First time reef builder

[jerseyguy1996]

Well my wife wanted an aquarium for Christmas so I started my research. My researches concluded that a reef was the only way to go.

So here is what I have so far:
1 50 gallon All-Glass aquarium (not reef ready)
1 Pine stand and Canopy by All-Glass
3 95 Watt VHO (2 10000K, 1 super actinic)(yes I know I should have spent the extra money on Metal Halide)
1 Icecap ballast to drive them
1 AquaC Urchin Protein Skimmer
1 20 gal long All -glass aquarium for a sump
1 mag drive 7 return pump
plumbing to the sump is via continous syphon
2 150 watt heaters
2 maxi jet 1200 power heads
44 lbs Fiji LR
70 lbs Tonga LR (I ordered more Fiji and Marine depot sent me Tonga....it looked good so I didn't care)
Appliance timer to operate the lights

So I've got everything running and I am trying to be patient.....seeing as how this is my first one and all. The rock is curing and the tank is cycling. Last measurements were PH 8.2, Ammonia >8, Nitrite 5, Nitrate 10.

I plan to start dosing B-Ionic once the tank finishes cycling. I have no idea about live stock yet. I have been told by a few people that I will be somewhat limited due to my choice of Flourescent over MH.

I will post some pics on the next few slides.

So there is the list.

Can anyone think of anything that I am missing so far?

[jerseyguy1996]

I'm not sure if I am attaching these pictures right or not but they are of the tank, the sump, and my water set up.

[Loverotties]

Welcome to TRT! and good luck! fellow Jerseyian!

[jerseyguy1996]

A few pictures. Unfortunately I hadn't seen this thread when I started building this but I got this as a Christmas present for my wife. She had been bugging me for a while for an aquarium. I started in January and a lot of the set up was complete before I took any pictures. Here are a few as well as a DIY overflow box that I constructed. I tried it out today and it works great. The instructions were on www. melevsreef.com. I had to adjust the dimensions a bit to fit my tank.

[tims]

hows tank doing?

[jerseyguy1996]

Originally Posted by tims

hows tank doing?

So far so good. No critters yet but I just recently redid the rock and the sump. Hopefully will throw in a clean up crew this coming weekend some time. I had all of the rock stored in a trash can with a heater, skimmer, and powerhead for about a week while I debated how I wanted to set things up. I think it started to cook while it was in there because all of the hair algae and cyano that was growing on it died back which I guess was good and bad. Good becuase its not there anymore, but bad because i think if I were to add any clean up critters in there now they would just starve to death. Here are a few photo's of what it looks like now as well as the removable baffles that I made for my sump.