Hello! My name is Zach, Im from California (we are as crazy as they say) near the sacramento region. I have about 7 good years of Freshwater experiance behind me, prior to that (ages 10 and under) I collected a ungodly amount of goldfish and kept them in containers of fish purgitory. I moved from those tacky blue pepples with depressing plastic plants all the way to extravegantly planted tanks with all sorts of life. Im going to be honest, I am a pretty lazy and impatient person when it comes to aquadic tanks. Yet I keep coming back to it no matter how much of a pain these tanks can give me. The beauty of Freshwater planted tanks and the rewarding feeling of watching the tank grow painstakingly for months or years is all so worth it when it gets to where you want it (or at least close to it). At the ripe age of 21-ish years of age and a few years of contemplation and preparing my wallet, I decided to give Saltwater a try.
I decided to take a used tank route and picked up a 45 gal tank with sump and stand, Kessil A360WE (and conroller), Vortech M10 QDW, Vortech Vectra M2, a lot of rocks, Some random dosing unit, and a bunch of Salifert test kits all for 750. I also picked up a Tunze ATO and a Octo Essence 130 skimmer Used from the Marketplace.
I started my cycle today (yay) using Fritz Aquatics FritzZyme TurboStart 700. Popped about half the bottle today (as per LPS instructions) and will use the rest when fish get in. I used Ammonium Chloride to feed the bacteria and looks like everything is going smoothy so far. Im probably going to switch out the plastic tubing that is being used to pump water in and out eventually but that will be later down the line.
PLEASE PLEASE tell me if im doing something wrong or if my scape needs some work/rearranging. I love criticism (almost more than praise) and will appreciate any advise you have. I'd like to avoid all the beginner mistakes I can. I will be updating this thread periodically as I reach certain achievements or more likely, failures.
I decided to take a used tank route and picked up a 45 gal tank with sump and stand, Kessil A360WE (and conroller), Vortech M10 QDW, Vortech Vectra M2, a lot of rocks, Some random dosing unit, and a bunch of Salifert test kits all for 750. I also picked up a Tunze ATO and a Octo Essence 130 skimmer Used from the Marketplace.
I started my cycle today (yay) using Fritz Aquatics FritzZyme TurboStart 700. Popped about half the bottle today (as per LPS instructions) and will use the rest when fish get in. I used Ammonium Chloride to feed the bacteria and looks like everything is going smoothy so far. Im probably going to switch out the plastic tubing that is being used to pump water in and out eventually but that will be later down the line.
PLEASE PLEASE tell me if im doing something wrong or if my scape needs some work/rearranging. I love criticism (almost more than praise) and will appreciate any advise you have. I'd like to avoid all the beginner mistakes I can. I will be updating this thread periodically as I reach certain achievements or more likely, failures.
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