Another Cube to the mix

[chives]

About a year ago, I began my foray into the world of saltwater fishkeeping with a cube tank I picked up from Petco, where I started working around the same time. I already had a freshwater tank, so I knew the basics, but salt had always fascinated me. I started with this tank as I had gotten it for free (it was a return- it came without the lightbar. Procedure is to throw it away, but what a waste of good tank!) but it didn't last too incredibly long, only a month or so- I soon found out picos are not for the beginner! A year later, I have a 20g tank set up brimming with life, but that's not what this thread is for. It has been sitting in my living room, nagging at me to do something with it, and now I finally have. Anyways, enough rambling. On to the new tank!

 

Tank: Petco Preferred 3.7g Cube (or Imagitarium, as they're calling it now)

Circulation: Rio 180+, about 120 gph

Light: cheap amazon lightbar, will be apparent in later pics... planning on upgrading

Media: clump of loose filter floss in first part, bag of seachem matrix in the middle

 

Today I threw in a crushed coral/sand mix that I was lucky enough to have been given by the store- I got it straight from our long established system. I picked a nice looking rock from my existing set up and added a few gallons of water at a pristine 1.026. I already did a water test (a bit ahead of myself, I know) with some expected results: some ammonia, a touch of nitrite and little nitrate. What threw me off though, was a dkH reading of 16. I'm gonna wait and see what a couple days does to settle things before i try to do anything about it though.

 

Any and all suggestions are welcome!

 

Pics will come as soon as I can shrink - iPhone takes them at around 2MB, and they need to be half that lol

 

Oh, and I'm new around here too, so hello everyone! Glad to become a member of the community and looking forward to having a fun journey!