raggedfinfirefish
Premium Member
Hey guys, about a month ago I started assembling my new 120 tank, and decided now, about a month later, that I'd really like a journal to showcase its progression, but unfortunatly I didn't take many pictures or anything, so bear with me while I reccount my adventures, and show you pictures of whats going on now!
To begin the adventure, on March 25 at about noon I arrived at a Drs Office in coppel to meet Marine Snow and we begin to dissasemble the monster. It had been running soly the ecosystem and the C/L with about 40 gallons of water and a 40ish LB mixture of base and live rock along with all the 100ish lbs of live sand. The dissasembling and loading into the truck was to say the least
[[H E L L]]
but, after everything was loaded up, and back at my place, I called a family friend and we beagan moving the beast into place. This took another 2 hours in addition to the 4 or 5 we spent at the Drs office. At this point, I had about an inch of water over the sand and all the rock in a tub with a powerhead and fell into a deep slumber.
The next day, I went plumbing supply shopping, to reconnect what we had to disassmble to move it, and got the C/L and return lines plumbed without any leaks, but unfortunatly the bulkheads and drain line were leaky. So, my dad and I tipped up the tank, and tightened the bulkheads and got them to work with no leaks! Unfortunatly the drain line was not so easy, so the next day I completly reworked and plumbed the whole drainline, and it too is leak free!
Later that week, I employed 2 of my stronger friends, and we pushed the thing into its final location, as it had to be out from the wall somewhat to plumb. I then added in 100lbs of new sand in addition to the old stuff to make some jawfish heaven and added in about 55 gallons of RODI salt from franks (far too lazy to mix it up)
I then later that night I picked up 25 more gallons, and the rock that had been circulating and got the closed loop running.
All this time, the 'fuge was running on itself (circulating due to the skimmer) and growing like crazy!
The next week, after seeing constant .25 ppm ammonia, I added a good 10lbs of nice rock from frank, and do a little re-aquascaping. Heres what I ended up with...
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Keep in mind, I'm looking for a two island sort of thing, and have about 90lbs of rock in my current tank that I will transfer over.
Anyways, after another week of .25 ammonia, I added another beatiful 10lbs of rock from frank, very very porus meaning bacteria right? My theory was that I didn't have enough bacteria to keep up with the death/dying stuff right? Unfortunatly today it is still .25, but heres my new improved aquascape!
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heres the one island, i'm still thinking I need to rework the top part, I'm planning on keeping my "invasive" specis such as GSP, clove polyps, my two BTAS, zoas, and other aggressive corals like my frogspawn, torch, and braniching hammers over here too.
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And finally, here is the tank in its final resting place!
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Other minor news, was that last night my oceans motions 4 way suddenly stopped switching outlets, so I gave them a call and their customer service guy ( i suspect the owner) sat and walked me through the repair, and didn't hang up for about an hour untill it was completly done. I was simply stunned and INCREDIBLY impressed with thier service, and even though it is pricy I can DEFINATLY see why.
Anyways, tell me what you think!
To begin the adventure, on March 25 at about noon I arrived at a Drs Office in coppel to meet Marine Snow and we begin to dissasemble the monster. It had been running soly the ecosystem and the C/L with about 40 gallons of water and a 40ish LB mixture of base and live rock along with all the 100ish lbs of live sand. The dissasembling and loading into the truck was to say the least
[[H E L L]]
but, after everything was loaded up, and back at my place, I called a family friend and we beagan moving the beast into place. This took another 2 hours in addition to the 4 or 5 we spent at the Drs office. At this point, I had about an inch of water over the sand and all the rock in a tub with a powerhead and fell into a deep slumber.
The next day, I went plumbing supply shopping, to reconnect what we had to disassmble to move it, and got the C/L and return lines plumbed without any leaks, but unfortunatly the bulkheads and drain line were leaky. So, my dad and I tipped up the tank, and tightened the bulkheads and got them to work with no leaks! Unfortunatly the drain line was not so easy, so the next day I completly reworked and plumbed the whole drainline, and it too is leak free!
Later that week, I employed 2 of my stronger friends, and we pushed the thing into its final location, as it had to be out from the wall somewhat to plumb. I then added in 100lbs of new sand in addition to the old stuff to make some jawfish heaven and added in about 55 gallons of RODI salt from franks (far too lazy to mix it up)
I then later that night I picked up 25 more gallons, and the rock that had been circulating and got the closed loop running.
All this time, the 'fuge was running on itself (circulating due to the skimmer) and growing like crazy!
The next week, after seeing constant .25 ppm ammonia, I added a good 10lbs of nice rock from frank, and do a little re-aquascaping. Heres what I ended up with...
Keep in mind, I'm looking for a two island sort of thing, and have about 90lbs of rock in my current tank that I will transfer over.
Anyways, after another week of .25 ammonia, I added another beatiful 10lbs of rock from frank, very very porus meaning bacteria right? My theory was that I didn't have enough bacteria to keep up with the death/dying stuff right? Unfortunatly today it is still .25, but heres my new improved aquascape!
heres the one island, i'm still thinking I need to rework the top part, I'm planning on keeping my "invasive" specis such as GSP, clove polyps, my two BTAS, zoas, and other aggressive corals like my frogspawn, torch, and braniching hammers over here too.
And finally, here is the tank in its final resting place!
Other minor news, was that last night my oceans motions 4 way suddenly stopped switching outlets, so I gave them a call and their customer service guy ( i suspect the owner) sat and walked me through the repair, and didn't hang up for about an hour untill it was completly done. I was simply stunned and INCREDIBLY impressed with thier service, and even though it is pricy I can DEFINATLY see why.
Anyways, tell me what you think!
he looks fine, just broke a little bit of his skeleton
