On my third go around into reefing, I've decided I'm gonna go with a nano reef. I have a 20g JBJ AIO, and i'm trying to do all the "best practices" when starting a tank. Unfortunately, I've already made 1 boneheaded mistake, and another one that I'm confused by.
1) I bought a 20g rubbermade trashcan from home depot to mix my salt water in. In my excitement, I forgot to clean it XD. I'm already in the middle of my fishless cycle, and i've already zero'd out my ammonia, and now just waiting for my nitrites to drop. I'm getting ready to get my first fish, and I'm not sure if i've polluted my tank with whatever chemicals the rubbermade ships with. Are there any tests I can do, or maybe steps i can take to ensure my tank is animal safe? Carbon?
2) My fishless/coral-less tank is already reading at 7.78 Ph (according to apex) and 7.8-8.0 according to red sea test. The colors in the card makes it impossible to distinguish 7.8 and 8.0, but I suspect i'm closer to 7.8 than 8.0. I'm using tropic marin pro reef salt. The tank has pretty low evaporation, and is ~80% lidded. Skimmer is currently off, and I have the Innovative Marine Spin Stream nozzle agitating the water surface intermittently. Again, the display tank portion is mostly lidded.
I have about Liferock rocks and Caribsea fiji pink sand.
1) I bought a 20g rubbermade trashcan from home depot to mix my salt water in. In my excitement, I forgot to clean it XD. I'm already in the middle of my fishless cycle, and i've already zero'd out my ammonia, and now just waiting for my nitrites to drop. I'm getting ready to get my first fish, and I'm not sure if i've polluted my tank with whatever chemicals the rubbermade ships with. Are there any tests I can do, or maybe steps i can take to ensure my tank is animal safe? Carbon?
2) My fishless/coral-less tank is already reading at 7.78 Ph (according to apex) and 7.8-8.0 according to red sea test. The colors in the card makes it impossible to distinguish 7.8 and 8.0, but I suspect i'm closer to 7.8 than 8.0. I'm using tropic marin pro reef salt. The tank has pretty low evaporation, and is ~80% lidded. Skimmer is currently off, and I have the Innovative Marine Spin Stream nozzle agitating the water surface intermittently. Again, the display tank portion is mostly lidded.
I have about Liferock rocks and Caribsea fiji pink sand.