Starting a 120 Gallon Mixed Reef!! Going to need some help though :)

[shatteredleaf]

Hi!! This is my first post here actually, but before I made my account I'd come here just to look at what people had to say so I figured I'd finally make myself an account.

What I am actually here for is a mix of things. Advice really from other reefers. I've just purchased a 120 gallon tank with an overflow built in and sump. I am currently cleaning out all the grossness (bunch of algae and other stuff out from the aquarium right now) but eventually I'm gonna have to buy some sand and rock for the display tank. I already have a 29 gal so I know that sand and rock is not very cheap and managed to find a face book market place listing for ~100 lbs of dry rock for 100$ or best offer, though with the scape i have in mind I feel that I may need more rock.

Does anyone know a god place to buy large quantities of sand? I don't mind if it's live or not, honestly I wouldn't mind having to cycle the tank for longer.

 

[Fishboy9227]

BRS during one of their sales is great for sand.

 

[shatteredleaf]

BRS during one of their sales is great for sand.

Thank you so much!! I'll keep an eye out

Also just learned that the sump that came with the tank is probably too small (it's a 20 gallon, so i'm guessing that a bigger sump would be better in the long run? like a 40 breeder?) so i'll probably have a good amount of time to wait for things to go on sale

 

[jdthome]

Thank you so much!! I'll keep an eye out

Also just learned that the sump that came with the tank is probably too small (it's a 20 gallon, so i'm guessing that a bigger sump would be better in the long run? like a 40 breeder?) so i'll probably have a good amount of time to wait for things to go on sale

I am just a couple months in front of you for setting up the same size tank. I've been out the the hobby for almost 15 years but I'm likely currently dealing with issues that you may also have in the weeks to come.

On the sand. I bought it from BRS. I bought 120lbs of the dry CaribSea Special grade sand. I really like the grain size. I ended up only using 80lbs of it in my 120 display and 20 gallon refugium. My decision was to use the dry sand due to cost and the info I gathered about using wet live sand with bacteria starter like Dr Tim's or Bacter7. It was incredibly dirty. I started rinsing it with RO/DI but used more than 45 gallons trying to clear it up. With the amount of time it took me to rinse and the obscene amount of RO/DI I used to rinse, I think it was likely more expensive. It's still may have been necessary for my bacteria in a bottle.


My sump consists of a 40 breeder for water in zone, skimmer zone and return zone. I chose to do a separate 20 gallon aquarium as a refugium. Whether that was a good choice or not is still unknown. We will see.