Last night Monica helped me get the aquarium into position on the back wall of our house where it will live. It's going to be so awesome in that spot. Right in the middle of where we "live" in the house. I put in the live sand that came from the previous owner, which turned out to be far less than what he made it out to be. I'm not complaining, it was free after all, but the sand bed is maybe 1/2" deep across the tank. A trip to the store is in order today! I'm aiming for a 2"+ deep sand bed.
The previous owner also gave me about 25 gallons of Reverse Osmosis/Deionized Water (RODI), so I pumped that into the tank. That filled it up about halfway. Billy, my new Aquarium BFF, just bought an RODI unit and will give me the rest of the water I need in the next day or two. I put in 12.5 cups of Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. I calibrated my new Refractometer (to measure salinity) with distilled water, and then measured the salinity in my half-a-tank. 1.025, right on target. So for now I have half the sand I need, half the water I need, but it's up and running and circulating with the powerhead!
The "dead" Marco Rocks arrived yesterday, but I didn't have time to open the box. The live stuff is supposed to arrive today, and I'll put that into the tank directly. Billy is going to help me figure out how to arrange the rocks in my tank. I'm excited to aquascape!!!
After the live rock goes in tonight and we add in the rock and rest of the water, I'll put in a raw shrimp or two from the grocery store and let that start to rot and add ammonia to the system. Then the nitrogen cycle begins! So if the N-cycle gets started tonight, hopefully it will be complete by the end of September so we can add Fish #1!
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