Yes I researched all over, took all the wrong advice and started prematurely.
First I took my Fluval SPEC III 3 gallon (2.6 really I think) tank which I had used for freshwater planted mini-tank, then sand bed tank, then gravel bed tank which had betas in it (first a veil tail and then a halfmoon) and due to the live plants I had one of them had snails hitchhiking on it so I had a snail population explosion and even after emptying tank and soaking in bleech and scrubbing clean and rinsing thoroughly the snails kept coming back and I was fed up and decided to convert to saltwater nano. The article I found and used as a guide worked for the guy who posted the article but it turns out he was damned lucky and went against all conventions and recommendations.
Being a noob I didn't research as fully as I should have and went with his laid out steps (sounded good to me and like most being a tad impatient I wanted to accelerate the process).
After once again bleaching and scrubbing and rinsing and repeating the tank I went to my LFS as my "guide" I had found said and purchased live rock with TONS of purple and red coloring on the rock (4 lbs of it) and 2.5 lbs of the live sand right from their tanks. Now let me note the LFS has been owned and operated by same guy, the sand and rock in his tanks has been in there since start so this is sand and very cured rocked for 14-15 years....it was cycled FULLY. I had stopped and purchased 2 5 gallon buckets with lids on way to LFS and put salt water right from their tanks into both buckets and the rock into one and the sand in another and sadly and VERY prematurely my black and white clown fish that made me want to start salt water in first place and home I went. Oh and before I forget I also picked up the Fluval 13w 6400K light to replace the stock LEDs as I did not feel they would do the job on its own. I had to place it on opposite side of LEDs hookup spot as the clamp is clear plastic on the 13W and didn't want to break it, as a result turned the top lid around so it fits more snugly.
Now for anyone reading this now let me clarify 2 things.
1. I was NOT trying to by-pass the cycling process....it was to be accelerated and that part for me luckily also worked. Rather than 6-8 weeks cycling to get parameters correct it took just under 1 week. Now I did a couple 20% and 1 60% water changes in the initial few days...which leads to 2nd thing..
2. WATER TEST AT LFS BEFORE TAKING HOME ANYTHING!!! The Nitrates in water from LFS was beyond the measuring of my testing ket (well beyond the 180 ppm...it was almost onyx opaque color lol) and so when I went to use the extra water I got from them to do water changes I was removing 180+ ppm water and replacing with...thats right! 180+ ppm water so no difference! Luckily I was testing 2 times daily to keep up on this and caught this. The store replaced all my water with RO/DO water and I purchased Instant Ocean salt and made my own and since then. Each time I added in something from the store (coral, cuc, whatever) the nitrate spikes and its cause of the water from the store.
Now due to 2nd thing mentioned let me point out this EMPHASIZES the importance of setting up a quarantine and acclimation tank. Quarantine so if any bugs, illness, parasites can be found and prevented from spreading in display tank and acclimation so it can survive going from a super high chemical water supply to your normal aquarium parameters (and keeps from contaminating your water with lfs').
Now I left in the tanks stock pump and filter but took out the bio-ring bag and put in a 2nd carbon bag with the one already in there, I put some spare pieces of live rock that were small enough to fit there to aid with natural filtering and in case I want to add them to main display they will be kept cured and cycled already.
Next was adding the cuc which was 5 snails and 2 hermits and a lucky find at lfs was a pom pom crab. I HIGHLY recommend them, reefsafe from what I can see and read and quite a showoff/show piece!
About a week later I added a cleaner shrimp and anemone for the clown fish and that ended the additions. May add corals over time, current a frag of green star polyps given to me and a frag I purchased of pulsing xenia which is massive in tank on its own is all that I have for corals.
I check daily my water and do 10-20% weekly and everything is stabilized in there with 8.0 PH, 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, and nitrate fluctuates between 0 and 10 ppm.
I got lucky. Let me make that very clear! I do not know if getting the sand and rock way I did accelerated and will work every time or not, why tempt fate? When I do my 10 will get mixc of rock adn sand from store and some dry live rock and sand mix it 50/50 in my upcoming 10 gallon and do a FULL 6-8 week cycling before adding CUC or anything at all into the tank. Not rushing cause that can be too costly and the rewards of doing it right seems to outweigh rest of it. I hope people will learn from my mistakes as I should have from others instead of blundering in with my size 13's making a mess and just getting lucky with results.
Before adding livestock search and search and search again, post here and post elsewhere and compare answers, DO NOT rely solely on the LFS no matter their expertise or experience (they are in it for the cash after all, although there are a FEW reliable ones out there that know treat a customer right and give proper advice and in long run will get more money from them as they can trust your store). Have them test the water the purchases are going to be given to you in to show the chem levels and if spiked get them to use proper salinity and PH/Nitrate/Nitrite/and Ammonia levels. Its your right to get what you pay for and unless you asked for contaminated water you shouldn't be given it.!
Next to my name is the link for my Tank Chronicle which has pictures and occasional narrated videos which may give more information.
If you are asking for more pictures of different angles I can see if I can borrow a camera and take some instead of using my phone however the tank sits on my computer desk in my man-cave/office in basement no windows and its where a printer would sit normally so space and accessibility is limited somewhat for both pictures and lighting options.
