So, mid-September 2008 I started a new job with the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies. They have opened a new facility called the Center for Marine Education and Research located in Gulfport off of Cowan-Lorraine Rd. I'm the assistant bookkeeper for the center. But with my interest in the environment, this organization is right up my ally.
So, basically I've fallen in love with all things marine. And, for Christmas, my husband has bought me a marine aquarium. Neither of us had any idea how expensive this was going to be, but there's no comparison (for me) in the beauty of salt-water fish versus fresh-water fish. So, our friend Jacob gave us a 55-gallon aquarium. We bought a stand from pet-smart. Then we visited our local fish store. There's a guy that runs a store in Gulfport who has sold some specimens to the center, and he has been incredibly helpful to us in beginning our aquarium. Of course, it IS an expensive hobby, so it's a fairly even trade!!
So, ok, step one! Cleaning the tank. Now, we inherited a tank, which is not always the best idea, but in our case it was fine. From what I've read, you need to make sure there is no metal that's going to come into contact with your water for two reasons. One, the water will rust the metal. Two, the metal will leach harmful things into the water. But I knew this one was safe. All I had to do was clean it out. No soap or chemicals, just fresh water from the hose. I would recommend doing this on a relatively warm day, unlike me. Otherwise you could end up freezing your hind end off. Trust me, not pleasant!!
Next step is to check for leaks. This is VITAL for a second-hand tank. You've got to fill the tank to capacity and let it sit for 24 hours. If all is good you'll have a dry area around your tank the next day. I did this in my garage, and it's best to do this where you have access to water and a place to dump the water once you are done.
If your tank passes the test, it's time to drain it. Easiest way to accomplish this is to use a siphon tube. You'll need practice with this anyway for when you do water changes after setting up the tank. Then you get to set up your tank!
Find a good place in your home away from direct sunlight and heaters. You should probably try to find a place on a tile or non-porous floor. Carpet is a VERY bad idea!! Set up your stand and make sure it's level. Then place your tank on it and make sure it's level too. Now you need to insert your background.
Now things can go different for different people and preferences. We'd done all of the above steps very slowly over the past few weeks because of holidays and schedule conflicts, etc. But tonight we actually got it all running.
First, we put down the undergravel filter. The filter we got was actually two smaller filters so it came with lots of extra pieces. I only needed two up-flow tubes, one in each rear corner. I'd removed one too many knockout holes, but apparently I'm not the only one, because they actually sell plugs for this very mistake. The powerheads were set up next. They go right into the upflow tubes of the undergravel filter. But don't plug it up yet. I probably should have filled the tank next, but instead I set up the over-the-tank power filter. Then, we put down 3 20lb bags of Aragonite sand. This is crushed coral with live bacteria that the fish are going to need to survive. Next we put in 3/4 of a 15 lb bag of sea-salt mix. Last we put in the water. I tested our tap-water for phosphates and discovered they are too high for the animals we will eventually get in our aquarium, so water changes will need to be done with some kind of bottled water. I'll test the tank water in the morning to see if I need to buy more gallons of distilled water from the store.
Next we plugged up the powerheads and the tank filter. The water was incredibly cloudy. But it cleared up very quickly probably due to the filters. We put the heater in the tank next. We found out later that we'd gotten the water too hot putting it in and it actually had to cool down before we could test the salinity.
Originally we put the glass lid on the tank and placed our lighting fixture on top of the glass. But we had to set the lights on the ground to make any kind of changes to the tank. So Jim mounted the lights above the tank and, thus far, we've foregone any real "lid" on the tank.