Tank is scaped and sand is in. Will get better photos once I install the lights. I had cycled some rocks in brute but ran into the issue of rocks drying in the process of cementing it. So most of the rocks dried up, might have been wet in the inside? maybe had like a total of 15lbs that were wet but also had few media bags filled with matrix.
added 2ppm of ammonia 10/4/21
added the matrix 10/5/21 and the photo of the test below was on 10/6/21
10/7/21 added 2 bottles of instant ocean bio spira
10/8 added about 1ppm of ammonia
This is the result of the test today, ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 20
so I believe the tank is cycled, but no fishes yet cause theyre still quarantining