Hi everyone,
I started the hobby about two years ago with a 180g in Las Vegas, NV. Unfortunately, things didn’t work there out, sold the tank and I just recently moved to Bremerton, WA.
I’ve been missing the hobby so on Black Friday I bought the 55 gallon aquarium kit from Petco. I want to make sure I start back off right(rusty), so I’m looking for help/advice.
When I started my first tank I had a sump for filtration and the LFS said I can start with tap water and salt mix for cycling. I started with dry rock and I used muratic acid to kill off the organisms. I did my aqua scraping, filled up with tap water, a few days later I added Carib Sea Arag-Alive sand, then added Instant Ocean Bio-Spira to start the cycle. It took about 6 weeks to cycle and I had no problems at all. I did a 20% water change with RODI and used RODI at that point.
I found that Washington’s tap water is better quality than Las Vegas. So, I’m debating on doing the same thing with my new 55 gallon. I will start with tap and water changes will be RODI, but this time it’s a lot less volume and I will be running a HOB. So I’m not sure if it’ll be an issue this time around.
Sorry for the rant, any advice for the new set up?