Then I made seawater. I poured three gallons of drinking water into my 5 gallon bucket. The use of reverse osmosis/deionized water is important and can easily be bought at the store if you don't have one installed at home. I mixed in a bag of Oceanic Natural Sea Salt Mix pre-measured to make five gallons of seawater.
I did vigorous hand mixing before pouring in the other two gallons of water. I threw in the submersible powerhead to aerate and continue mixing the salt. Using the hydrometer, I adjusted the specific gravity to around 1.023 ppt (seawater ranges anywhere from 1.020 to 1.025 ppt. Reef tanks are usually maintained on the higher end between 1.023 and 1.025 ppt). Threw in the heater set at 80° F which is what I plan to set my tank at.
This helps to keep an even temperature on my water throughout the process and also to ensure that the hydrometer works fairly accurately, which can be a little off depending on fluctuation in temperature. Placed a lid over my bucket and I’m leaving it alone for 24 hours.
UPDATE: The heater and the powerhead are both in the bucket the entire time. The heater ensures that the temperature is stable and the powerhead helps to aerate the water and adds circulation to make sure the salt is completely dissolved.
The Fruitless Hunt For Live Rock
People who aren’t in the know often freak out when they hear the word live rock. The rock itself is not alive but is encrusted with various organisms that are beneficial to the reef aquarium. No two rocks are ever alike. Most of the time live rock comes directly from the ocean uncured and are teeming with organisms from corals to shrimps and crabs. These rocks must be put through a curing process to eliminate “die-off” from some of the organisms living on the rock that might not have survived the transfer from its original location to the tank. This curing process is a big part of the nitrogen cycle and must be completely done prior to adding any livestock. Cured live rock are also available as well as base rocks that have been seeded by placing them in mature tanks.
At first I thought about buying my live rock online through LiveAquaria.com (a fantastic site for marine supplies and livestock) but was wary about the type of rocks I would get. With a small tank to work with, I feel it’s important to be able to assess the rocks personally for optimal aquascaping. Another advantage to buying live rock locally is to minimize the amount of die-off in the process which drastically shortens cycling time.
I started my hunt for live rock locally and went to Trop-Aquarium, a local fish store (LFS) that I’ve used numerous times in the past. However I wasn’t impressed with their live rock which looked like massive lumps of potatoes with weird tumors and there were hardly any color on them. I asked the guy at the store if he had any smaller pieces as I’m trying to put together a nano tank. He told me no and proposed breaking one with a hammer into smaller pieces as a solution. I politely declined and walked away.
Then I remembered a co-worker telling me about this place that had saltwater fish and supplies so I thought it might be worth checking out. The store is called ATM II and it was tiny, and all his tanks were dirty. They didn’t even look like the kind of tanks you find in an aquarium shop. Instead, they looked like the kind of tanks you’d find in a Chinese supermarket with live fish for food. In all fairness, the shop keeper was nice and helpful and offered to part ways with some of his smaller liverock pieces after I told him about my project. However it seemed to me like his rocks were seeded which wouldn’t offer much diversity in organisms. Plus his tanks were dirty.
At this point I’m absolutely disappointed and my hunt today has been fruitless. Maybe I’m better of buying live rock online which would delay this project by a week.
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