My 120 fowlr build

[Spotted]

Hi guys new to the forum and saltwater aquaria! I am so glad I found this web site! Well this is my first trust into saltwater tanks. I was always afraid of saltwater with all the this and that. I've had fresh water for years and decided to take the leap after my beloved koi died, or I killed it.
So I got a new 120 tank and new stand. I have an Eheim 2080 canister filter and 2 korlia 1050 power heads. Right now I am up to 50 pounds of live rock also 80 pounds of live sand.
I was following the advice of my brother who has had salt water tanks in the past and began cycking with some dead shrimp. It worked great, then I added more LR. I also read the awesome article on fish less cycling. At this point the 3 shrimp I put in had completely decayed after 3 weeks. So I thought it would be a great idea to cycle the new rock the fish less way. Was this wrong? Anyway, the article doesn't really say just how much ammonia to use so I figured 120 gallons, a cup of ammonia should be like just a little bit. Wow.. I went from 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5 nitrates to off the scale ammonia. The tube turned blue. Anyone ever seen that?
That was just this weekend, so 80 gallons of water change later, I am at 2ppm ammonia, 20 nitrites and 20 nitrates. Live and learn I guess.

 

[Spotted]

Oh I also have 40 more pounds of base rock and 10 pounds of premium live rock from liverockranch.com on the way. Any suggestions on what else I should get?
My tank is not drilled and I am wary of overflows that may lose siphon and the return pum returns 30 gallons of water into a tank that only has room for 4 more, or a return pump that stops and siphoning 120 gallons into my 40 gallon sump or whatever.

 

[iadubber]

Only advice I can give is ditch the canister filter for a skimmer. Canister filters are nitrate and phosphate factories in marine aquariums.

One cup for a 120 gallon is alot of ammonia. I think I did 4-5 mL per day in my 72 gallon.

 

[Spotted]

Yeah, learned that the hard way... shrug...

 

[Spotted]

Ok do I really need a tank heater. I I've down in hot south Florida and have had the tank up now about a month. My temp fluctuates between 78 and 76. I have never seen it dip below 76. I have seen it hit 80, but never lower than 76. Is there any way to cool the tank without getting a chiller?

 

[Spotted]

Here's a picture.

 

[spoonman]

A fan blowing across the surface will cool the water a couple degrees.

 

[Spotted]

OK so my liverockranch.com rocks came in. Really quick shipping, but their "premium designer" rock is very not impressive. Definitely not what is picture on their site' but not as bad as some reviews I've read about them. They have a little coraline algae. Very little, but some. I've added them to the tank already. I got the combo 10/40 pack. I haven't really looked at the dry rock yet. It was shipped in 2 double bagged bags inside the shipping box. No real padding just pretty thick black plastic bags.
Here are some pics of the "premium decorator" rock already in tank.

 

[Spotted]

I also ordered another 80# live sand from reefrock.net, another maligned web site from reviews. It was 14.95 for 40# so i ordered 80#. I did get an email from the owner saying that his web site does have wrong info' but that he would honor the price if I was willing to wait. He said the price that was listed is with live rock purchase. Something about us supplier not having a front end loader at the dock until next week (this week now). His regular price on the sand is 24.99He was very willing to comunicate, so I'm giving him a chance. As far as payment, everything runs through PayPal, if there is a problem, they have taken good care of me in the past with other problems.
We will see...

 

[Spotted]

Ammonia back to zero as of last night!!

 

[Spotted]

Started playing with the dry rock from my order tonite. Really bad stuff. Looks like theybdug uo a bunch of rocks from their back yard and shipped it to me. There were roots in the rocks. I guess I should research stuff before throwing money at people. Although the live rock doesn't seem too bad. Not anything like what they pictured, but it seems OK.
Any recommendations on where I should try for more rock?

 

[Spotted]

ITS FISH DAY!!! Ph 8.0, ammonia 0, trites 0, trates 10, sg 1.024, alk 10dkH, calcium 320, phosphates .25.
I are gonna do a 20% water change then add some snails for cuc. Perhaps 10 for now. I was also thinking of add 3 damsels. Yellow fins, any comments or suggestions?
How can I get my calcium up?