So I've been out of the hobby for a few years, about 6, because I started working out of the country and haven't been home more than about a month every year. That might end within a year or so though well see, I'm a little tired of it. In this time I've had a home built and I'm about to finish my basement, actually most likely be the beginning of next year, and I've planned for a large aquarium since before they even started to build the home, whole fish room and everything.
Everything has been ordered, tank, stand, custom sump/ calcium reactor/ ATO reservoir, salt, rock, sand, etc. with the exception of electronic equipment that I know tends to have problems, lights, controller, and power heads. However I do have all of my rock, about 260 lbs of Marcos dry rock (assorted types), and my girlfriend who lives at the house has been setting a lot of this up, at least moving everything from being delivered to the basement, she takes a lot of the things like the rock and takes it down one by one she only weighs like 100 lbs so i know it's a lot to her. (The UPS driver hates me, you can tell on the cameras how ticked off he is when hes lugging those 60 lb boxes up to the porch) I've had her set up a 100 gallon stock tank with my skimmer from my previous aquarium, a 6000-SSS, on a stand to elevate it along with 2 MP40W ESs from the same prior tank. And its also hooked up to an auto top in a 40 gallon brute trashcan that's about half full so she doesn't have to mess with it that often. I had her go ahead and start placing the rock in the stock tank, at least as much as she can, it may not all fit, I did tell her I could order another stock tank and she can connect them with uni-seals. I walked her though the steps and she just doesn't want to mess anything up which is fine. She's already surprised I trust her to do all this stuff, but its not like she can really mess anything up at the moment.
With that rock in there should I just go ahead and order some bacteria, maybe even live pods after it's not full of ammonia and nitrite? (i.e. Dr. Tims, Microbactor) It's going to be a while obviously till I use it, but I'd hate to just waste that time that it could have been cycling and growing a huge pod population. I know she doesn't care about throwing some food in there occasionally to keep the cycle going if she has to it's not a big deal and it only takes a minute to do. (I haven't brought up the water changes shell have to do on the stock tank yet, whoops.)
Everything has been ordered, tank, stand, custom sump/ calcium reactor/ ATO reservoir, salt, rock, sand, etc. with the exception of electronic equipment that I know tends to have problems, lights, controller, and power heads. However I do have all of my rock, about 260 lbs of Marcos dry rock (assorted types), and my girlfriend who lives at the house has been setting a lot of this up, at least moving everything from being delivered to the basement, she takes a lot of the things like the rock and takes it down one by one she only weighs like 100 lbs so i know it's a lot to her. (The UPS driver hates me, you can tell on the cameras how ticked off he is when hes lugging those 60 lb boxes up to the porch) I've had her set up a 100 gallon stock tank with my skimmer from my previous aquarium, a 6000-SSS, on a stand to elevate it along with 2 MP40W ESs from the same prior tank. And its also hooked up to an auto top in a 40 gallon brute trashcan that's about half full so she doesn't have to mess with it that often. I had her go ahead and start placing the rock in the stock tank, at least as much as she can, it may not all fit, I did tell her I could order another stock tank and she can connect them with uni-seals. I walked her though the steps and she just doesn't want to mess anything up which is fine. She's already surprised I trust her to do all this stuff, but its not like she can really mess anything up at the moment.
With that rock in there should I just go ahead and order some bacteria, maybe even live pods after it's not full of ammonia and nitrite? (i.e. Dr. Tims, Microbactor) It's going to be a while obviously till I use it, but I'd hate to just waste that time that it could have been cycling and growing a huge pod population. I know she doesn't care about throwing some food in there occasionally to keep the cycle going if she has to it's not a big deal and it only takes a minute to do. (I haven't brought up the water changes shell have to do on the stock tank yet, whoops.)