DaJMasta

What can I say, the times, they are a-changin'.

I didn't even bore you with the minutia of yesterday's developments (at least, in a separate blog entry), the landscape of the aquarium has changed, and the work I'm putting into it is changing as well. Today is the first day I will be doing only a single 2 gallon water change daily, that's 50% less water changes than every earlier day (on a schedule, 2 gallons in the morning, 2 at night previously for almost 2/3 water change every day). It's still significant as it's still almost 1/3 of the water capacity of the tank after you factor in the sand and rock volume, but it marks an important step towards maturity. If I had to do these water changes every day for the life of the tank, I would not have started it

The parameters have gotten a bit better, yesterday the ammonia levels began to drop, being between .25ppm and .5ppm all day long while the other vitals stayed fairly constant. Despite the ammonia dropping off, the nitrates and nitrites didn't hop on back up like you would expect with a typical cycle - a promising sign for someone trying to soft cycle the tank. I also noticed some new critters - a hydroid with maybe 8-10 tiny striped tentacles flailing in the current on a piece of live rock that's maybe 6-7mm across - my very first aptasia (two of them actually, on the LR from aquatek exclusively) - and some renewed growth on existing creatures. The halmedia is clearly growing, though in an odd way: it's literally bursting out of it's old leaves with little green bumps sticking out of the decaying leaf shell that remained.

This morning however I was greeted by a small diatom bloom, basically anything that was gray on the live rock is now brown, and there's a tiny bit in the sand. Since my nutrient levels are all pretty low, I think it's because of my full length photoperiod and not enough plants to take up the decaying mass of stuff. In the morning the ammonia was a solid .25 ppm, down from the days before, and nitrates and nitrites were both stable at almost nil. My full batch of tests tonight showed more progress down the road to stability:

Specific Gravity: 1.024 (though it dropped just a smidge thanks to an overzealous top off earlier in the day)

Temperature: 78 F (got to 77 when my roommate decided to turn down the heat in the apartment....)

pH: 8.2 - distinctly more purple than the more brown earlier samples, and I think it's influenced by....

ammonia: 0 ppm - that's right. The 7th day (not even a week with the tank full of water) and my ammonia 'spike' has subsided without any signs of nitrate or nitrite spikes

nitrite: 0 ppm

nitrate: < 5 ppm

alk: 18dKH (still ridiculously hard)

The diatom bloom even made the place a little easier on the eyes, now with not so much gray everywhere, so it's been a very good couple of days. The AC70 to be modded into a refugium should have arrived, but fedex is once again dragging it's feet and delaying it for the third time, so that will wait until tomorrow (if I'm lucky). Also got the reefcleaners order coming in on friday, so I'll have some snails, 2 hermits, a peppermint shrimp, and some macro and mangroves who will be the first real purchased stock for the aquarium. The TDS meter is also in the mail to tell me more definitively whether I need to go RO/DI or not.

Oh and finally, the 'whale sponge' is tentatively identified as a "Red Condominium Tunicate" and I've heard from another reefer with rock from the gulf with a very similar looking organism. Neat!

The Planaxis snails are back in stock.... I'm in!

2 Blue Leg Hermits

5 Dwarf Ceriths

5 Dwarf Planaxis

5 Empty Hermit Shells

3 Nassarius Vibex snails

1 Peppermint Shrimp

1 One Penny Macro

1 Five Red Mangroves

Total: $19.67

A strong clean up crew and the basics for the refugium on the cheap!

The short answer is no way.

But anyways, the 5th day has come and gone and it's been a bit less eventful. I did a 2 gallon water change in the morning and have one on the charts for the next hour. The water parameters are surprisingly stable, despite a marked increase in detritus. There's a little more growth and a few more things which have appeared on the rock - all generally promising signs for my young reef. I also stopped by lowes to pick up another bucket, a smaller hose for siphoning (the 1/2" was simply too fast for the size of the tank, and 2x airline tubing was too slow), and a couple of switching extension cords. Now no such cords were there to be found, so I got two cheap extension cords and two inline lamp switches to make my own. I wanted a switch for the pump and heater in the seawater mixing bucket as well as one for the powerhead and eventual filter to minimize wear on the sockets from big water changes. Since they're low power devices and everything's going into the GFCI anyways, there wasn't a big requirement for quality.

Today, the parameters are:

Specific Gravity: 1.024 (higher than I initially was shooting for, but from reading that inverts tend to like saltier water and that 1.022-1.025 is generally acceptable, I don't think .001 more is a problem. I'll be shooting for 1.024 in the future)

Temperature: 78F (turned up the heater last night to minimize the overnight drop, but it's about the same regardless )

pH: 8.0 (same color as yesterday, in light it matches 7.8, in shadow it matches 8.0. Against the white backdrop of the card, only the 8.0 matches as the color is too washed out to look like 7.8 in the light)

Ammonia: 1 ppm (level despite the obvious decay in the tank)

Nitrates: < 5 ppm (still low despite dropped ammonia, methinks the fresh rock and the live sand got the nitrogen cycle kick started)

Nitrites: 0 ppm

Alkalinity: 17dKH

And finally, some pictures to give this entry meaning:

My newfound feather duster (a shy little thing):

The anemone that was a mere polyp just a few short days ago (still too early for me to scream apstasia, but I'll keep it in mind):

And the infamous whale sponge is still whaling away. Going to post something on nano-reef.com to see if someone can ID it.

I've got a handful of things I bought which though semi-reef-related really belong in a freshwater tank. Before I got the idea to start a reef in my 7.5G I was planning on a blackwater river tank - so here's what I've got left over (all new and unopened):

Kent Black Water Expert 8 oz

Seachem Matrix Natural Filter Media 250 mL

Seachem Onyx Substrate 7 kg/15.4 lbs

Feller Stone Swahala driftwood (smallish, as pictured)

Take everything for $25 cash. Would have to be a pickup as I've only got a bike to get around and I'm in the Far West/Aquatek area on Mo Pac. It would be a great start to a freshwater south american river biotope in a smaller sized tank - though aside from the black water additive it could be used in virtually any setup.

If this is too non reef related then it can be moved, but I wasn't sure exactly where it should be.

Yep, that's the impression I got after looking around a bit too. I've got a few other types, a couple of things with big anchors, some smaller red and green kinds, but that seems to be the dominant kind.

The fourth day of this tank's existence is upon me and it's starting to really shape up. Fedex was kind enough to bring the stand which should have come yesterday (the filter to be made a refugium is still absent however) and with the new piece of furniture I've rearranged the room. Now that the tank's in its more or less final place, I've also been able to fill it all the way for the first time, which I have to say looks much better. The massive water changes have continued, but the parameters have improved slightly. The 'whale sponge' is alive and kicking along side its bivalve friend, and I've spotted two new creatures in the tank: a segmented round worm, and a little feather duster!

The tank looks more gray than it did because a lot of the fuzz on the rocks has died and is becoming debris (or is that detritus), but at the same time there's great signs of life from the plants on the rocks. The most common macro on those rocks is probably halimeda and while some leaves are getting paler and limp, all of the plants also have leaves that have darkened in color and are holding their firmness. There's even a little green macro sprout on the topmost rock, probably the same plant all the gray fuzz was in its previous life. I'm looking forward to seeing more things venturing out and more things spring to life in the next week, and perhaps am only a few days away from a single daily water change instead of the approximately 12 hour water change schedule I've got going now. My parameters are looking like this:

Specific Gravity: 1.024 (too high for what I'm aiming for, but probably nothing too bad. Keeping the right level with the top off will be easier with it fully filled though, I can just keep track of the high water mark and fill to that point every time)

Temperature: 78 F

pH: 8.0 (improved from yesterday)

Ammonia: 1 ppm (improved from yesterday and before the morning's water change)

Nitrates: 5 ppm

Nitrites: 0 ppm

Alkalinity: 17 dKH

And the tank's looking like this:

Since everything's looking good and I'm rather antsy to get something that moves around the tank to watch, I'll be placing a small order for the tank in the ARC's group buy to reefcleaners.com. Especially with all the debris and with the refugium on the way, some clean up crew to get this thing spic-n-span is a nice thought. Until then I watch and wait

That actually does look like an awesome little pump. The TOM Aqualifter is a decent ATO option because it's low flow (uses airline tubing), and uses suction - but it's only got a 30" head. Still if you don't want to deal with finding a 9VDC power supply or have an ATO which switches 120VAC that's probably a better quality pump.

I'd say there's a fair amount of difference between them, because seawater conditions tend to be harder to replicate with any degree of accuracy and the animals that live in it tend to be more sensitive to changes in it (sea water varies around the world, but it's all connected and there's a huge amount so it is a fairly specific environment). I won't go in to recommending you equipment, because I'm fairly new to this myself, but take cycling as an example. In a freshwater tank you would fill the tank and add some gravel and rocks and feed the water to introduce ammonia and start the bacteria flowing. I tended to add plants and a sample of water from another tank or a local stream for a little extra kick, but it was by no means necessary (there's also the option of using a prepackaged bacterial starter). With a salt water tank, most of your filtration is done by the sand bed and live rock - especially in a tank as small as 20 gallons - that means that while you can do a similar thing to get the bacteria started (put in dead sand and rock, add a piece of shrimp for ammonia, let sit for a few days, remove remains, etc), that's a very long and fairly ineffective way to do it. To get maximum filtration and get as close to a marine environment as possible - which is required because of the sensitivity of the animals you want to keep - you need a seed source for biodiversity at the very least, and if you start with mostly dead rock and sand, it can be a matter of a month or more before the seed organisms spread enough to be able to support any normal livestock. Then having different organisms to do different things (clean up crews, corals, fish, etc) is important to be able to sustain your livestock population as they would be in the natural environment. Then to make matters more interesting, each organism needs it's own kinds of habitat - corals for example often need high flow areas of the tank and powerful overhead lighting to grow properly.

Long post short: making a marine aquarium work is much more about creating a functional biome than freshwater aquariums typically are. I'm not trying to discourage you as it can be done - even for a reasonable amount of money - but expect to take things slower in terms of stocking, to do more testing for water quality, and to keep up with your water changes. Maybe a more experienced reefer can set you off in the right direction for equipment, but there's a lot of tutorials available and a lot of forums with information about this which can help as well.

Day 3 have come and gone, but today it's been somewhat less eventful. I visited Aquatek this morning and while the staff was friendly and helpful and all, the power went out within a minute of me entering the store - so I suspect I missed seeing some of the livestock properly. Regardless I picked up a couple extra pieces of live rock bringing my total to about 11 lbs and some airline tubing and valves and things for drip acclamation and smaller scale siphoning. Fedex also decided not to show up until the apartment office was closed, and thus declared the package undeliverable today... so the tank is still sitting at 2/3 capacity on my night stand.

I did a water change after I woke up this morning and it was showing about 3ppm of ammonia before it (was approximately 2 gallons or 50-60% change after that reading). I ran the full battery of tests just recently and have some potentially odd results - though again I'm not going to fret too much because it is still in the early stages of cycling.

My current parameters are as follows:

Salinity: 1.025

pH: 7.8

Ammonia: 4 ppm

Nitrate: < 5 ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

KH: 17 degrees

The ammonia is pretty much expected, it's spiking but I'm doing enough water changes that I don't think it's to tank-killing levels by any means. The nitrate and nitrite are lower than I expected, and lower than yesterday's, but perhaps that's the result of the live sand - if the bacteria for eating nitrate and nitrite were already there, perhaps they're quicker working that the ammonia eating ones for the moment and have cleaned up some nutrients since yesterday's measurements. The salinity is higher than I want, I'm not using an ATO and I need to do a better job topping it off with fresh water when needed. Probably more than once a day until I find a solution for it.

Now what really concerns me is that the pH is back down again (could be part of cycling but I don't know why) and the alkalinity is through the roof - as in off the charts of the provided information package. So in the interest of finding out why, I tested my ready-mixing seawater to be used in tonight's water change:

Salinity: 1.023

pH: 8.2

KH: 17 degrees

The mix seems good in terms of pH, and since it has a top little evaporation has kept the salinity stable, but the alkalinity is still way high. So I'll test the source - tap water.

KH: 5 degrees

GH: 4 degrees

Interesting.... the tap water is not to blame for the excessive hardness of the water. Well then there's two things it could be: either the water conditioner or the salt... and I've got some water waiting for the topoff....

KH: 6 degrees

GH: 5 degrees

That's probably within the margin of error for the test (API by the way). So the salt is making my carbonate hardness rather high. I'd be curious to see what the calcium readings are, but I don't have the kit at the moment. Perhaps this salt is designed to over-correct on the alkalinity to compensate for what corals and such would take out of an established reef aquarium. If this is the case, then I should see KH gradually decline as the aquarium matures and as I add livestock. The salt is Instant Ocean by the way.

Since I'm looking into the viability of tap water as a water source, I also bought a TDS meter off of ebay today, I don't expect to see it until mid next week, but it should help me make a decision and if the kH thing is still a mystery it may be able to shed some light on the situation.

Finally in terms of life, the yet unidentified 'whale sponge' is still alive and kicking, though I'm convinced that it's "arm" is actually some of the sponge growing on top of a bivalve of some sort (maybe a mussel), because when the mussel like part opens you can see a white and black fleshy portion that looks nothing like the terra cotta colored holes in the "whale sponge". The little polyp that looked like an anemone has somewhat larger tentacles, the bristle worms are remaining out of sight, there's small tunnels in the sand up next to the glass indicating probably copapods, and one of the new pieces of live rock had something in it. At first I thought I saw two little crab legs, then I thought I saw a part of a bristle worm, then I thought it looked a little like a squatty snail....... so I have no idea what it is but there certainly was something there.

Continued from Day Two: The Nitty Gritty

And I leave you with a mystery. That 'cactus' described creature is still baffling me. I think it is attached to the one I thought was mussel like, and the mussel like one also has circular openings. Both seem to be alive and well (or as well as a plant like creature I know nothing about can look), but I have no idea what they are. Just the hunch that they're filter feeders because of all the holes (which are actually the color of terra cotta on the inside!). Thus, it's temporary name is the whale sponge, because I think it could be a sponge and because when you look at it from sand level, it looks sort of like a whale covered in fur.

Any ideas what it is?

While it says day two, my aquarium has really only been realized for 26 or so hours at this point. Regardless, it's the second post and the second day I've done things with it so it counts as day two. The water has cleared up and I did a fairly significant 2 gallon water change earlier today. Post water change the levels (now a full battery of tests) seemed rather similar to the last day's, but aren't quite in ideal places... I have a gallon more brewing for a change late tonight to keep the ammonia levels as low as possible. Today the KH test kit and the heater for my seawater prep barrels came and I also visited lowes for a selection of buckets, as well as some aquarium related equipment that should be useful in the coming days, weeks, and months. The full parameters today look like this:

Specific Gravity: 1.0235 (estimated, the purple line between the white and blue areas of the refractometer is as wide as .001, so I'll just put it in the middle)

Temperature: 78F

pH: 8.0

Ammonia: .5-1ppm

Nitrates: 0-5ppm

Nitrites: .25ppm

KH: 14 degrees

The pH is still slightly low and the ammonia/nitrates/nitrites are still clearly in cycling (what else would I expect), but the alkalinity has me a bit concerned. I'm not sure how it got to be so high and I don't have a calcium test, but I will see if it normalizes in a few days with a few more water changes and a little tank maturity under it's belt. As all of the critters in here now already survived 2 days in a box I think they'll probably be alright with a little extra alkalinity.

The tank is still at maybe 2/3 capacity and on a cardboard tray because the stand has not arrived, and I don't want to make moving it more difficult than it already will be. I think I'll be visiting aquatek tomorrow to browse, but considering I've got a refugium on it's way I may pick up a little more live rock and some chaeto or another macro, as well as some airline tubing and valves for general use (1/2" hose is a little bit too much flow for water changes and siphoning in a 7.5 gallon tank).

But as promised, I've got some pics of everything ready to go:

With salt dissolving, the tank is first assembled (with cardboard tray intact) on my nighstand.

After adding the live rock from the package, some stuff came out of it! I think it's a bristleworm (have seen a couple others now) and the crab next to it is deceased. I haven't seen one of those crabs alive but I really would like to

Then came the sand:

In some of my first looks around the tank after the sand settled, I saw a few more neat things. The first looks like a coral skeleton, but I don't know if it was alive when shipped.

The second was a little polyp of something. The next day I looked again and there's a few 2mm or so long clear tentacles which remind me of an anemone.

And at the end of the day, the whole thing looked something like this:

The next day I got the new equipment and made a water change, my room gradually resembling a lab of some sort.

And a through-the-flow picture of the reason I don't have a problem with a few dead crabs on this rock.... it's packed full of alive stuff anyways:

Second half of the entry to follow.... image limit......

So I'm back in Austin after a winter break with my family and I'm greeted with a whole slew of boxes in my apartment office full of aquarium stuff. This is most of what I ended up getting and since I have limited transport ability, it included all the heavy stuff and the tank. The project is a 7.5 gallon nano reef and it's my first reef setup, though I've done a fair bit with freshwater tanks even in very small sizes.

The hardware includes:

7.5 gallon Mr. Aqua bow front aquarium

Hydor Koralia Nano

Marineland Stealth 50W Heater

Nova Extreme 18" T5HO fixture (one 10k sunlight, one 460nm actinic)

All the assorted testing and setup supplies my research told me were good (more than a few!)

I also got my live rock shipment today, I opted for an attempt at a soft cycle and a fresh source to get as many interesting critters in the tank to start and keep them there, so I ordered 10 lbs of deco rock from http://dansmarinelife.com/ (though through his ebay store). It arrived a day ahead of time via priority mail and smelled pretty fresh - especially for non overnight shipping. I was a little disappointed to find a few deceased little crabs in the bottom of the bag (less than 1/2" shells + legs), but the rock itself was covered in coraline algae, macroalgae, and all sorts of things I hope to eventually be able to identify.

I added the rock to the tank after mixing and heating the water and instantly saw a few pods swimming around and what looked like a 2.5" bristle worm swim off of it. I then 'aquascaped' loosely and dumped in the sand... it took some time for the dust to settle and the pipet from the refractometer is no replacement for a turkey baster to blow the sand off the rocks, but it really seems to be coming to life. I've seen a couple more bristle worms, have found what look to be a number of corals - even several different varieties - lots more red and orange algae - and two really interesting things. They're attached to each other and to the rock and both are alive (they've moved). One looks somewhat like a mussel and the movement I saw was it shifting, opening about a quarter of an inch, venting, and closing again. The other is more unusual, I initially thought it was a sponge and I don't know if that is wrong, but I have my doubts. It's between 2 and 3 inches long and is a dark burgundy in color. It's shape is similar to a stereotypical green cactus, without the arms. So you get a sort of plant bud tip with a hole in it to a cylindrical body with ridges. The whole creature is then covered with a fuzzy red algae of some sort, and it is rooted to the rock and can both move around on it's anchor and close the hole at the end.

I hope to find many more critters, and I really do hope one of those tiny crabs survived the journey by hiding in a crevasse, cause they looked really neat. At the moment my water params are a little off, salinity is good (1.023), pH is a bit low, between 7.8 and 8.0, and ammonia is present, between .5 and 1 ppm. That means tomorrow will be a water change (perhaps two) to encourage a truly soft cycle - keeping the ammonia and nitrates down enough to keep the stuff on the rocks alive and well. Tomorrow will be spent mixing water and running some more tests (including nitrates, nitrites, and alkalinity so long as it arrives). Coming additions include: a proper aquarium stand (in the mail), a refugium modded from an AC70 filter (also in the mail), a little more live rock (from a local source), and some good old fashioned time to let things settle in and give me a good look at what's already in the tank.

By the way, I used a sand I haven't seen mentioned many places called Nature's Ocean which is a proper live sand (packed in seawater, expiration date on the package). It was pretty cheap and the Drs shipped it equally cheaply, I obviously can't comment on the long term usefulness of it but the grain size seems reasonable and it looks nice.

I'll have some pictures of things up tomorrow when I unpack my memory card reader.

Ahhhh this is exciting.

From what I've read, it's likely to be Nitrites or Phosphorus that's causing you problems. The solution would be something to use up those nutrients, so either a macroalgae that will use up the nutrients before the microalgae can get it, or water changes for nutrient export. I'd say do a couple of smallish water changes (10-15%) every week for a few weeks. Getting some clean up crew critters that will eat the algae is also an option, but the most effective means is to keep it from growing.

I think the water changes are the best bet, but if you've got space/light in your refugium throw some macroalgae in there to help pull nutrients out of the water that the microalgae would otherwise use.

If you're worried about it, shut off the outdoor water lines from their internal valves, then open the spigots outside to let them drain. That should stop any hard freezing of the pipes - it would need to get quite a bit colder or stay below freezing for quite some time to affect internal water pipes even if your home is minimally insulated. Then the only freeze worrying you'd have is if your house lost power/heat and it was below freezing for more than a couple days in a row.

Some people will probably say otherwise - on the day it snowed a month or so ago my apartment complex got flyers warning us to open cabinets with water pipes to prevent them from keeping out the main heat and freezing - but that's really only necessary below 20F (probably not even until you get under 15F) and for a long period of time. So long as the pipes that are in direct contact with the outside are drained to prevent the water freezing from shattering them, it won't be a problem.

Good to know about the KH, I'll get a test kit and keep my eyes on it. I also looked around at some of the auto top off setups available and while they're not the cheapest (considering it's about 2x the price of any of the bits of my nano so far) but if that really becomes an issue it looks like a low flow pump using airline tubing, a JBJ ATO or something similar, and a bucket of clean water could be a good solution.

Also

If you know what light you're looking for.... there's an unexpected place you may be able to find a good price at: Linens and Things.

http://www.lnt.com/category/1225/1/light-fixtures.html

Up until a few days ago I had no idea they even sold aquarium equipment, but sure enough their online store has some T5 and even a couple of Halide fixtures. I got a smaller dual T5 setup for a bit more than 10% off fosters, then tacked on free shipping and a 10% off coupon.

Not a huge collection, not the most powerful lights, but odds are they've got something that would do and it seems like their prices are competitive.

Nice introduction. Sounds like you are on the right track. Personally I would go with locally found live rock. Any of the cool stuff you would hope to get on imported rock more than likely will not make the trip. You may get lucky and I have seen a few people actually get a surprise coral. It's just easier to pick out the exact sizes and shapes you want if you buy locally too. As for the water it is not a bad idea to always have some saltwater ready to go. If you have an emergency and need to do a large water change right away, it can come in handy. You don't really need the sand in the mix water. If you mix it in a sterile container and keep a lid on it, it should keep for several weeks. Just do a test before introducing it to make sure the KH is where you want it and the temp is close to the same as your tank. If you need to adjust the KH you can always buffer then. I will tell you now the hardest part of keeping a small tank like that is evaporation. I ran a 1.5g pico for a while and was topping off twice a day. It get's really old. Be prepared to stay on top of it or find a away to put a float switch in there for an auto top-off. Good luck!!!

I suppose that will be an issue, in it's current iteration there will be no top (and I don't really want to add one).... then again I knew going into this that I would be doing weekly water changes and having a little aged unsalted water on hand shouldn't be too much additional work (at least in theory).

With the rock - I've read about all sorts of things coming out as stragglers, and some of the (of course cherry picked) pictures of imported live rock seem a little more colorful than your average-aquarist-selling-their-spare-rock's quick snapshot.... but I guess the reality is that they're active filter medium and structural support for your reef, they're not supposed to be a way to randomly plant your tanks with corals and inverts. I'll pay for my livestock fair and square

Out of curiosity though, how important will KH measurement and monitoring be? I've got the basics for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and pH, as well as the salinity measurement.... so if the sand and rock acts as a buffer and I don't go around swapping salt mixes - would it be a crucial parameter to measure? I figured between a fairly large sand bed, a standard synthetic sea salt, and probably very little in terms of hard coral of any sort, that I wouldn't need to go checking the KH so long as the pH is stable and the ingredients going in don't change.

I've only been in austin for a few months, but after a couple years of keeping small tanks and a long history of aquariums, terrariums, and ponds I am getting myself back into it again. I bought myself a glass 7.5G bow front with the intention of making a high-flow blackwater (freshwater) tank, but I've always been interested in reefs and small tank applications, so here I go.

I've got quite a bit of hardware en route to my apartment and I'm ready to start mixing the water and cycling (I'm out of town at the moment but will have packages arriving next week when I get back) and hope to start a mixed nano reef aquarium from the ground up. I've done some research, read some tutorials, and bought more testing equipment than I ever used for freshwater tanks (refractometer and a 4 pack of chemical tests is way more than nothing!), and I've got high hopes for a slow starting reef.

I intend to go with a mechanical filtration-less tank, so I've got a fair bit of coarse(ish) live sand en route and intend on getting 10-12 lbs of live rock - but I'm not exactly sure what to get. I like the idea of getting precured rock or locally sourced rock from established aquariums (and will be visiting Aquatek to browse in my first few days back), but I'm also intrigued by the prospect of imported live rock with the possibility of some more unusual creatures. I don't mind the effort or time involved in curing (I'm planning on 3 weeks in the tank so long as the water params are good before I buy any livestock) and have found a few reasonably priced sources online which can get me the small quantity I'd like, but if you've got any advice about live rock I'd be happy to listen.

Other than that live rock question, I'd like to know if my new refractometer will be calibrated or if I've got to do this for myself straight from the factory, and how you keep your stock of saltwater going. I was planning on getting a pump and a 5 gallon bucket and mixing it to age before using in the tank (along with some of my sand for a buffer and a heater), but since I only need relatively small quantities (a 15% water change is only a gallon), is it really worth it to have a continuously circulating saltwater stock?

My basic parts are looking like this:

7.5G gal bow front tank

Hydor Koralia Nano

50W Heater

Nova Extreme SLR 18" (2x18W T5 hood)

Approx 10 lbs of live sand

Approx 10 lbs of live rock (to be cured)

Enough testing, measuring, mixing, and treating supplies to make and age my own water and do basic maintenance and proper cycling

And eventually two fish, a bunch of inverts for cleanup and cause I like them, and a couple corals. Of course, any of this is still more than a month out - with the inverts and corals coming before any fish.

So, uh, Hi!