UPDATE: 5.17.2011
I also added some pics that I snapped this morning.
got a bunch of work done over the past several days. I have been extremely busy, so i do a little here and a little there. I am also going away for several weeks starting later this week. Unfortunately i will not be able to monitor the tank, but i will have family do so. On the bright side it will make the cycle time go by faster for me. I might drop a raw shrimp in the tank to get things started after I check the water tonight.
Things I have completed over the past several days:
-Live sand. I grabbed some live sand (dead sand, whatever you want to call it) online for a good price. As per the directions i did not rinse the sand, huge mistake on my part. I did some research before, and it seems like some people do not rinse the sand and some do. Sooooo, i put the sand in the tank and i got an instant milkshake. When i let the tank sit for a day or two the water would clear up. Once I touched anything in the tank or cleaned the junk off the live rock or glass the water would get all milky again. So I let the tank sit for several more days and the same thing happend. I then lost all hope with this live sand and striped the tank down. I took out the live rock and put it in buckets of tank water, sucked out all the milky water, scooped out all the sand, and rinsed. I set the tank back up with the rinsed sand, live rock, and RO water; things are much better now. The water is crystal clear, and when I stir the sand it does not cloud up the water.
-RO filter. I got my RO filter in the mail the other day. Its a 50 GPD several stage unit, for the price I am happy with it. It makes about 1 gallon of clean water to 2 to 3 gallons of dirty water. I can fill up a 5 gallon bucket in about 2 to 3 hours, not to shabby. I don't like leaving the RO filter running with no supervision, so I have been slowly making water little by little. I have to make several more gallons to fill the tank, and some "top-off" water for when I am away.
-Skimmer. I picked up a used Reef Octopus BH 100F skimmer from a member on these boards. The skimmer arrived in great shape and packed up very well. The member was also extremely helpful with any info i needed. I finally got the skimmer on the back of the tank and running last night, so far so good. The skimmer took some time to break in even tho it was a used unit. The skimmer was producing a bunch of micro bubbles at first, when I woke up this morning the micro bubbles were gone (great news). I do have some bubbles coming out of the simmer but they are larger and do not bother me. In the overnight hours the skimmer picked up a good amount of crud.
-Canopy. I had to modify the back of the canopy to hang the skimmer. This skimmer is huge! I had to cut a 1 by 12 inch section off the back of the canopy so the simmer can hang on the tank.
Things i still have to complete:
-Canopy. I have to sand the back of the canopy where I modified it to accept the skimmer. While I have the sander out I am going to hit the whole thing and give it a fresh coat of paint.
-Heaters/Powerheads: I have the heater and powerheads just stuck in the tank for now. I have to move them to their final home once the water level in the tank is full.
-Water. I still have to make several gallons of water to fill the tank, and make some "top off" water.
