120 gallon slow build

Lonny · Feb 26, 2016

Brandon42 said:
Wow that's crazy well at least you know it wasn't the water that could have been a lot of extra work. But on a plus you got a water system out of it. Your wallet might not be happy but your taste buds will and then no worries about what's in the water. You've got me nervous to get a cleaner lol. Next Friday I am planning on getting a anemone and clown. My nitrites are now completely gone, nitrates aren't too bad they may have even lowered a bit so I would say my cycle is complete and everything is doing great so far and iv only started one small flood in the house and may or may not have blasted my wife with the return pump by accident but so far so good.
Also yes we will have to start a thread like that, a tank can change so much in a year.

Wow that was fast, congratulations man! Your cycled! I want a nem for my clowns so bad but gonna hold off till this is squared away. You got your wife with the return pump! lol! Won't be long and we'll have amazing reef tanks and ex- wives

Mo-sachi · Feb 26, 2016

Congrats to the both of you! This was certainly an entertaining thread. May it all go well with your tanks. Here is a pic of mine. 3 weeks old.

Lonny · Feb 26, 2016

Mo-sachi said:
Congrats to the both of you! This was certainly an entertaining thread. May it all go well with your tanks. Here is a pic of mine. 3 weeks old.

Thank you! Good luck with yours as well

Brandon42 · Feb 26, 2016

Yes it was fast! Cycled in under 2 weeks. I think the live sand and rock plus the liquid bacteria really set it off. Plus not curing my rock set my ammonia off almost instantly at the beginning. Got my lid today! Really glad my measurements were correct because I did not want to make the hour drive again lol lid fit like a glove after some trial and error. Might need to get a new black slip though because I messed it up a little trying to cut the area where my Durso standpipe sticks out. Was hoping it would cut the noise down a bit but it didn't really do much for that.

But it will slow my evaporation down which will be a huge plus. Plus no fish escaping lol.

And Lonny yes my wife got blasted with the return pipe. Couple days ago we had a storm come through and our power kept going on and off. So I don't have a stop valve on my return pump pipe (I will in the next couple weeks after this happening) so every time the power would cut I would lift the return line to stop the cyphone. Well at the one point I asked my wife to grab the return jet and she didn't understand she just needed to break the cyphone and pulled it all the way out from the back of the tank. Well as luck would have it... The power clicked back on while it was in her hand and gave her about a gallon of tank water shower before I was able to cut the power my self...... She wasn't happy which is why I will be hard plumbing with a stop valve in my near future.

Lonny · Feb 27, 2016

That top looks great! Bummer it didn't help with noise. So my hermits are alive so I'm on my way to the lfs for a clean up crew and a peppermint shrimp.
BRS has a goods selection of check valves to choose from. And most are pretty cheap.

fernalfer · Feb 27, 2016

You guys are lucky you have water in your tanks. I just built custom stand for my 120. Need to paint black then i can start figuring out my plumbing.

Here is some pics of stand:

Lonny · Feb 27, 2016

fernalfer said:
You guys are lucky you have water in your tanks. I just built custom stand for my 120. Need to paint black then i can start figuring out my plumbing.

Here is some pics of stand:

Great looking stand! Nice shop to by the way. I'm jealous!! Keep us posted I would love to watch the progress

Brandon42 · Feb 27, 2016

Nice stand! You guys definitely won nicest stands out of the 3 of us lol. I am no carpenter. And trust me I know all to well what your going through with itching to fill it lol I think the cycle wait is worse though.

Lonny how is the clean up crew going?

Lonny · Feb 28, 2016

They're doing great! Not one loss. So no copper, snails and hermits are fine and happy fish. I'm starting to think skunk shrimp are just gonna be one of those animals I can't keep.
You know what happens when you go to the lfs for a clean up crew? You end up coming home with more than you planned lol. This time my wife was with me so no one to blame!

fernalfer · Feb 28, 2016

looking good. it must be so exciting bringing home new fish to put in the tank. Now do you quarantine any of your fish before putting them in or do you just drip acclimate?

Lonny · Feb 28, 2016

Thank you, and it is exciting! I don't have a QT yet and I may regret it some day but I just don't have the means right now. Acclimation for the fish has been floating them in the sump and dumping a half cup of tank water in every ten or fifteen minutes for a half hour, forty five minutes or so.

Lonny · Feb 28, 2016

fernalfer said:
looking good. it must be so exciting bringing home new fish to put in the tank. Now do you quarantine any of your fish before putting them in or do you just drip acclimate?

Is your stand painted now?

fernalfer · Feb 28, 2016

Gotcha. I just hear everyone saying QT is a must. But it is tough and time consuming getting DT up tough to think about setting up a QT as well. But understand the reasons why

fernalfer · Feb 28, 2016

Stand will be painted on Tuesday. Fill DT up with freshwater to check for leaks tomorrow. Stand has 2 coats of primer on it now drying.

Brandon42 · Feb 28, 2016

I'm in the same boat. My wife would prolly kill me if I asked to purchase another tank lol. One day but for now I'm just floating the bags. My LFS keeps there salinity and temp posted so iv just matched my tank to there reef tanks that way it's a easy transfer.

Brandon42 · Feb 28, 2016

I'd like to get a bio cube one day for that reason.

Brandon42 · Feb 28, 2016

fernalfer said:
Stand will be painted on Tuesday. Fill DT up with freshwater to check for leaks tomorrow. Stand has 2 coats of primer on it now drying.

Oh the nerve racking parts -.- getting it level was the hardest part for me.

Lonny · Feb 28, 2016

Ya I still gotta build a hood for the DT. hopefully that will be it and I can call it complete

here's a pick of the ATO reservoir. Built it out of the scrap acrylic I had left over from the sump. Still have to make lids.

Brandon42 · Feb 28, 2016

Lonny said:
Ya I still gotta build a hood for the DT. hopefully that will be it and I can call it complete here's a pick of the ATO reservoir. Built it out of the scrap acrylic I had left over from the sump. Still have to make lids.

That's awesome! Are you going to keep it up front like that? Seems slightly inconvenient. But you gotta work with what you got. I haven't decided if I want to build a hood or not. With my carpentry skills it most likely will not come out well and buying one is way to expensive. Maybe I will try in the future mostly becaus it might quite the over flow a little more. My next tank will definitely be drilled another way. Iv been looking into tanks for the refugium though. I'm pretty sure I can get a 10 or 20 gallon to fit in the area I have left. But will need to hard plumb the system before I can do that. I'm not sure our tanks will ever be "complete" seems there's always something to upgrade or do better.

Lonny · Feb 28, 2016

So true. Ya it's staying in front there. It doesn't block my access to the sump. The hood I'm building will be suspended above the tank about six inches. And you can do it! Mine is just gonna be four boards with a plywood center. What's your overflow look like? Any chance a lid could be put on it? Crab looks happy! What is the white string looking thing in the other pic, is it a worm of some kind?