125G Reef Tank Build!

chris17

chris17

Member
I have now got enough going on to start a thread for this tank! I have been wanting a big saltwater tank for a few years now and had a slight bit of luck to jump start it. I got a 125g All Glass tank from my cusin that moved and was unable to take it with him.
First thing I did was decided to drill the tank for the overflows and a closed loop system. The overflow is going to be 2'w x 2 1/2"d x 6" t positioned in the center of the tank. The intakes for the closed loop are 8" from the top and 9" from the sides of the tank.
 
chris17

chris17

Member
I will be painting the back of the tank black when I go to move it to its permanent location. It is currently at my dads, he has all the tools and space to put everything together. The bulkheads are 1 1/2" long thread and the 2 for the CL have black screens on them. The diamond coated bit is also shown.
 
chris17

chris17

Member
Thanks fishfreak!
Here is another pick of the tank with the bulkheads in. You can see the screens for the CL intakes. I had the glass to make the overflow, then I broke it all!
It was only $30 bucks so it's not that bad. I will have to get some more made in the next few weeks.

 
chris17

chris17

Member
I did a little practice on a spare 10g before I tried to drill the 125g and from the pic you can see how well that went
I then read that a 10g tank is harder to do since it is so thin, naturaly after I destroyed this one
I broke it on the first hole, then again on the 3rd one.

 
chris17

chris17

Member
How do you post pictures on here without makeing it an attachment? I have them saved on my desktop and I resized them in paint but don't know how to put them on here without doing it as an attachment.
 
wattsupdoc

wattsupdoc

Active Member
Put them up on a 3rd party site like photobucket. Then copy the image link and paste it in the reply you are making. This is a good method because it allows you to link to the image multiple times without having to load it up every time.
 
chris17

chris17

Member
Thanks Veni. It's getting there slowly but surely.
I started on the tank stand over the holiday weekend and got a good start on it. I used 2x6s around the top and for the legs while the rest are 2x4s, and everything is put together with 3" screws. I plan on getting a 1/2" piece of foam and putting the plywood top on that. The stand is 24" wide this way I can put it all the way against the wall so I can run my pipes within the stand, and for more space underneath. It will have 4 doors on the front along with 1 on each side. The opening on the end is just big enough to slide my 55g sump into. I have not started building the canopy yet, so any suggestions/ideas would be great.

 
wattsupdoc

wattsupdoc

Active Member
Looka good. Now is the time to be picky about the stand being level. It's much easier to get the stand level right now.
 
chris17

chris17

Member
I am going to try and do a little more this weekend, still have a few pieces to add to the stand before I start with the skin. Anybody with suggestions about the canopy? I am going to go with MH retro kits, and a 2 bulb VHO retro. I will for sure have 4 doors on the front to match the stand but I'm not sure if I want to put a piano hinge in the middle, so the front half can lift up or not. If I do that then I won't need 1 door on each side... what do you all think?
 
chris17

chris17

Member
Thanks Tony, lol yeah I'm pretty sure it will hold up. My first stand my dad and I built was going to be for a 75g saltwater tank and it is WAY overbuilt! You could park the tank on it 24/7 and it would'nt budge lol I never ended up useing it so now it's one heck of a cabinet
 
fishfreak1242

fishfreak1242

Active Member
Nice stand! Looks like your off to a good start. Sorry if this was already answered, but what kind of a tank will it be?
 
chris17

chris17

Member
SPS Dominant. Until I get all of the right equipment, I will start with just a couple softies and a few LPS. I am going to wait for everything to get stable enough, then I will start to add the SPS. As long as everything goes good and as planned, I am aiming for shortly after christmas for the SPS.
 
chris17

chris17

Member
Ok, I neep some help with this one. I may be able to get a Euro Reef RC500 or a RC250 for my tank for an unbeatable price (compared to what they sell for )
My question is, does anybody have any experiance with either of these 2 skimmers? They are used, and I am going to look at them tomorrow. The RC500 is rated for up to 500g and the RC250 for up to 250g. My tank is a 125 with a 55g sump, 180g total setup. It says that they can be in sump or out, and It will be out of sump on my setup. If I got the 500, then I would def. not have to worry about putting a good number of fish in the tank.
What do you all think?
 
chris17

chris17

Member
If I don't end up getting either one of these skimmers I am planning on getting a Deltec AP600. I really don't want to have to upgrade any of my equipment for a good long while unless I get a much larger tank. It will cost a bit more up front, but less in the long run if I had to upgrade.
 
wattsupdoc

wattsupdoc

Active Member
I wouldnt go so large as with the ER500. You may have issues getting it to consistantly skim. The MSX line of skimmers will outskim anything in their class. Even many higher priced skimmers. I am sure there are many who are Euroreef owners who have mesh modded their ER, to get the kind of performance out of them the MSX skimmers are delivering. Really the mesh is the biggest difference. Any skimmer that is not meshed is not going to compete with them. The Deltec skimmers are from what I have seen, awesome skimmers, but I believe that my mesh modded Octo would smoke a out of the box Deltec in the same class.
3 days of skimming on a moderatly stocked 135.
 
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