i'm i doing this right

As long as it goes through the proper filtration process, it's fine. Just pulling from the ocean, there's all sorts of pollutants that in the ocean won't be a problem, but can wreak havoc on a closed system. For example; the Florida Aquarium here in Tampa has a barge that pulls around 300,000 gallons of water every few weeks from the Gulf from about 5-6 miles out. Even then the water goes through an extensive filtration process to remove metals, impurities, etc, plus a sterilization process to remove any parasites that can and will be in the water. Water's water, it just depends on the treatment before we use it in our tanks.

 

Instead of "buffering" the water(unless the Alk is low), try keeping it outside with a air pump and a air stone for a couple of hrs and see if that makes a difference. Just food for thought. Luna

 

The alk might be low. I think NSW is around 6 or 7 dKH, I think most reefers keep theirs above 8 or 9 - Not all though.

 

We never thought of doing that.. Our alk is stable its been in the normal range for a long time.. We will try that next time.. Thanks ..

 

Personally, I would not be comfortable using water from the beach, or from a LFS. You have no idea what is it the water, how they filtered it, etc. At least you can research what is in your salt mix. I like to control as much as I can in my tank.

 

The ocean where people swim is just plain gross. I would go with the LFS water or mix your own. We started with LFS water and have added our own mixed since then. It's a good, fast way to start things up, especially if the rock is precured from the same LFS. The let us borrow their 50 gallon drum and a pump, stuck it in the mini van, filled it with water from one of their 300 gallon frag tanks (they have 5 all plumbed together plus two skimmers and a fuge) and then drove off. LFS or mixed, NO ocean.

Other than that, looks good. You want some flow in the tank, maybe a pump or PH pointed directly at the rock to help knock off all of the dead stuff. If you get precured rock and precycled rock, this isn't an issue.

My 0.02

P.S. Awesome sauce on the new setup man! You must be dying to get out of that 10g! Remember, patience patience patience. Let it do it's thing before you make decisions. The woodworking addage of "measure twice cut once" can be applied as far as testing and stocking with fish goes, and as for just plain waiting on things to happen, the firewood rule of camping is gather as much wood as you think you will need, and then make the pile two times larger. Wait as long as you think you will need, then wait that duration again. It may be slow and tedious, but it helps you not screw stuff up.

 

i'm keeping the 10 gallon running for about a month more then change over the sand to black. but i'll have both tanks running the 45 is massive it's 36" long 12" deep i forgot how tall but the glass is 3/4" on the sides and 1/4" front and back it's about 150lbs i'm putting 50 lbs of base rock in
this setup is going to be FOWLR for a while i'll probably throw in a coupple strooms at some point

 

I get my water from the Jetti down the road.. It's pretty choppy there and not much boat activity.. My tanks extremely clear. Like perfect. And all my inhabitants and seaweed/corals are thriving really well..