Aggressive fake Reef 120 gallon

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JasonK84

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Nice piece. I think it would be nice to place it 1/3 of the way to the side and add smaller stuff to the other side. Rule of thirds.
Yeah, I think I will order a couple smaller pieces. For now I'll leave as is and more can be added later. Plenty of hiding spots for the fish I currently have.
 
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Got a little bit of cord management left and figure out a better solution for the drain. Then wash sand and fill it up. And get an ATO reservoir.
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Cords organized (good enough for me). Sand washed and in tank. Got water filling up the brute can to start filling it up! 50g/day so in about 3 days I'll fire it up and start adding in the salt.
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Filling it up!! Won't be running for another day and a half as it will take that long at 50gpd. Once it's running I'll add salt to the sump to mix it up to the desired level. I'm thinking 1.023?

With this being a fish only system I know I can go lower but are there any benefits other than salt cost and parasite suppression to do so?

What are the pros and cons of 1.020?
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Finished filling the DT today but ran out of filtered water. Will finish filling the sump in the morning and fire it up. I had thought it was "level enough" but once water was in you could see a big difference. Also added lighting in the cabinet for maintenance purposes.
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Finished filling it this morning and fired up the pump. Everything running and started scooping salt in a few scoops at a time. Got everything where I wanted it and hooked up the Tunze 3155 ATO. This is where the problem started. The optical sensor would not shut the pump down and it continued filling until the float switch triggered the high level alarm and stopped. No matter what I tried it just kept pumping even with the entire optical sensor submerged. I emailed BRS and also posted a thread on the Tunze sponsor site to see if there is a fix.
 
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Update: Tunze ATO is running after figuring out that the optical sensor can't start out under water. Seems to be working flawlessly now. Also, ordered the second coral insert from InstantReef on Tuesday morning and it arrived this afternoon. Not sure if I like the current configuration or not. Guess I'll leave it a while and see if it grows on me.
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Waiting for the skimmer to get broke in to see if I'll still have an issue with micro bubbles.
 
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Test results from this evening:
Starting to see some nitrate. Nitrite is spiked and ammonia is processing about 1ppm in 24 hours. Dosed back to 2ppm and I'll check in a couple more days.
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Thanks, once I get my salinity up I'll use media from my other tank to jump start the cycle on this new tank. Hoping to be ready in under a week and test an additional week to be sure.
didn't make my timeline but it wasn't a matter of life or death. My 30 gallon DT and 20 gallon QT are in no crisis. Besides I'm kinda thinking I want to add the fish that are in QT first. They are listed as peaceful so makes sense to start with them. Means I have 7 weeks or more to get the new 120 up and buzzing.

PH seams like it's gonna be an issue with these glass tops. I might try a CO2 scrubber if it doesn't stabilize in the 8-8.3 range. I'll wait until cycling is complete and see where it ends up with the current setup.
 
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As of yesterday, ammonia is easily processing the 2ppm in 12 to 24 hours. Nitrites is where it needs a few more days. It's so close I can taste it! I'm planning on moving all the inhabitants from my 30 over to it this weekend but will cancel that if my reading aren't where I need them. No sense loosing any of the 9 fish I've got so far (1arriving today). The 6 in the 30 are all fully QT'd and ready. 2 more in my main QT will be finished with meds in 2 more weeks then I'll do 2 more weeks of observation. The 1 coming tomorrow will be another 8 weeks out.
He will be going in the 14g biocube I set up Saturday. I'll rob some media from the 30 and add Dr. tims.
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Also, micro bubbles from the skimmer have nearly quit altogether. It's started producing thick foam but not much since all it has to skim is dead bacteria. Display is looking clear without all the micro bubbles. I'll get an updated pic of the tank this afternoon when I get home.
 
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Awesome progress. i do love the simple look of inserts. Are you planning on putting in rock in for aiding in filtration and all that jazz?
I've got 4 liters of pond matrix and 4- 8x8x1" marinepur plates in the sump. I've got 25 pounds of live rock and a pack of marinepur spheres in my current 30 gallon system that will get moved over to the DT once all inhabitants have moved over. I've still got room in the sump behind the skimmer for 2-8x8x4" marinepur blocks that I'll add as bioload increases. Also the 120 lbs of sand.

Not sure if you've ever tried the marinepur products but they are a great replacement for live rock as they are 90% porosity with loads of surface area. Can be used to achieve a minimal aquascape or for how I am using it with the coral inserts. The plates and blocks also make great platforms for raising skimmers up.
 
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Ammonia and nitrites 0 and nitrates are still low. I redosed ammonia and will check tonight to see if it's processing fast enough. If my nitrates stay low then I don't see a reason to water change before introducing fish.
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First fish introduced into the new tank just a few minutes ago. I made sure temp and salinity were matched between the QT and DT and made a quick transfer over. I made sure to feed as much as it would eat while still in the QT.

First fish in:
Blue spotted Toby puffer
 
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