of my car. I thought what an awesome deal, its like it was meant to be! $60 dollars for a 65 gallon aquarium! Well 2 days and at least 500 dollars later I just turned everything on for the first time....hooray!!!!
What I've done so far:
1. A 24 hour test for leaks...passed
2. Spray paint the back of the tank true blue and let it dry
3. Lots of shopping at my 3 nearest LFS (I'm so embarrassed that it took me 20 minutes of searching to make the connecting that this stands for Local Fish Store). Picked up a book on marine aquariums ( not a noteworthy one, just one that happened to be in the fish store) and hit the internet.
4. New stand got wedged in the car door despite many attempts at manipulating angles, aggghh dilemas. Who knew car doors where like raccoon traps? So, we backed up the tank stand and sawed a small wedge off of the back corner of the stand. Not my best problem solving but at least its not still in the car and we didn't have to take the door off the car! Did I mention my husband is not home this weekend and would not approve of said problem solving skill (plus I scratched the door

) Oh well. So, tank In the house, stand leveled, buddy reminding me that stuff actually goes behind the tank and we should leave room back there as it will be very hard to move the 750lbs or so after the water is in!
5. First round of equipment purchases (shout out to pets choice in Modesto who totally hooked me up knowing that the huge discount would bring me in again and again ....) and bought stores salt water which they poured in 5 gallon buckets for me.
6. Back home and first 5 gallon bucket of water in tank, then 60 lbs of live sand placed. I mixed 40 lbs of typical pale colored sand and 20lbs of black colored sand and it looks pretty good together, at least what little of it I can see through the haze.
7. 5 more buckets of water in and first 35 pounds of live rock in tank.
8. 3rd trip to LFS and got 5 more buckets of water and 15 more lbs of live rock
9. Water...check, sand....check, live rock...check. Guess its time for equipment. A Marineland 350 Penguin came with the tank at the garage sale so I cleaned it all out with a new sponge and replaced the filters. For the second optional space for filter material I cut out and placed ammonia reducing screen material. Once that was up and running I opened and set up my new marineland emperor 280 filter which I set up also with the ammonia filter screening.
10. Then I cleaned and set up the heater that came in the garage sale. I believe its 60 W and I added my newly purchased 70 watt heater on the opposite side.
11. Placed the digital thermometer in the tank and...it works
12. Wow its gonna be murky for a while isn't it....hurry up and wait...and realize I totally forgot the powerheads ever though the were on the list...
As soon as the sand settles a bit I'll post a picture. And thanks for this website everyone its helped immensly!!!!!

 

[flower]

Welcome to the site...your hubby is going to be very surprised.
I know you mentioned space behind the tank...I left 8 inches behind mine but have at least 5. Since you don't have a sump you will need space for a hang on the back skimmer (later on) The only thing I saw from your post that set any red flags is your rock and sand. The rock should go in first...sand shifts and you can't trust it to stay put, also some saltwater critters burrow under and can cause a rock slide. So move the sand to one side and put the rock on the very bottom and push the sand around the rock.
Wal-mart RO (reverse Osmoses) water and mixing your own seawater is much cheaper than the fish store. Good for you for not using tap water. Did you get you some test kits..the type with drops not the strips. Either purchase a master kit or get at least these:
PH...Ammonia....Nitrite...Nitrate...Alkalinity

 

[btldreef]

Welcome to the addiction!!!!

 

[hookednewbie]

Okay going to move the sand and put the rocks directly on the glass bottom. Also at the store today I'm going to get 2 powerheads and a test kit. I agree next time I'm going to do RO water from the store and mix it myself. But I thought for the base, first time I'd pay the 1.10 a gallon for the stores water so I didn't have to worry too much. I think If I stick with it more then 6 months and I'm still this excited about it I'll buy a filter for the house as that seems to make the most sense in the long term. Also correction the heaters are each 300 Watts. I set the water for 79 degrees. Super excited when I woke up this morning and could see through the tank! Now its time to disturb everything and make it cloudy for awhile again!!

 

[meowzer]

Welcome to the site...and swf....You also really do not need the bio-wheels.

 

[hookednewbie]

Okay biowheels not important, do I have enough filtration between the marinelands and the live rock? I see a lot of people like the sump setup. Should I see how things go and convert in the future?

 

[meowzer]

With both filters you should be okay for now.....as far as a sump, they are great, but that is up to you.....you still need to look for a protein skimmer and powerheads
do you want fish only or a reef??

 

[hookednewbie]

Fish only for now, as this is my first time. Will anemone work in a FOWLR tank? I like the look of them, but I'm also worried about putting anything potentially poisonous in the tank (got stung by a Portuguese man of war once and its made me very shy of such things) Also I'm debating a QT, if I go with one, I should probably set it up at the same time so they cycle together, but I don't want to spend too much on it. Also would I have to keep a QT tank running all the time so I don't have to cycle it in? Thanks all, can't believe how hooked in I am already

 

[meowzer]

anemone's depend on your lighting.....they require excellent lighting....fluorescent will not do....and they should never go into a tank less then 6 months old
there is a good section on qt's in the new hobby section...I would read that....BUT it is a good thing to have...and I believe you can set one up fairly cheap

 

[hookednewbie]

OK first readings.
Ph 8
Ammonia 0.25
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
Specific gravity 1.025
My question is why is my Ph slightly low if my specific gravity is high. My plan is this week I'll replace evaporated water with salt water mix and recheck everything again next week. Also could my specific gravity be slightly off due to all the debris from the sand still settling? The water is still somewhat cloudy

 

[1guydude]

i prefer mixing my own water and salt....i dont trust other people when it comes down to it!
Give it time and im sure ur cloudyness will be gone! BTW u should be topping ur tank off at least daily with FRESH water ...when the water evaporates it leaves the salt behind in the tank, so dont go pouring sw in ur tank, this may be the reason ur SG is where it is... than again maybe the fish store u got it from had it this high and didnt care?!?!

 

[flower]

If you buy already mixed water get it with the highest SG they have it and dilute it yourself with RO water. This will save you money on premixed. I only buy premixed if I have an emergency and need my water ASAP otherwise I use my own RO water and salt.
The water in your tank evaporates but the salt does not. So to keep the saltwater at the right SG you only need to keep the water level at the same height. So make a mark on where your water level comes to and when it drops down from that point add RO (Reverse Osmoses) water. Its call TOP OFF because all we are doing is adding water to keep the top at that level.
New tanks are unstable, save the tests on PH and such for later. Until your tank has fully cycled that first time, just test your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Put a piece of raw shrimp in a mesh bag when you get a 1 on the ammonia test, remove the shrimp and toss it out. When the ammonia goes to 0, time to test for nitrites, when that goes to 0, test for nitrates...do a water change and wait a week, then retest for all three, if ammonia and nitrite are still 0, test the other stuff like PH, alkalinity and Calcium...if all is good you can add a fish. Just 1 fish, I would not purchase a damsel, they are very mean and kill other fish and later bite your hand drawing blood...I would get a fish I want to keep.
A quarantine tank is a great idea, and will save your new set up tank from bad parasites and a slew of other nightmares. It should cycle right along with your main tank, so set them up at the same time. That way you can add each new fish after spending 3 weeks in the QT first...keep that up until the tank is stocked.