The Bait - History to Now

Jax found interest in saltwater tanks by chance last summer while attending a pool party.  He couldn't keep his eyes off it.  It was very entertaining to him.

Then just before Christmas, we had a family vacation to Houston, which incorporated Corpus Christi and Padre Island.  Jax got his first taste of beach, sand, and large-scale aquariums.

With his birthday coming up in March, and us fresh back from the Gulf, we decided to set up a salt tank in mid January so that it would be cycled and ready for his birthday - in about 8 weeks.

We headed to our local fish store, picked up a 75 gallon tank and stand, and grabbed everything else we'd need (except for anything live) to get the tank started.

That night we had the tank on the stand filled with water and salt mix with the filter and skimmer handing on the back and running.  About 50 or 60lbs of crushed coral lined the bottom of the tank.  It would be a few more days until the heater arrived (the LFS was out of stock).

Once the heater arrived, it, too, was placed in the tank.  It only took a day or so to dial in the water temperature to almost 80 degrees.

After a few days of water now at temperature, it was time to add the live sand.  I also took this opportunity to head back to the LFS and pick up a few more necessary items.  I ended up coming home with about 35 lbs of live rock, 7 damsels, and fish flakes.

Water testing for the first couple of weeks was a daily thing.  I'm not sure whether I've gotten lazy or whether I have a little faith in the tank stability, but currently (at week 7) I'm testing twice a week at most, but at least once a week.

As the weeks progressed after adding the live sand, rock, and damsels, I watched as the Ammonia level increase.  Ammonia retarded as the Nitrites began to rise, and eventually Ammonia and Nitrite levels gave way to the beginnings of Nitrate readings.  It's about that time that the brown algae showed up.

It was about 4 weeks when the first water change needed to occur.  The next one was just yesterday, and I still have Nitrates at 20ppm, so I'm prepping for another within the next day.

So here we are, less than a week from Jax's birthday with a "cycled" tank.  We've only lost one damsel in the process, my salt mix jug is nearly empty, and my test strips are about gone.  Also within the last week, about 10 dwarf red hermit crabs were added to the tank to help keep the brown algae at bay (at least on the substrate and live rocks), and we've upgraded to coral-capable lighting.  More on those last two items later.

So here we are.