55 Gallon Started

Day 1- Just starting a 55 gallon....it will be a slow process, but making head way.  Have done freshwater for quite a while, but decided to take on a new challenge.  Here is the tank in this pic, it looks terrible, but hey it is a start.  Added sand and dead rock.  Then filled with RO water.....i rinsed the sand and thought it was clean, guess I was wrong.  It is really cloudy....not sure if I need to suck it all out and refill?  I was waiting for it to clear before I added the salt.  Those lights are just temporarily laid on there.  Fixture and powerheads should be here tomorrow, then I will add salt.  From help of the boards also should be getting some live rock going on wed.  I may have made a mistake in getting rid of some HOB filters from my freshwater setups, they would have helped in clearing the water.....all I got going in there now is a couple of sponge filters....been about 24 hours, has cleared some, but very little....thanks for all the help everyone. Any advice is appreciated!
Can't wait to get this tank moving!

Edited by bur01014 - March 12 2010 at 2:57am

ya, it is utah sand.....

It all depends on what is on the live rock. I would not add anything else for at least a few days to a week ant then test.

Just curious: what kind of sump/filtration are you planning on running?  If you have a sump set upyou could get it running and throw a filter sock on to help clear the water.

A little Update: Sorry, but its another cell phone pic ... Got the live rock, a little live sand, topped tank off with 8 gallons of live water, powerheads, light fixture, and skimmer going.  The other remora pro skimmer should be here tomorrow....it may be overkill to use both, so might sell the red sea prizm.(if anyone is interested, let me know)  The water has finally started to clear up !  Placing rock isn't easy, it seemed to take forever to get the rock positioned where it had a strong foundation.  Now, I am no expert but any advice on improving the rock would be great.  Then again, I am happy enough with it... and out of frustration and laziness may just leave it be for a few days, instead of kicking up more sand.  Now as far as the cycle goes, do I need to add something to spike the ammonia so it kicks the cycle into gear?  I hear mixed reviews about this, some say add some fish food a little daily, others say a piece of shrimp, etc.  Advice is much appreciated.

Budget: Looks like I have spent a little over $500 bucks to get to this point. This includes the fact that I already owned the tank and stand.  The most surprising cost was the bucket of salt mix....around 50 bucks, but won't need to refill it for a while.  The cost was what I planned for, but hurts now because it is a reality.    Anyways, decided to just go look at some coral to get an idea of what looks interesting and how far the little amount of money I have left can go.  Wow, I failed to research enough before taking on this challenge. Many of you probably hear this plenty.  I couldn't believe what 10 to 15 bucks would get me.....basically a microscopic piece of something, it was hard to tell lol.  Forget the 5 dollar frags they had.....there was no color whatsoever on any of them.  All I could see was a mustard brown spec on each little tile.....  Looks like I will be looking at a tank full of rock for a little while in order to save up just to get some decent frags that have at least a little color and can be viewable without a microscope.  Perhaps there is a LFS that someone could recommend?  Maybe this place was just bad.....I will try another place this weekend....


Edited by bur01014 - March 12 2010 at 2:53am

$5 dollar frags can soon grow into $50+ colonies very quickly. Also, it is much better to learn with a few colored dots, than to have an accident/mistake and lose a really nice piece. Much of the satisfaction is in watching it grow anyway.

I have green star polyps. Free

Thanks for posting the pic, I love hearing about updates.  You will find a lot of people on this board that will give you or sell at a good price some frags.  About the cycle yes you need to get something in there to get the ammonia spiked or else the bacteria wont grow.  You can either put fish food in or a piece of shrimp either way i dont think it matters that much.  Once you do that and start testing your parameters you will see the spike in ammonia and then nitrite and then nitrate.  Dont add any corals till your ammonia and nitrites are zero and nitrates are low, you will want to start with some mushrooms or some cheaper zoanthids.  This might take a few weeks for your tank tank to get stable so I wouldnt add anythint till then.  Good luck! 

Edited by ksmart - March 12 2010 at 3:44pm

guess you're not coming by huh?

So I want the flow going in a circular motion?  I thought I read somewhere to have the powerheads angled towards the upper middle front glass panel, causing a bouncing of the water off the glass producing the best flow......guess I will re-adjust and try to get them to make a whirlpool effect...