i've joined the dark side

[electricblue]

thanks to another hfb member i picked up a 7 gallon nano sw setup with a bit of live rock that had some small corals on it.  unfortunately he gave me the rock in a little styrofoam cooler with very little water so i just left all the rock in a little 2.5 gallon i had and tried to keep all the rock covered in water, to top it off there is no circulation in the 2.5 from filtration or anything.

i was buisy earlier with assignments but did manage to pick up some coralife salt earlier.  now i'll be off to walmart in a bit to get some distilled water and hopefully be able to move the corals back to the 7 gal so they'll at least have some filtration.

NOW, SINCE I'M CLOSER TO NOOB THAN EXPERT IN SW. &nbsp;I'd appriciate &nbsp;any tips :) &nbsp;<br>Should i stick to store distilled water, or just use prime on my tap water?&nbsp;<br>any recomendations for the way the water should be mixed?
i'm assuming a 20% weekly w/c would be best, and continue topping off during the week?
should i add a little powerhead?
is there anything to help seed up my cycle process? &nbsp;(i'm hoping the little corals make it through the process)
is there any other chemicals, supplement or stuff that i should add to help, the water quality, the corals, or anything like that?

I'd like to add fish soon when the tank is ready but for now i just want to get everything set up so the corals hopefully survive and do my research. &nbsp;i've done a bit of hw already but rather be prepared.

thanks in advanced for any tips

[dhutch]

I find buying a 5gallon jug at any of your aquarium stores and then buying their premixed SW works best. Saves you time and money on having to buy distilled water/salt mix. My LFS sells SW for around $1.50 a gallon. That's a price I can live with, when it saves me the hassle of trying to mix water weekly.

Drop a fresh store bought gulf shrimp from your grocer and drop it in the tank. That will give your tank something organic to breakdown. Gives your new tank a new found bioload per say.

[electricblue]

Tnks for the tip. I would rathe just buy the premix sw but I really haven't found any lfs on the eastside offering this, the closest one is fish ranch.
I set up the tank yesterday and added ne sand. Today all the corals were open, idl if that is a good sign that things are welll.

[Mandocruz06]

Theres all about fish you can go too its just a lil past almeda mall before,hilton furniture...they,deal with only sw...