New tank

[rab3rd]

First of all, hello to all. I am new to this forum and I am relatively new to saltwater aquariums. Back in the early 90's I had a 30 gal long set up as a marine tank. one puffer and a couple of damsels. No live rock or anything. I had pretty good luck with it in spite of the lack of know how with salt water. I kept the temp correct and the SG correct. I did regular water changes. I didnt even own any test kits. I am sure it was due to the fish I kept that I was able to keep them alive. I had that tank for about two years. I got out of the hobby when I started working a real job after college. Now I am back in. I bought a 125 long and will be setting up a FOWLR. I am using a eheim 2217 to start with for filtering. Cant buy it all at once you know. So this time around I decided I would get more into the chemical side of this hobby so that I can expand my livestock into more sensitive fish and other creatures.

Last night I half filled my tank with tap water to do leak checks, dont want to do that with RO or DI water since I will have to haul it in. Not looking forward to carting 125 gallons of water from an outside source but it is what it is. So I have a question. I will be draining the tap water this weekend to start putting in RO water. Do I need to get the tank completely dry or just get all the standing water out. I am assuming that the small amount of residual water would not be a big deal but one never knows.

Secondly, my LFS is recommending a bottled starter for cycling the tank. In the past I did it the old torture a fish way. I know I can do it with live rock but I really dont want the smell of curing live rock and the extensive water changes associated with that process. Is the bottled stuff ok? He told me he was up and running with his tanks after having lost everything to hurricane Ike (in Houston) due to long term power outages in only days instead of months.

Anyway I think I have wasted enough bits for now.

Thanks for your responses.

[leebca]

There is so much to be said about starting up that it was written in detail here: Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium

You'll find almost all your answers in the above post. Basically don't have to be a fanatic about removing all the tap water. As you can see from the above link, it's a long process that will dilute any of the tap water poisons before sensitive marine life gets into the aquarium.