Angry Upgrade 120 to 230 Peninsula!

[AngryOwl]

Went to the LFS and happy to say the tank has been repaired. The overflow box fits appropriately now. Delivery is scheduled for Wednesday! Also coming on Wednesday is the 8020 for the lighting arm. Can't wait!

Also while at the LFS I traded in my dry rock for some Haitian rock. This batch of Haitian wasn't as good as the previous batch they had but this batch was cheaper and still looks good to me. I think I got about 100 pounds. This rock was super filthy so I took a pressure washer to it and it did a decent job. It got the major dirt off. I started aquascaping and should be done tomorrow. Then I will place rods and cement the rock as necessary.

I'm considering how I want to treat this rock. Should I give it 3 days in bleach, rinse, and then cure using saltwater for a few weeks? Or should I just go for it straight in the tank? Either way the tank needs to cycle and I plan to add water and start cycling some pond matrix media immediately. The tank will have just enough water in it to run but not overflow down the drains. Unsure which direction I'm leaning. Leave me your opinion!

Today me and my neighbor successfully moved the 120g tank over about 3 feet. Overall the process was easy but time consuming. Draining the tank took the longest. There was a little damage to the stand and floor but nothing major at all. The damage to the floor came when we tried to put the sliders on the opposite side where we already placed sliders.... there wasn't much room to work with so the angle we tried to use was just too aggressive. Anyways that project is over. The 120 as a result received about a 50g water change so I'm monitoring the results of that.

Ordered some final touches required. Still need to order the rest of the plumbing. I'm trying to take my time so I don't forget anything because these cheap plumbing places cost a lot to ship in comparison to getting a small order.

Phytotank and Copepod tank got here yesterday and are running. Nothing else to report on that for now.

Very excited to get this thing going! Anything you guys want to see or want me to answer? Let me know and I can try to answer or make a video for youtube.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Looking great!

Lol, been following the whole time.

You can tell I'm around by the spam likes.
[emoji846]

Nice work on the tank. Looking forward to seeing it all put together. [emoji846]

 

[AngryOwl]

Looking great!

Lol, been following the whole time.

You can tell I'm around by the spam likes.
[emoji846]

Nice work on the tank. Looking forward to seeing it all put together. [emoji846]

I appreciate it! There hasn't been much so far but some angry rants Can't wait to get everything in and see it start looking like a system

 

[AngryOwl]

Aquascape progress! The front part is all cemented up. I need to add rods and cement the other parts. Happy with how this is coming out! I decided I'm going to give the rock a bleach bath for 3 days. I'll do it in sections though since it might break if I do it all at once.

Ordered all the plumbing as well! Er.. what I hope is all the plumbing I need...

 

[76fishman]

Your rock formation has great spatial usage. Good meeting you @ ocean life - look forward to following your build.

 

[AngryOwl]

Your rock formation has great spatial usage. Good meeting you @ ocean life - look forward to following your build.

Awesome you found me! Good meeting you as well. I think I made the best out of this rock and I'm enjoying the look. Tank comes soon!

 

[76fishman]

You should get great water flow through your Haitian rock formation (minimal dead spots). Your wrasses will enjoy more exposed sand areas and rock hiding spaces.

 

[AngryOwl]

You should get great water flow through your Haitian rock formation (minimal dead spots). Your wrasses will enjoy more exposed sand areas and rock hiding spaces.

Absolutely! I can't wait to see the wrasses and all my fish in their new home, I think they will enjoy all the extra space. I'm curious to find out where Walter (my blue throat/jaw trigger) will hide. He loves to hide in the little swim though at the top of my current tanks rock work.

 

[AngryOwl]

Purple stylo progress update. It's been doing awesome since August. Polyps are more retracted since I added a 2nd gyre and it's getting a little too much flow. No worries though friend, the new tank is almost here!

 

[Mayerlyn A]

Purple stylo progress update. It's been doing awesome since August. Polyps are more retracted since I added a 2nd gyre and it's getting a little too much flow. No worries though friend, the new tank is almost here!

Very nice

 

[Mayerlyn A]

Aquascape progress! The front part is all cemented up. I need to add rods and cement the other parts. Happy with how this is coming out! I decided I'm going to give the rock a bleach bath for 3 days. I'll do it in sections though since it might break if I do it all at once.

Ordered all the plumbing as well! Er.. what I hope is all the plumbing I need...

Really like that . I bet it will look great in the new tank

 

[AngryOwl]

Really like that . I bet it will look great in the new tank

Thank you! I have some it soaking in bleach right now. Will do 3 days in bleach and then a rinse. Tank comes tomorrow and I should have water in it if things go to plan! The rock will most likely go in sometime next week in sections as it gets done in it's rinse cycle.

I ordered tons of stuff and hope it all makes it here! Pond Matrix, 8020, 2 BRS orders because I keep forgetting things... those orders include parts for a screen top, return line flow increaser nozzles, additionally plumbing parts, more Anion DI resin, epoxy putty, super glue, frag plugs.... plumbing orders from Supplyhouse and FlexPVC.... The amount of stuff I got from Supply house for only $100 is ridiculous! Also waiting for some dr tims one and only (because why not....) and some ammonia.... I ordered some dog food as well if you're into all the things I'm waiting for ;Hilarious

I made a video over the weekend talking about some of this stuff. Watch if you wish. I think I will be running a contest on my youtube channel though because I want more people involved in this build. Thinking of running 250, 500, 750 and 1000 sub contests.... probably going to do BRS gift cards and some other item I don't want in my possession anymore

 

[AngryOwl]

Rock is getting a bleach bath! I'll leave it in this bath for 3 days and then a rinse for a few days and I'll test for chlorine.

Not sure if the 8020 will be delivered tomorrow. This will ruin my plans of filling it up :mad::mad::mad: the package is coming via ups and says it's been in Hoskins,IL since Friday... all we can do is hope for a miracle!

 

[AngryOwl]

Whelp... some type of miracle has to happen. I've checked the tracking probably 100 times looking for an update... but nothing. The last scan was an arrival scan for Hogdkins. If the status isn't updated in the morning I'll be giving UPS a call to see what's going on...:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

 

[AngryOwl]

it says its here locally now. Doesn't say out for delivery though, just says destination scan.

 

[AngryOwl]

A Christmas miracle?

 

[AngryOwl]

So isn't it funny after all that worrying about the 8020 arriving that the tank ends up not getting delivered! I was a little upset at first but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The 8020 is a beast (both peices about 60 pounds combined) and I'm glad I didn't have to worry about the tank underneath me... especially since I dropped stuff which would have easily broke the tank.

From the time of delivery to completed install, including a trip to home depot and dinner, it took about 6 hours. This is mostly a result of turning a 2 man job into a 1 man job... good thing I'm super ripped

Everything looks nice and level. Once I get the tank I'll line everything up to mount the light fixture. Speaking of which... I attached the SB reef bars to the ATI fixture yesterday as well. I just grabbed some small scrap screws I had since I already went to lowes and home depot earlier in the day. Everything seems on there nice and sturdy... it's not like it will be under much stress anyways...

The Haitian rock is looking much better. Some spots were very dirty still and had green spots... after 1 day most of that disappeared. I'll be switching to a freshwater rinse tomorrow!

Hopefully the tank comes today and we can get some water in it!

 

[AngryOwl]

Here we go!

 

[AngryOwl]

For those of you who don't want to help in my quest to become YouTube rich, I will type out everything that happened. I'm feeling generous and will even include pictures for you

Once the tank arrived I immediately got to work getting the light fixture hung. I prioritized this only because I wanted the satisfaction of seeing it hung. I attempted to drill into the 8020 but that failed so I had to figure out another solution.

I was able to use the 8020 nut and bolt to compress the hanging kit wire. The little ball on the end of the cable keeps it from falling it. I checked it out and everything seems like it can't go anywhere. Turned out to be a quick and easy solution.

After the lights were mounted I installed the overflow box.. and it actually fits this time then I got to cleaning the inside of the tank with a vinegar and water mix.

Then the fun begins! Already had some saltwater mixed and heated in the garage... it was as easy as running the water station hose inside and hitting the power button. I added 40 gallons. I'm going to keep adding set increments to keep track of exactly how much water my system holds. I don't think enough people do this and it ends up causing you to guess the system volume and screw up dosing products. People think they have X amount but they really have less. Some people base it on how much salt they used but this makes no sense to me when you can just keep track of the gallons you're putting in... but I suppose they might not have the means to do so as I do...

After the tank was filled I rinsed the pond matrix in some rodi water and threw it in the tank. I converted my maxijet 1200 into a power head and added an air stone as well. I threw in some fritz zyme 9 bacteria and dosed half the recommended amount of dr.tims ammonia.

Let me give you full warning here... that fritz bacteria smells absolutely horrible. I thought it would go away once I added it to the water but it just stuck around. ;Vomit

Today I will test the water levels and probably add another 40 gallons if the 40 I added isn't on the floor when I get home ;Hilarious

I'm wondering if cycling the tank in this way will have any advantages. At the end of the day putting ammonia into a tank to achieve 2ppm is going to be the same in 200 gallons of water or 40 gallons... the only difference is the amount of ammonia you have to use... but you there is still 2ppm worth of resources for the ammonia to consume.

I also have plenty of other types of bacteria I plan to use, including more fritz but the refrigerated kind, prodibio, microbacter7, and dr tims one and only. I'll probably add the fritz last because it has been shown to be the most effective. I will be transferring some of my fish over immediately after the cycle is complete!

 

[AngryOwl]

Yesterday night and today were productive. Last night I rinsed all the rock I had in bleach for 3 days. Then I got to work putting in a temporary sump for the 120g. This was needed so I can design my plumping around the trigger systems emerald 39 sump. It's funny that we all insist on paying hundreds for a sump... when $20 will accomplish the exact same thing! I can understand the time and place for both though... setting up a frag system... go ahead and use an ugly tote as a sump... but for me a main display masterpiece deserves a nice sump.

I also added another 40 gallons, bringing the total up to 80g. Posidon reef systems sent me some extra starter phyto and pods due to shipping delays so I poured those right into the display.... I did this because the original shipment turned out to be okay... so there was no need for the extra.

Speaking of culturing pods & phyto, I did my first harvest today. For the pods I left them to continue to grow. Part of the phyto harvest went into the pods tank and half was left to start the next culture. I am planning on adding all pod harvests into the 230g to get it going strong.

Left picture is last week. Right is 1 week later.

Today as well I added the rock to the display since there was no chlorine leaching from the rock. It looks awesome! I love it!

After I added the rock I put in another 40g of water. Totaling 120g currently in the tank. This volume is about 15 inches up the tank... so only another 10 to go to the bracing and 40g covers 5 inches. I think I will end up around 190g actually in the tank itself and nearly 230g total volume with the sump.

Tomorrow I will add the sand and get started on the plumbing!

PS: just as I'm ready to take a sludge hammer to the 120 and decommission it... it starts showing me signs of success? Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is this tester acro I got 1 1/2 ago starting to encrust?!