BlazinJacks 120g (re)build!

[Haulin Oates]

Got all but 3 rocks out of the DT. Gonna scoop as much sand as possible out tomorrow, then I can medicate. Found my nitrate and phosphate trap... I used crushed coral under the macro in the sump and could never siphon it out. The smell is unbelievable!! I'm actually surprised I didn't have a crash in the year it was collecting nasties, because the smell alone tells me that this is where almost all the organics went. Well... Mistake #1 fixed!!

 

[Ghosty]

Thanks man!! Yeah I'm gonna fix a lot of beginner mistakes...

Not a beginner, but still curious. Can you give a brief summary of those mistakes and learning experiences that you would do different? Always good to file away as much real-world notes as possible. Thanks and good luck! I'm excited to start my 120 soon here too...

 

[Haulin Oates]

Let's see... I would have used threaded plumbing instead of slip fit plumbing. The biggest problems were in my sump; I'm going to make every single area easily accessible to clean and siphon. I will alway start with dry, clean rock and cook it before using, because you can never know the history of the rock you got.
I will start a quarantine system for all fish, inverts, and coral. I have gotten so many algae outbreaks that it's hard to tell where they came from, but no single coral is worth crashing my system. I'll think of more, I'm sure... But these were my big gripes.