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About a year ago, my wife and I had just moved, and we were contemplating different ways to decorate our new living room. The room needed one more thing; we had one glaringly blank wall and nothing to fill it. After some time and consideration, we decided that an aquarium would be a perfect fit for the space in question. I had enjoyed keeping freshwater aquariums as a little guy and thought we'd do something of that variety in our new home.

Aquariums of the freshwater variety were easy to care for with some maintenance. There were an interesting variety of fish and others to choose from. I would have a new hobby, and our home would have something to fill the wall space.

We went to the nearest aquarium supply store with this in mind, and left with everything I would need to fully cycle the bacterial colony of a new saltwater tank. This, I had been told, would take about two weeks, and that my ammonia and nitrate levels would slowly drop to zero. I would know because I would be regularly testing the levels of Ammonia, PH, Nitrate and Nitrite in the water with my new chemical test kit. Sanskrit comes to mind. On the way home, I began to think that perhaps I had gotten in over my head, and had a steep, if not insurmountable learning curve ahead.

The back of the truck held:
1 - 26 Gallon - Bow Front Glass Aquarium & Stand
1 - 20 lb bag of Marine Substrate
5 - 5 gal. buckets of pre-mixed saltwater
7 - Various Hermit crabs
5 - Astraea snails
1 - cooler filled with 25 lbs. of Fiji cured live rock
1 - Power hang on filter with mechanisms for mechanical, chemical and biological filtration.
1 - Hang on protein skimmer
1 - Thermometer
1 - Water Heater
1 - 50/50 light, providing sunlight and blue actinic light
1 Saltwater test kit (Nitrite, Ammonia, Nitrate, PH)
1 test kit
1 algae scrubber
0 - fish
0 - corals

We got the payload home and proceeded, per the saleswoman's instructions, to prepare the tank for cycling. We started by rinsing the substrate several times to remove any leftover debris and placed it in the bottom of the similarly rinsed tank. This was followed by 26 gallons of saltwater. Then I arranged the cured live rocks in what I felt to be an attractive manner. The hang on pump went on next and then the protein skimmer. They were primed and plugged in; they ran great, even quietly. The heater was next. Set at 76 degrees, said to be a good setting for fishes and corals, it began to do its job. In went the thermometer, meant to be a backup

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