# 120 Gallon build out, kinda long



## bortass (Jan 12, 2012)

I tore down my 120g reef tank last year. I had it running for 3 years but I never really got off the ground with it. So I gave away all the rock and the 4 fish I had in it. Luckily the person that took it didn't end up with the 4+ ft worm I found hiding in the sand when I was removing the substrate.

We've kept FW fish for a while, had a common pleco that was 19 years old. Something went wrong and the tank wiped over night, shortly after I took down the reef tank. Losing that tank and a fish my wife had before I met her in '91, killed the hobby. Both the 120 reef tank and 130 FW have been sitting in my garage for close to a year now empty.

I'm thinking of getting back into things with a low tech planted tank. My reef tank was low maintainance. It may sound odd but my SW tanks always had a low fish stocking ratio and alot of rock, so the water quality didn't shift quickly. It's kinda like what I read about a heavily planted dirt tank. My goal is to have a tank that we can enjoy w/o having to babysit daily forever. 

I am thinking of using the 120 tank for this. It's the standard 4x2x2 AGA tank and is not drilled. 

Now my questions:

I have a couple coralife PC fixtures, 220w ea. I think 1 of them will be enough for what I want to do. I'd prefer not to pump 400+ watts of light. I do have a MH and vho fixture kicking around, but that is overkill I think, about 500w combined in this fixture. The tank won't get any direct sunlight. Any thoughts?

I have an external overflow and was planning on using a 20g sump with this tank. Hide the heater and the return pump would provide circulation to the tank via a spraybar. The sump would provide a settling chamber, if I add some baffles, and a place to add things if needed. I also like the fact that the overflow skims the surface. How deep in the tank should I put the spraybar? I've seen some people with them at the surface and others near the bottom. I don't want to blow plants through the tank which is why I'm asking.

Substrate would be dirt capped with pool filter sand. Probably MGOPM, I don't plan to mineralize since it's winter. I'd have to wait about 3 months before I could do that outside. I have seen how tanks get planted once the substrate is in and some water is added. I can't get plants locally and plan to order them. My tap water is about 40 degrees, so I'd want it to be closer to 70 when the plants get added. 

Is there any harm in adding my substrate and some water and letting it sit while I await the plants? I'd probably only fill the tank halfway, so I could work in it when the plants arrive. I have a small powerhead I can use to add some flow, since the sump would be offline and I can drop a heater in to get the water temp up. Working in a 2 foot deep tank is a pain when it's full of water. I'm not worried about algae too much since the lights would be off and the tank would just be getting ambient room light.


My water, from a well, has a ph of 7.6 or 7.8. What I can't remember is if it's because of dissolved CO2. The miracle gro contains peat moss I think which should lower this some. My water is not very hard I don't think. The total dissolved solid meter that I was using on my RO unit read an input of between 80 and 90 ppm. Hard water is about 170 PPM. I did not plan on using the RO unit because of the water waste. Being on a well and septic makes me want to avoid dumping 4 gallons to get 1 gallon of RO.

Am I missing anything or on the wrong track?


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## activesize (Jun 26, 2011)

bortass said:


> I have a couple coralife PC fixtures, 220w ea. I think 1 of them will be enough for what I want to do. I'd prefer not to pump 400+ watts of light. I do have a MH and vho fixture kicking around, but that is overkill I think, about 500w combined in this fixture. The tank won't get any direct sunlight. Any thoughts?
> 
> I have an external overflow and was planning on using a 20g sump with this tank. Hide the heater and the return pump would provide circulation to the tank via a spraybar. The sump would provide a settling chamber, if I add some baffles, and a place to add things if needed. I also like the fact that the overflow skims the surface. How deep in the tank should I put the spraybar? I've seen some people with them at the surface and others near the bottom. I don't want to blow plants through the tank which is why I'm asking.
> 
> Substrate would be dirt capped with pool filter sand. Probably MGOPM, I don't plan to mineralize since it's winter. I'd have to wait about 3 months before I could do that outside. I have seen how tanks get planted once the substrate is in and some water is added. I can't get plants locally and plan to order them. My tap water is about 40 degrees, so I'd want it to be closer to 70 when the plants get added.


 Since your tank is two feet deep then you may need more than the one PC fixture. If your light covers sufficiently and also penetrates decently well to the bottom then it might be just barely sufficient for a lot of popular aquatic plants if the fast growing ones are trimmed back as required when they start to cover the surface. With the white pool filter sand you will have a certain amount of beneficial reflective backscatter as well. However, this may lighten up the coloration of many fish species. But that's not the main problem with a fine sand substrate over soil. With sand all the visible debris will stay exclusively on the surface and never penetrate even a fraction of an inch underneath. Therefore, the fine sand will block or slow down the natural penetration of nutrients into the soil to feed the plant roots compared to a coarser substrate like pea gravel where there will develop a lot more bacterial action and dynamic chemistry. Ask yourself, why do terrestrial gardeners never use sand to cover their gardens and opt for coarser things like gravel or mulch instead?

However, if you insist on sand then is your sand silica sand or is it calcite sand left over from your saltwater days? If you haven't already then it would be a good idea to test it with vinegar to make sure. One way to enjoy sand with plants in a large tank is to have soil and gravel planter boxes hidden away behind driftwood, rocks, and things. This can be designed to work well with lots of plants tending to reach the surface in the back part of the tank and leaving lots of swimming and foraging room in the front and bottom where there's lots of sand visible. In this type of setup you could use your 20 gallon sump as a soil based refugium and jam pack it with hardy plants to take full advantage. You can even set up a reverse lighting schedule. Mulm will tend to settle deeply into that sump instead of all over your main tank and fry can come down the drain from the big tank if you want that also. With soil over gravel the plants in such a refugium will tend to grow well in there with almost no water movement at all.

As far as how low to put the spray bar in your 120, that depends a lot on your flow rate and obstacles in the way of the current. You don't need anywhere near the type of flow rate that is normal for a saltwater system. For instance, a RIO 1700 sump pump could be cut back to half of it's output. I think that if a lot of the plants are very mildly swaying and the water surface can be seen barely rippling when looking sideways at it then you are good to go. You won't lose any significant CO2 due to surface agitation and the plants in that system can be set up to provide all the oxygen you need at all times. With these principles you won't lose any significant CO2 moving water between the tanks either.



> Is there any harm in adding my substrate and some water and letting it sit while I await the plants? I'd probably only fill the tank halfway, so I could work in it when the plants arrive. I have a small powerhead I can use to add some flow, since the sump would be offline and I can drop a heater in to get the water temp up. Working in a 2 foot deep tank is a pain when it's full of water. I'm not worried about algae too much since the lights would be off and the tank would just be getting ambient room light.


 It's fine. You can use that time to run carbon and maybe do some partial water changes. If you don't have much room you should at least open the soil bags and turn the soil in the bags for a few days before adding it to the tank. That will release ammonia.



> My water, from a well, has a ph of 7.6 or 7.8. What I can't remember is if it's because of dissolved CO2. The miracle gro contains peat moss I think which should lower this some. My water is not very hard I don't think. The total dissolved solid meter that I was using on my RO unit read an input of between 80 and 90 ppm. Hard water is about 170 PPM. I did not plan on using the RO unit because of the water waste. Being on a well and septic makes me want to avoid dumping 4 gallons to get 1 gallon of RO.


Your TDS looks good. If your water is too hard then you'll end up having to babysit your tank a lot more with partial water changes then you would otherwise. Have you ever had your well water tested?


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## bortass (Jan 12, 2012)

Thanks Active. I haven't done anything yet since I'm still thinking about whether or not to do it. Life got hectic and I haven't had alot of time.

The sand would be new pool filter sand if I go that route. I can test a bag, I did that with play sand when I was setting up my saltwater tank. I think PFS is coarser then play sand. 

It's not a big deal sand vs gravel. I don't recall reading alot of about having dirt capped with it. Won't the dirt tend to float more if I cap with gravel?


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## bortass (Jan 12, 2012)

The 120 has been washed out and moved into the basement. I put the 20 long in the stand as well. I have some more cleaning to do, namely remove a couple small patches of corraline algae, nothing major.

I think I will have a glass top because the tank is near a spot that the cats could jump to. That will cut down the light some. Egg crate would be another option but I'm not sure if that will be strong enough.

So my next steps will be to finish the cleaning and add partitions to the 20 long. One partition where the watar enters the sump and another near the return pump. That way I can have the middle section with a minimum depth in case I do want to plant it. It'll be easier to do that now then try and retro fit it at a later date. I can throw lava rock in it for some additional surface area.

The plumbing will be interesting. I've read some articles here on laminar flow. It sounds like the best way to acheive that is to have the overflow and return on the same narrow side of the tank. This is definately a challenge if I have glass tops in place. So I'm not sure what I'll end up doing.

My return line has a ball valve in it so I can throttle the pump. I had to throttle it alont when I had it setup as a reef tank because the flow rate through the small sump I had was too high. I expect to have the same issue.

After I have those details worked out and in place I'll be able to start the next step. Setting up the substrate in the main tank and figuring out what to put in the sump. Really thinking just lava rock for now.


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## bortass (Jan 12, 2012)

I thought of something I can do to make this tank a bit more diverse. I happen to have a HOB refugium that I used to use before I got a second 20 G tank that was drilled. I can use that refugium to grow some emersed plants. 

So a high level plan is slowly coming together for me. I don't know if I will bother trying to mineralize the MGOPM.


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## bortass (Jan 12, 2012)

I picked up 32q of MGOPM Thursday. I soaked it overnight and drained it yesterday. There were very few floaters. I stirred it up with a shovel after adding the water.

I'm not sure how much I need for a 4x2 tank. I grabbed another bag from a different store. This time there were alot of floaters. I just started to drain this one. I'll resoak what I have again later today. If I need more I'll go buy it where I got the first 2 bags.

I will need to find my capping material. I'm thinking pool filter sand. I've read alot of good things about it but I'm not sure yet.


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## bortass (Jan 12, 2012)

The substrate is in place and the tank is slowly filling. I put some pool filer sand around both sides and the front to hise the dirt. I have about 1 - 1.5 inches of Miracle Gro organic. I scattered some Flourite I had over the MG just because I had it on hand. I capped it with an inch or so of pool filter sand.

I've been filling the tank really slow. The water has a little bit of dust kicking around but nothing too bad. I expect it to finish filling in a few hours. 

I need to get some pipe for my overflow. Once I have that I can hook up the plumbing and get the main pump running.

I don't know when I'll get to aquascaping. I need to get some driftwood and plants. I'll probably be sticking some spider plant cuttings in the tank just to use whatever nutrients it can.


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## bortass (Jan 12, 2012)

I got the plumbing and lights in place. I'm using 10K bulbs from when it was a SW tank. One bulb is burnt out too. So I'll order some replacements with a better color temp.

I added some driftwood and plants. A couple bannana plants and some water sprite. The water sprite was pearling, so I think there's enough light for it. I still need alot more but there isn't much selection in local shops.

I want to add some Java fern and Valisnaria(sp?) I'mll need some sort of foreground plant as well.


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## mariannep (Mar 18, 2012)

Sounds well on its way!  Got any pics yet?


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## bortass (Jan 12, 2012)

No pics yet. It's pretty bare still. I added some dwarf hairgrass, not much since I was only able to get 1 pot of it. A sword and some hornwort was added too.

The water is a bit cloudy the last two days. It's from the cycle that going on. I tested at .25 ppm ammonia and 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate. My PH is 7.8 though. Hopefully that will drop a bit as the tank matures.


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## bortass (Jan 12, 2012)

It looks like the cycle is complete. No ammonia or nitrite. Nitratesd are less then 5ppm. The color shade was closer to 0.

I added a few more bunch and floating plants, some of which I need to plant still. The plants I've added seem to be doing ok. I have some new growth on some. I expect it will take a bit to figure out what works well and what doesn't.

I also got the 6500K bulbs for my fixture, so I'm now running 260 watts of 6500 instead of the 195 of 10K. One of the 10K bulbs was burnt out. That should help things grow on the side that was short a bulb.

The only livestock is 9 zebra danios at the moment. They seem to be doing well. I want to expand the school later. The next addition will be some MTS I ordered. Once they are in and the water parameters still look stable, I'll start to add more fish.


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