Intro of Newb/New to salt

[chunkymonkey]

I plan on taking a sample of my water to the LFS tomorrow for testing, unless I can make it by there tonight, we'll see. I hope I'm almost there. I like looking at the aquarium every morning to see what the current has done with the sand, I know, retarded, lol.

[Gilbert]

i also have a 55 gallon, it was my first aquarium and i like it but i only wish it was wider. so in order to help you out i would recomemend having a design or idea of what your looking for as far as aquascape, so you will know what shapes of rocks you will need. i have about 120lbs of rock in my tank and all i can do is the rock wall, because i just picked out any rocks without paying attention to the design i wanted.

as for the position of the korilias, when i had my k3 on the back glass facing the front it would just push my sand from the front. so you should lower it towards the bottom of the tank and face it up... thats just my 2 cents.

[chunkymonkey]

Thanks for the input Gilbert!! I lowered the power head in the fashion you mentioned, not nearly as much kick up of the sand. We'll see if the placement is good within the next couple days. My water is good to go, I couldn't resist and went by Gabe's fish for testing. Should have my cleaning crew within this week, w00t! lol

Then, slowly of course, I'll be adding fish.

As for the rock, I picked quite a few smaller pieces allowing me flexibility for structures. I just really didn't want to go with the typical pile in the center. I've been looking online for ideas. We'll see.

[chunkymonkey]

Well Gilbert, great advice! Overnight and it's all still in place! Thanks!!!