Santa came early...and adding water.

The first big orders have arrived.  My biggest challenge at this point has been finding enough time to install all of the equipment I've received in the mail in the last two weeks (and more is on the way).

First off, the tank is filled!  After two trips to Whole Foods to fill 5 gallon buckets with RO water, the tank is full and the first, rough batch of salt has been added.  I nearly dumped the first bucket of water on the floor, so I decided to buy 6 feet of 1/2" tube and use the original return pump as a lifting pump to fill the tank from the buckets.  It worked like a dream and this is how I will not add makeup water after water changes.

I decided to go with Instant Ocean Reef Crystals salt as a starting point.  It seems like the poor man's Red Sea Coral Pro, and since I'm looking for a soft/mixed coral tank, I think it should provide adequate trace elements and minerals.  Alkalinity and Calcium are both higher than typical with this salt, similar to Coral Pro.

Now that the tank's wet, here's a look at what came in this week:

I've read that with the Sicce Synchra Silent 1.5 return pump and Innovative Marine SpinStreams it may be possible to avoid having a powerhead in the tank for recirculation at all, so this is the direction I'm trying out.  So far, the Sicce is a perfect fit and is dead silent and while the SpinStreams make the slightest whirring sound if you listen very closely, I've been really impressed with how quiet the whole system is.

I've got my Cobalt Neo-Therm 75w all hooked up to my apex, controlled to come on at 77.5 degrees F and off again at 80.0.  I imagine it will work great, once my house gets below the 79 degrees it's hovering at right now.  For the past two days the heater hasn't come on once and the slight input from the return pump (~20 watts) is keeping the tank at a balmy 81 F.

I picked up a number of maintenance items that I expect to need during the cycling of the tank: Python siphon, Eheim heater for water change makeup, and a pair of extra filter socks.  None of these have gotten wet, yet.

For monitoring of the tank conditions, I got a BRS branded refractometer with calibrating fluid, and found the calibration process easy and intuitive.  I picked up Red Sea's Marine Care multi-test kit which covers Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, pH, and Alkalinity.  I'm planning to use Red Sea's Reef Mature Pro Kit to cycle the tank and this test kit will handle all of the necessary water chemistry checks.

I also picked up an Innovative Marine Custom Cradle to hold my temperature probe, a future pH probe, and possibly my ATO fill tube--I haven't decided if I'm confident enough that the tube won't ever end up touching the water surface and creating a possible siphon back into my reservoir.  I'll have to think this through before I finalize the placement of that tube.

Speaking of the Auto Top Off, after a lot of hemming and hawing I ultimately ended up going with the full-size Tunze Osmolator.  After speaking with someone at Tunze, he said that the extra redundancy and the reliability of this model results in far fewer failures than they've experienced with the Osmolator Nano.  This weekend I ran some tests with my dad on the kitchen counter between two buckets and was confident enough to install it on the tank last night.

Everything went perfectly, except for my water reservoir.  The beautiful three gallon water dispenser you see in the picture came complete with a leaking spigot and an hour of my best efforts could not solve the problem.  Unfortunately, I had already drilled holes for the pump power cord and the water line, so returning the $25 container it is out of the question.  For now, I'm running the pump in a 5 gallon bucket.  Not yet sure if this will be permanent.

So that's it for equipment install #1.  There will be approximately four more phases of install before the first fish: protein skimmer and prep for a future media reactor; additional Neptune Apex controller modules; sand and dry rock and then cycling; and finally the lights and lighting controls.

I'm hoping for less than a week to complete phases 2-4.  Cycling should take about 4 weeks (estimate based on Red Sea Reef Mature's use with dry rock), during which time I'll buy the lights, and then ready for fish by early October if all goes well.  At least that's the plan...