The New 120g

[RedDragon]

ok I now have a 120g tank I have about 120 pounds of live rock and 130 pounds of live sand and dead the sand has not gone all the way down I have just got the over flow going and skimmer but what should I do first
A. just wait and let the sand go down
B. leave every thing on and let it down down it's self throw the sump
C. none of the about

I need some help never had a tank this big a don't know if it's like working on a smaller tank :oops:

[RedDragon]

thanks Josh I'll do that

[RedDragon]

Ya after the sand go's down I want to put the live rock in the back in two big island a free space in the middle and front, what else should I think about doing some time soon

[captexas]

You don't have to think too much about what to do soon. As long as you have a plan, all you have to do is take your time and have patience. Once the sand settles and you get your salinity correct, then you can add your live rock. Make sure you have decent test kits and test for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite either daily or every other day and keep those results written down. You will see spikes in the levels of each one and then they will go down to zero. You may not see any movements in levels for a few days. You can use this time to arrange your rock in a way that you like. It's much easier to rearrange things now than later on when you have fish and corals in the tank so now is the time to play around with different ideas and layouts. You can run your lights if you want, but just for a few hours a day for now until your levels get back to zero. You can also do small water changes every so often as the live rock and your tank cycles. This will also help you get a routine set for when you do water changes in the future.

[RedDragon]

cool thanks Chris

[MikeP]

Jaime - another good idea is to put some of the pieces of live rock directly on the glass if you can (bottom) so if you ever get any digging critters they won't cause a landslide. You can use these pieces as a base for the rest of your rockwork. Let the sand cover the base of the rock and it will be much more secure.The dust will settle in a few days just be patient. Also once you get your rock set up wait a few days and look again, chances are you will want to change it again.

[captexas]

Yeppers, I've changed my live rock around 2 times since I got it up and running. Fish don't like thier surroundings being completely rearranged so take your time and work on it now. As mentioned above, make sure all the rock is settled down and won't topple if bumped. As you are going to be putting that hippo tang in there you want to be careful as they are good at wedging themselves flat between pieces of rock to hide out or sleep. You don't want him getting trapped or crushed.

[Hammer]

They say patience is a virtue, but reefkeeping can really put it to the test sometimes.

You have the time to get things perfect on this tank before you have to have all the fish and corals and other stuff in there that you want.
Don't forget to have the lights on the timer and definitely run the skimmer. It should work just fine as is. If the tank is too cloudy still, put something for a filter over the intake of the skimmer pump as that is a lot of sand to put through the pump right now.
Otherwise only use the return pump for circulation until the water starts really clearing up. After it clears up setup the pumps like I was talking about and try and make sure all parts of the tank are getting enough circulation where you are not getting any dead spots. These are easy to see with the piles of ditritus that will quickly build up there. One thing that becomes more difficult with larger tanks and more LR in them is keep proper water movement in the entire tank.
I agree with others that now is the time to get the rock setup how you want. And make sure it's safe.

Also, when you start adding things, you still have to take it slow. The whole balance of the system will be for a very low bioload once the tank is done cycling again.

[RedDragon]

ok thanks you all I will take it slow on this one, I work slow on seting up but have a hard time not buying too much stuff when it's set up the sand has gone down a bit after the overflow and skimmer are working so I think all the sand will be down by this time tomorrow, I want to buy a VorTeX from JimD when Is it ok to put it on the tank :roll:

[RedDragon]

well I checked the levels on my tank right now and it realy surprised me the level are as listed:
ammonia...0
nitrate.......0
nitrite........0.3
PH............7.9
I used coralife salt which I wish I did not use now cuz of what I learned on Jim's link about the salts :-o

[RedDragon]

well the sand when all the way down now, so I think tomorrow I plan to move around my LR to how I want it :beer: so the level have not spiked ithink mostly why is has not yet is because I kept about half the water from the tank and use RO water from the LFS, the skimmers working around the clock and the tanks looking like a tank now not a big sandy tank now :-D

[Hammer]

Moving that much sand and rock, I would imagine there will still be a spike and cylce, it just might come a little later. Be patient and keep checking.
And yeah, start making it look like you want.

[RedDragon]

ya thats what I was thinking Ed, ya I plan to move things around tomorrow :-D

[RedDragon]

I now have a foxface, blue tang, percula clown, coral beauty, and a few corals, the tank looks great, I will be getting some more lighting soon only have 325 w in the tank

[Tim Marvin]

You can also put a couple pieces of limestone on the bottom. It is heavy and won't move with critters. Then put the sand in over the top.