[Bamaguy]

Hello
I am in the process of cycling my a 90 gallon saltwater tank after several years of freshwater. I set the tank up last Monday and as of today (Sunday) it is reading:
PH: 8.2
Salinity 1.021
Nitrate 5.0
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Temp 79.6

I used pre-mixed water from the LFS, 40lbs of live sand and 40lbs of live rock. Two pieces of live rock came from another store and were uncured. Does the above parameters sound standard for a week old tank? I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything in the process.

[e_baer]

Yup, those are pretty standard. You may want to bump the SG level up to 1.025 though.

[jimw369]

Originally Posted by e_baer

Yup, those are pretty standard. You may want to bump the SG level up to 1.025 though.

If your tank is FOWLR you might want to keep the SG at 1.021.

What kinda tank you gonna have? FOWLR or Reef?

[Bamaguy]

I'm going to start with a FOWLR and once I pay the credit card down I will add some more live rock and better lighting to try out a reef tank.
I'm trying to pick reef-safe fish for that purpose down the road. Currently I have a sump system with Bio-balls. Will it hurt the system or fish to remove those a year from now once I get enough live rock to serve as filtration?

[jimw369]

Originally Posted by Bamaguy

I'm going to start with a FOWLR and once I pay the credit card down I will add some more live rock and better lighting to try out a reef tank.
I'm trying to pick reef-safe fish for that purpose down the road. Currently I have a sump system with Bio-balls. Will it hurt the system or fish to remove those a year from now once I get enough live rock to serve as filtration?

Those Damn credit cards! Sounds like you gotta plan and thats great.
Sump great...bio balls are not bad in themselves but they will need cleaned periodically as they will produce nitrates you will not want if let go. Ive heard people say to clean 1/3 of them every month. No it will not hurt your system to remove them. Just add some rock and remove part of the balls at a time. I wouldnt do the entire switch all at once.

Good luck with the tank!