Trial and Error with New 36 Gallon Tank

As soon as I moved in to my new place I went and bought the Aqueon 36 gallon bowfront tank and stand that I had been drooling over.  Getting it home and up to my new 3rd floor apartment was an adventure by itself.  Since the tank is made out of glass it is very heavy, almost more than I could lift.  I managed to get it about halfway between the 2nd and 3rd floors before a passing maintenance guy saw me struggling and ran up the stairs to take it the rest of the way for me.  The stand was also very heavy, surprising because it's particle board but I guess it's very dense in order to hold the over 400 pounds it's rated for, but at least I could take that up a few pieces at a time.  Once I assembled the stand and lifted the ridiculously heavy tank onto it, I proceeded to add substrate and water.  Since it's a planted tank I decided to layer the substrate with about 20 pounds of reddish flourite on the bottom and 40 pounds of black sand over it.  After rinsing and carefully layering the substrate I began to add water very slowly, scooping it from a bucket with a red solo cup and pouring it carefully onto a small plate I'd laid in the tank to avoid disturbing and mixing the substrate.  After 30 minutes or so I had added about 3 gallons and noticed a little problem - the tank was leaning forward away from the wall.  It turns out that the shape of the tank and stand makes it heavier in the front and since it was sitting on carpet, the front of the stand was driven deeper into the carpet than the back.  I immediately siphoned out as much water as I could from the tank and moved my dining room table directly in front of the stand - just in case.  There it remained for a month or so while I concentrated on moving the rest of my stuff and figuring out how to level the tank.  Then on the advice of an experienced aquarist I bought some door shims from Lowes and got a friend from work to help me place them under the front of the stand.  There is now a very slight lean toward the wall, only detectable with a level, but it seems to be perfectly level across the front so the tank isn't being twisted.

Now came the fun part: adding plants, decor, and fish.  I started by installing a bubble wall on the back wall, then added various plants, making sure the roots reached all the way down through the flourite level.  I don't know what the names of all the plants are, but they include coconut, amazon sword, anubias, java fern, corkscrew val, and mondo grass.  For decor I added a lava rock, a piece of driftwood, a large balinese lantern from Petsmart, and a fake rock arch with a bubble wall behind it.  I attached an anubias plant to the driftwood with a rubber band, hopefully the plant will attach itself to the wood in time and I can remove the rubber band.

When I first added water and decor last night, the water was fairly clear, but now it looks cloudy, I'm not sure why.  It could be that I stirred up sand particles when I added more plants this morning, or it could be because I cut a piece out of a filter cartridge from my 10 gallon tank and popped it in the filter for the new tank.  I added some water clarifier so hopefully this will help.  I tried turning off the bubblers, but that didn;t seem to help much.  I may need to use a weaker pump though since the one I got seems quite strong - it's for up to a 40 gallon tank.  The only other things I've added to the water is water conditioner, Aqueon aquarium plant food, and Tetra Start Zyme, which is supposed to add bacteria to the water so you can immediately add fish.

Now comes the best part of all: adding the fishies!  It may be a bit early, but with the combination of plants, Start Zyme, and the old filter media I think it'll be ok.  I installed the heater and thermometers and made sure the temperature was correct, and tested the water to make sure it was conditioned properly.  Everything checked out so I went and bought 3 beautiful cherry barbs from Petsmart and added them to the tank.  They pretty much alternate swimming around exploring and hiding in the plants right now.  I also transferred one of the assassin snails from the 10 gallon tank, just in case they got any ideas about procreating.  Here are the cherry barbs:

They are such little fish, it'll be interesting to see how long it takes for the ammonia spike to hit in such a large tank.