Water in the New Nano Reef

We have some updates from Amanda's project tank this week.  She made a couple of purchases and learned some lessons.  She spent some time with her aunt and a friend learning how to properly mix aquarium water.  It's going to take some time before she has a solid understanding of the entire process, but she's made an excellent start.

She also spent some time online looking at others' nano tank set ups to see what she might want hers to look like in the future.  She chose a solid black background for the tank so that the corals she plans to add in the future will stand out.  For substrate she opted for live sand.  She'd normally have to spend about $15-$20 on sand if she discount shopped online.  Because the quantity she needed was so small, we gave her what she needed to start, as well as the small section of background.

She also added water to the tank and learned how there is definitely no instant gratification when starting a new tank, especially when using sand.  As you can see from the photo, it isn't much to look at.

Fortunately, Amanda isn't going to have to experience the long wait time of cycling her tank; another benefit of the small size of her tank.  She seeded her tank with an established filter bed and water from another large established tank.  So far all of the water parameters look good, though she's going to wait to add her first livestock until she's 100% sure it will remain stable.