New tank is wet

[Keeper of my nieces Ocean]

Just kidding... looks pretty clear to me but I dont know anything.  Set up my new tank tonight. Washed the Sea Carib special grade dry sand about 10 times with hose water this morning and had it soaking in saltwater from the LFS (Reef Lounge USA, Anaheim) for about 10 hours. The dry rock was soaking in hose water for 10 hours with a 170gph powerhead in the container. 

Dont mind my super high tech water level postit note or the wires for now. 

Bout to dump a whole bottle of bio spira in this bad boy and a few drops of ammonia and let the chemical reactions begin!

Clowfish17 is about to chew me out for the corner of my tank being off the edge of the matt. Is this an issue I'm going to have to correct? Happy with Waterbox other than that. 

 pictures 1-3 are about and hour after adding water

Pictures 4-5 are just after adding water. 

Pictures 6-7 are my tank hanging off the edge of the matt ready to burst the tank open sending a shard of glass across the room into my jugular at any moment. 

[seabass]

1 hour ago, Keeper of my nieces Ocean said:

the corner of my tank being off the edge of the matt. Is this an issue I'm going to have to correct?

I would, as the seam would be more likely to fail with uneven pressure.

 

 

Nice tank; it seems to have sort of an ancient ruins feel to it.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Cloudy is normal on a new tank.  Mine cleared up in about 4-6 hrs.  Another one I set up cleared up the next day. 

 

I would soak or cure any rock (live or dry)  with RODI water in 1.026 SG .  This will ensure non of the bad stuff from tap water will be absorbed by the rock . The longer the cure the better. 

[shaner014]

8 hours ago, seabass said:

I would, as the seam would be more likely to fail with uneven pressure.

 

 

Nice tank; it seems to have sort of an ancient ruins feel to it.

 

 

I contacted WaterBox about this for my 20AIO. Their official response was "Because our cabinet is made so the door sits flush with the front edge of the tank, the mat is purposely cut shorter." This went against all I had read in the past... and I set mine up just as the OP has. Now I'm questioning that decision again.... I have to do a large water change after the cycle, ill likelt cut a thin strip of mat to fill that gap and pry it in before it's too late.

[Keeper of my nieces Ocean]

2 hours ago, shaner014 said:

 

I contacted WaterBox about this for my 20AIO. Their official response was "Because our cabinet is made so the door sits flush with the front edge of the tank, the mat is purposely cut shorter." This went against all I had read in the past... and I set mine up just as the OP has. Now I'm questioning that decision again.... I have to do a large water change after the cycle, ill likelt cut a thin strip of mat to fill that gap and pry it in before it's too late.

 

Contacted Waterbox just now, not very helpful.... Told me that's how the 15+20 G's are designed because of the cabinet, but the 10g has no cabinet so shes not sure if its supposed to be undersized as well.  She had no sense of urgency, it was like pulling teeth to get a timeline when I'd hear back and the best she could do was maybe tomorrow...

I found a piece of the same type of foam laying around that is actually a little smaller that I put in there, hopefully if it sags that might help a little. 

[Keeper of my nieces Ocean]

Filtration it came with was a filter sock, bio balls, carbon and sponge. I just took out the sponge and filter sock after reading more about cycling. (Little late i know) should i remove the carbon as well? Thats kinda what im gathering. Anything else I can add now? Also, what would you put back there when its done cycling? 

Thanks for the advise

[seabass]

1 hour ago, Keeper of my nieces Ocean said:

Filtration it came with was a filter sock, bio balls, carbon and sponge. I just took out the sponge and filter sock after reading more about cycling. (Little late i know) should i remove the carbon as well? Thats kinda what im gathering. Anything else I can add now? Also, what would you put back there when its done cycling?

The activated carbon won't hurt anything; but some people  choose to save it until after the cycle is established (to save a little money).  I might choose to run the filter sock to help clear the water.  Mechanical filtration (if kept clean) should also be alright during the cycle.

 

So after the cycle, I'd run some sort of mechanical filtration (could be a filter sock or filter floss) and a decent brand of activated carbon (like Seachem).  I wouldn't use the bio-balls or the sponge.

[shaner014]

I kept the bio-balls in for the cycle because Dr Tims states his stuff needs surface area. I will be adding some BrightWell Xport Bio block to offset my lack of substrate (bare bottom). Once that stuff (Xport) is in the tank for 10-14 days I’ll pull the bio balls out.

 

I ran no filter sock, but did have the IM mini-max running carbon because I wanted anything my dry-rock and epoxy would leach to be absorbed if possible. 

[seabass]

2 hours ago, shaner014 said:

I kept the bio-balls in for the cycle because Dr Tims states his stuff needs surface area.

That's surface area for the bacteria to colonize.  If you are pulling the bio-balls out after the cycle, you are pulling out a chunk of your bio-filter.  I would have left the bacteria colonize the surface area that you will be running in your reef.

[shaner014]

16 minutes ago, seabass said:

That's surface area for the bacteria to colonize.  If you are pulling the bio-balls out after the cycle, you are pulling out a chunk of your bio-filter.  I would have left the bacteria colonize the surface area that you will be running in your reef.

I don’t have the bio “block” yet. The bio balls will stay in place while the block colonizes. The balls are still inserted! Haha

[seabass]

15 minutes ago, shaner014 said:

I don’t have the bio “block” yet.

Yeah, I knew that.  You'll still be pulling out some of your bio-filter when you finally pull out the bio-balls.

[shaner014]

Just now, seabass said:

Yeah, I knew that.  You'll still be pulling out some of your bio-filter when you finally pull out the bio-balls.

Yea, I will soak the block in some Microbacter and extra Dr. Tims I have first to seed it, given the small bio- load (likely only a Clean up crew when this happens, I think I’ll fair okay. 

[Keeper of my nieces Ocean]

So all i have for filtration going now is the filter sock and carbon. 

Ammonia is 2ppm

PH is 8.0 

Added the bio spira tonight ill test again tomorrow night. 

Mounted my wavemaker controller and put a surge protector in my stand. Surge protector was from amazon called Tripp Lite - touchmaster compact. I liked it cause it has 4 individual switches, a $50,000 lifetime power surge insurance warranty (anything that gets fried because of a power surge that this is connected to) and its fits in there to stack all the things im continuously buying on it.