Terry's 450g upgrade

[tbittner]

That's what I'm thinking too, Jeff. For the delicate fish, I'll only order from Divers Den and skip the QT for them. Nobody else see's the reef without spending time in the QT first.

And yeah, I know they will get another one in. It's been a LONG time since I've seen that fish at Divers Den though. And NOW they get one. Heck, it might still be available in a month or 6 weeks.

[Altohombre]

I didn't see any pics of the tank with sand and the rocks on one side yet.

[tbittner]

Good point! I'll get some tonight after I pump another 80g's into it. It will be as full as I'm going to make it then. Then it's relaxing time.

[JoJo]

cant wait to see them

[Craig Manoukian]

Originally Posted by tbittner

Good point! I'll get some tonight after I pump another 80g's into it.

Will be waiting for pictures!

[tbittner]

Here is what we have so far. We moved all 150 lbs to the left side and positioned them to hide the drains for the CL. On the left, we added 200 lbs of the CaribSea Select aragonite. We haven't moved it around to where we would like it yet. We dumped in about 120 lbs of the CaribSea sugar fine aragonite. This is BEAUTIFUL sand but you have to be VERY careful about flow hitting it. You can see how the flow has already moved it around. The right side of the tank is bare for now. I have another 300 lbs of LR coming but it has to be cycled before it hits this tank.

The water is still a little cloudy but it has really cleared up today. And I had added another 40g to the tank before these pics which stirred it up a little bit.

Front:


Right:


Left:


It's finally starting to look like an aquarium.

[tbittner]

We're not going to add anymore water to it for a while now. We haven't decided yet on whether to cycle the 300 lbs in the tank or cycle it in barrels and the 55g qt tank. I''m really torn on this decision. The rock that is in there now is cycled. I have around 200 lbs in the 120g reef that will be moved into the 450. The light that is over the 120 will light up the right side of the 450 for now. I could go ahead and move everything down this weekend. The water parameters are all readying great in the 450. Calc is even a little higher than the 120, not by much but a little bit.

Or I could add the 300 lbs directly to the 450 and start the cycle all over again. I'd wait a minimum of 4 weeks before anything got added to the 450 PLUS it would cost me a LOT of water for WC's, where as if I cycled it in barrels and the 55g tank, it wouldn't take near the water to cycle the 300 lbs.

[JoJo]

Nice pics buddy, it may be better to do the barrel & qt to cycle just because it will cost less. congrats on the fill

[Craig Manoukian]

Super duper Terry!

[framerguy]

I'd go with the barrels just to keep any bad hitchhikers out that you would have to catch later.

[tbittner]

Thanks all.

And thanks Greg, another outstanding reason to cycle in the smaller tanks.

[framerguy]

Any time Bro! Any time...

[Frankie]

Looking great Terry. Thanks for the great updates!
You know, When i set up my 120 here in Charleston I never went through a cycle. Two weeks with perfect readings.

[tbittner]

No way! How is that possible? No cycle?

And the silicone for the center brace isn't showing any kind of stress or bubbles or anything. It's still very nice and smooth. Even with the tank as full as it is.

And even better, NO LEAKS from anywhere. The is a small place, right close to the center, that I can slide a small piece of paper in under the tank (yeah, that bothers me a little) and there isn't any moisture anywhere. Granted, I'm still probably 80g from full but....

It's looking really promising!

[Frankie]

Sweet!
About the cycle, There are ways to cheat it. It depends on how long your rock has been out o the water and what you do to it before adding it to a tank. My fresh water was perfect RO/DI. The rock i soaked in a very high solution of salt water prior to adding it to the tank. It's all in my thread what i did.
This is the page where i got my water from to fill the system. Check out that RO/DI unit!
Frankie's 120gal. glass experiment
You can see the Rock soaking in the solution at the bottom of the page. I did this to clean it off and chase out crabs. It worked great. The crabs were climbing out of that red container. I posted my water stats from that day. The next day everything was even out and i never cycled. I remember waiting for two weeks for something to happen and it never did. I still have one of the damsels I was useing to cycle it with! LOL!