wontonflip's 125g build

I figured since it's just 40lbs, I could use some of my ro/di reserve from before filling my tank to rinse it. I was so paranoid about getting tap in my tank that after I drained the tap from the tank and sump, I took a towel and dried the crap out of the tank. LOL
 
HEHEHE
Thats why when I started filling my 125,I had the wife run to wally world and get me 140 gallons of distilled water:D
 
Really? Wow. You guys are a lot more paranoid than I am! Last weekend when I cleaned all my old sand and added it to my new tank, I just used the hose in the front yard. Drained the sand as best as I could, and threw it all in the tank.
 
Well, considering when I started this hobby a year ago, I used "treated tap water" (you know....did the whole Amquel treatment...hehehe -- freshwater mentality), I had mad nitrate issues -- 120+ppm. Don't care to relive that again![FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]
 
I wasn't anywhere near as careful as you, wonton, when I drained the tap water... I got it as far down as my little water change pump could do, and called it good. :) hope it works out in the end, but I definitely think your method is more fail safe.
 
Wonton, is your sand "live"? If it is, don't rinse it. Also, your one bag of sand is ok but when you get your rocks in you want to put them on the glass bottom so you'll have to move the sand out of the way. If you put the rocks on the sand you might have critters dig under it and crash your rock structure.

This is an AWESOME project! LOVE IT

C
 
If you dont want to move the sand when you get rock put some egg crate in their. It is really easy to get it through the sand and gives a nice solid foundation. When I helped project move his tank thats what we did.
 
I'm not getting live sand this time...no need, since I have lots of live sand in my 45 and 10g. I got live sand before for my 45.

I picked up a 40lb bag today, I'll probabaly get 2-3 more bags. I'll seed the tank this week.

Hubby ordered me an early bday present -- 3 float switches :) He still has to diy the actual electronics part, but at least the switches are ordered.
 
OH side note.....we're diving into researching LED lighting. We are looking at maybe making our own, but I saw info on Tropic Marine Center's LED. Looked interesting. Since I'm awful w/ lighting talk, I'll just start a thread in equipment ;) I need input.
 
And we have ammonia! It's odd that I can be so excited about ammonia in my tank...hehehehe. At least I know the cycle has begun.

It's kind of high right now, though. It's at 1ppm. Since I'm in no rush to put anything in the tank, I can just leave it and just let it run its ccyle, right?

I have sand in it already. I decided to not add any more than the 40lb bag that I already put in it. I liked the minimal depth of the sand.

My garf rocks that I"ve made so far are still curing, apparently. They're in a plastic tub in my bathtub. Hurry up already!
 
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It cured outdoors during the summer for 5 weeks....I took it out, and sorta left it outdoors on a table for a good 6 weeks....and just last week was when I decided to test it to make sure it is done, but obviously not. So it's just indoors, curing.
 
And we have nitrites LOL Again, probably the only time I'll be excited about finding ammonia and nitrites in my tank.

Since I already have 1ppm of ammonia, I don't need to keep "feeding" it, do I? I stopped putting food in there.
 
yea, once you have a detectable level, then that means there is enough "food" for the next stage of bacteria... just watch it, and when that level falls, then thats when you'd "feed" it a bit more, see if it comes back up, or if it pretty much stays low, if it stays low, then your making progress..
 
Finally! The tank is finished cycling (I hope!) Ammonia and nitrites are 0..I only detect less than 10ppm of nitrates. Might be my test kit, so I'll bring water in to the LFS to test all 3 just to be sure.

I only have sand in there now. I was planning on moving all the rocks from the 45 to the 125 to start off with. Should I make the move of the lr AND the 3 fish into the 125 in one shot? Or one at a time over a period of a week?

I planned on putting each fish into their own container, then acclimating them into the 125, all in one day. It will be 1 clownfish, 1 firefish, and 1 banggai cardinal.

Anyone with ideas on how I should do this, please share :) I've had my clownfish for almost a year, and the other 2 for several months, and would hate to lose them.
 
I would move the rock in and see how you feel about your aquascaping. Maybe sleep on it. Better to decorate before the tenants move in. ;)
 
Well, I don't want to deprive the fish too long w/o their rocks int he 45....Actually it's the firefish that would be pissed because he sleeps in the rock's caves.

So aquascaping aside think it would be safe to make this move all at once? I doubt I'll be like Yote and acclimate my LR :P Just the fish. LOL I thought I'd just take all the rocks out, dump them in the 125. Maybe I'll even drip-acclimate the fish while I'm moving the rocks around.
 

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