Tank Setup Questions

[Iconz]

Tonight, my tank is getting wet!!!! (and I probably will end up the same).

I just want to make sure that I've got the order of operations down for this... Your sugguestions will be appreaciated

SW mixing - Do you all reccommend mixing the salt in the tank, or in a seperate container? does it matter?
- Also, I would Imagine that if I mix it in the tank, that needs to be done before i add the sand, eh?

My sand is agra-alive sand. So, I'm thinking that I may need to put in a couple of inches of water first then putting in the sand.

- Then to put the rest of the water in, what do you all reccommend?
- I've heard of covering the sand bed with saranwrap securing it down with something weighted, and pouring the water onto that.
- I've also heard of pouring it into a tuppaware-type dish.
- Fill the display
- Fill the sump.

- I've heard of using a "fine filter" to filter out some of the smaller grains of sand... What EXACTLY do you use as a "fine filter"?

- I don't need to run my lights on a time-cycle until my nitro-cycle is nearly complete, right?

As always, Thanks for answering!

-JD

[Fatman]

I basically threw in my sand first. I mixed my water before, they recommend you mix your water by adding the salt to the water while your mixing so it does not form deposits at the bottom. A "fine" filter is just fine floss type the finest you can get and clean it regularly as it filters out the smallest of the sand particles. Good luck, btw if you put your rocks in afterwards I'd recommend a small light cycle to prevent die off of any of the good stuff on the rocks.

[hummer]

for mine and bobbos i added the live sand too the tank the whole bag water and all that came in it .. then in a seprite contaner i got from walmart a 45 gal rubbermade .. mixed up salt and water ,heated it then added too tank... and yes i got wet to...hehe keep some old rags(sp) around you will need them and yes i used a glass corninwhere(sp) and dump the water intoo that plastic will float so use glass one ..imo

[Iconz]

"glass corninwhere(sp) and dump the water intoo that plastic will float so use glass one"

I ended up doing the EXACT same thing!!! too funny

[hummer]

glad too here it all wet...

[jojo22]

I use an extra power head and some vinyl tubing. Works great and I stay dry. Much faster than filling it bucket by bucket or whatever you used.

[Iconz]

Yeah, I would have done it that way, but I was mixing sw 2 rooms away...

I only had 10 gals of RO/DI stored to start with. So, I had the ro/di unit workin in overtime last night puttin out some COLD @$$ water for about 4 hours to get the other 20+ gals that I needed. So, I was takin a ph and attaching some tubing to it and using it to pump into a 6gal container and takin that container over to the tank to fill it. It wasn't too too bad. I was just stuck waiting for the ro/di unit to produce.