Getting back into the hobby

Looks like a good start!

 

Thanks again everybody. The tank has been filling for about 18 hours and its about 2/3 full.

In the past, We had a 12 gal biocube that cracked and leaked all the water out. This tank was taken out of the house last spring and has been sitting there ever sense. A couple of weeks ago, we took the rock and sand out and cleaned it well, and placed into a plastic tote with ro/di salt water, heater and a power head. The old dry algea that was on the rock has started decaying and cycling. Well, last night i went back out to that old tank to take the black foam block out for usage in the new refugium and I found 2 bags of ceramic or clay rings that have been sitting in thier and were still wet. I rinsed them well and placed them in the tote with the rest of the rock and sand.

Question: does anybody think some of the bacteria are still alive on these and will this help the cycle? I plan to place these in the sump with the rest of this sand and rock from the old tank. It amounts to about 5lbs of sand and about 10lbs of rock. We also plan to get some live rock from a lfs next weekend that will go in the DT.

Also, thier were 3 black bio balls about 2" in diameter in the old tank. Are these ok floating around in the sump of the new tank?

 

Oops forgot that I had one more question.

Should I pour the cycling water from the tote into the new DT? It amounts to about 15 to 20 gal.

 

I would not

 

Finally!

Also placed a few more pieces of Rock. The lights are sitting on a couple of boards at the moment and will be hing from the cieling next weekend. The heater has a spot in the sump but will remain in the DT until next weekend as well when I complete all the wiring with the lights and timers.

 

Looking really really impressive. I hope you are having as much fun getting back into the hobby as I am.

 

We are! We're really looking forward to adding some livestock, hopefully right about the first of the year, depending upon water parameters.

 

I'm not sure if you have posted in the thread yet but what are your plans for fish?

 

This is under debate. My wife and daughter want a blue spotted stingray but I am concerned the tank is too small for this and I'm concerned it would try to eat anything it could. The LFS says it should be fine but...

In addition, we plan on getting a decent clean up crew, variuos LPS, a clown with anemone???, a couple of shrimp???, others are still TBD.

 

That tank needs a tang of some sorts to cruise around it ... Chevrons are awesome but expensive. Perhaps a sailfin?