Thanks, greech! It's really starting to come together. This morning my water in my mixing tote was at 79 degrees so I added my salt (7 cups, 15 gallons of water). I will let that mix up all day today, and over night. I plan on doing my first water change tomorrow (10%) and depending on how my levels look next week, possibly start to add the CUC.
I tested the water yesterday, ammonia was between 0 and .25 (those API kits are hard to read), nitrite was 0, and nitrate was around 30. So my nitrates are still pretty high, I think this is mostly due to the fact that I cycled with tap water (won't be doing that again lol) so I am eager to start doing some water changes with the good water.
As for flow, I have been thinking the same thing. I moved the power head to the bottom left back wall and pointed it down towards the sand bed, and I have the return outlet pointing up and to the right to get some surface agitation. Been thinking on getting another Nano 240 and putting it on the right side of the tank.
As far as planned live stock... I have no idea lol. I haven't even considered what I want for fish and coral - I'm not even sure what I want to do for a CUC. I have been spending most of my time just making sure everything is good with my equipment and rock placement, etc.
Which leads me to my last point. Temperature... I have been battling this the entire time. Came into the office this morning, and the tank was at 80.2, currently its at 80.8 as I type - and this is with the lights still off from last night. I've got my heater set to 77 so it shouldn't even be running. I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to have to buy a chiller as those are expensive. I am thinking about replacing the 2 fans in the hood... and possibly getting an LED retrofit kit. I need to figure something out to bring the temperature down.
I tested the water yesterday, ammonia was between 0 and .25 (those API kits are hard to read), nitrite was 0, and nitrate was around 30. So my nitrates are still pretty high, I think this is mostly due to the fact that I cycled with tap water (won't be doing that again lol) so I am eager to start doing some water changes with the good water.
As for flow, I have been thinking the same thing. I moved the power head to the bottom left back wall and pointed it down towards the sand bed, and I have the return outlet pointing up and to the right to get some surface agitation. Been thinking on getting another Nano 240 and putting it on the right side of the tank.
As far as planned live stock... I have no idea lol. I haven't even considered what I want for fish and coral - I'm not even sure what I want to do for a CUC. I have been spending most of my time just making sure everything is good with my equipment and rock placement, etc.
Which leads me to my last point. Temperature... I have been battling this the entire time. Came into the office this morning, and the tank was at 80.2, currently its at 80.8 as I type - and this is with the lights still off from last night. I've got my heater set to 77 so it shouldn't even be running. I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to have to buy a chiller as those are expensive. I am thinking about replacing the 2 fans in the hood... and possibly getting an LED retrofit kit. I need to figure something out to bring the temperature down.