A BUNCH of questions/the long, hard, 125g saga

[jcattanach2012]

So yesterday I took a five-hour drive down to my parent's home to pick up my 125 that's been out of commission for about three years now. Also picked up my MH's and their ballasts -- I'm hoping to sell them, as I'm with roommates and don't feel that putting the strain of MH's on their electric bill is quite fair. I'm thinking about going with T5's and seeing what I can do, although it's hard because my tank's tall, so nothing on the bottom survives.
Anyway, today was pretty hellacious; myself (a 5'2 woman) and my boyfriend loaded up the huge tank and huge stand into my pickup truck, drove for an hour before discovering that I'd lost my purse (cash, I.D., credit cards, SOCIAL SECURITY CARD.. d'oh). Needless to say, it was a fiasco, but we finally made it home and unloaded and set up the tank.
For those of you who have made it this far, here are my questions:
it's a little late to ask this one, but there's no way that leaving my tank in the florida heat for three years in storage could have melted the glue or anything, is there? Having my 125 reef all over my living room is really not in my three-year plan.
Question two: I've found a nice lad on craigslist who is willing to either give me or sell (for a small price) his 40 lbs of live rock and 30 lbs of crushed aragonite. The last time I was in this hobby, I kind of just set up my tank with what the LFS threw at me, and I wasn't very informed. All I knew was that I was putting live sand in the tank. is crushed aragonite a good substrate for a reef?
Question three: I've also recently learned that bio balls are bad! I pretty much understand the mechanics of this, but then what sort of filtration system do I buy?
Question four: How does a DSB work?
Question five, just out of curiosity: My tank is tempered glass, so I can't drill it, but what does it mean when someone says a tank is "drilled and reef ready"?
Thanks very much, if anybody has answers to even just one or two of my questions, that would be very helpful!

I plan to include pictures of my setting up process here, but it'll be a while!

<33 thanks guys

 

[king_neptune]

1. dunno, fill it with water and see for a couple weeks.
2.not really. sand is best. youlee need about 80lbs of it to cover a 125DT properly. the only reason you would want to stay away from crushed argonite is your limiting your fish diversity. your bottom sand sifters wont be happy with large pebbles in their mouths. they want fine sand. but if you dont want sand sifters..then argonite is ok. another method is mainly add sand, but toss in a portion of argonite as well. ive seen tanks like this and it looks nice. plus some of your fish will like to pick up the pebbles nad move them around.
3. bio balls aren't bad if you take the time to clean them regularly. but all in all, i would avoid them as well. there is tons of filtration. skimmers are a staple, but they aren't the end all be all to reef keeping. look into turf scrubbers. canisters are also something to consider. I have a skimmer on my 125 build, but I also have a scrubber and a GFO/carbon reactor(those are about 60 bucks at bulk reef supply). Ideally I want to keep my skimmer off as much as possible, I dont know yet how it will do since its a fresh build and im in the middle of my first cycle.
4. Avoid DSB they are really a thing of the past. eventually you will get burned when they release all the stored pollutants...it will happen.
5. reef-ready simply means they already have the holes drilled for you. this is good and bad, the bad is mainly because maybe they drilled it in a place that doesn't suit you. not you have to cap and seal the hole. typical a tank is tempered only a the bottom. double check yours might follow the norm. If so you can easily drill the glass hole your self. bits are pretty cheap if you know where to look. check out glassholesdotcom
hope this helped.

 

[king_neptune]

hear is more on scrubbers:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/330606/mega-powerful-nitrate-and-phosphate-remover-replaces-skimmer-refugium-everything
they aren't the end all be all, but they are cheap and potent forms of filtration that you can build yourself form parts at home depot, or laying around the house. I got a pretty nice one on my build thread. check it out:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/349033/neptunes-125-reef-diary
the lights aren't hung yet, but they will be tomorrow. Ill post picts of it all in action then.

 

[flower]

Welcome to the site!
I would drill only acrylic tanks...not glass..that is just my opinion. I use 2 canister filters for my 90g. They stay under the stand and out of the way, very quiet and no splashing, and I have no salt creep. I also run a skimmer and am looking into a refugium.
Lights are important if you have a reef..I would keep my MH, they run electric just as much as the T5s and they don't look as nice. Again JMO. Just give your roomies a few extra bucks and save on not buying another light system.
If you want your substrate to look good, use live sand..it is hard to keep the other clean. With sand, critters can do the work for you.
I don't know anything about bio balls, I never used them.
As for the tank seals...I agree..fill the tank and watch for leaks, you have to do that with a new tank as well, or at least you should.

 

[king_neptune]

you have to look it up...im not sure where I read it, but it was in the last week.
*i think i was reading the cost of led lighting equivalent(which was like $5 a month).
3x250w MH's at 8 hours a day adds $48-50 a month to your electric bill. So if you got room mates offer the lions share.

 

[fau8]

1- as long as the seals are still plyable I would think the tank would be fine. Lokk to see if they are still adhereing along the tapered edges.
2- there is good and bad about this, you have to look at it first. If its coved with hair algea or red slime stay away from it. I'm also in S. Fl and live rock will cost you appox $7.00 a pound.
3- bio balls are not nesisarily bad. It has been said that over time they collect debris and cause a nitrate issue. I have never found this to be a problem, but the bioballs are "old Technology" I would use "live rock rubble" and keep some hermitt crabs in the sump. Ultimately turning your sump into a refugium is the way to go. Seach refugium on this site and you will see how you can do this. Basically the refugium has a deep sand bed, live rock and, an algea like cheato. Its sole purpose is to keep nitrates at 0 and they work very well.
4-DSB works by creating a oxygen depleted zone where anarobic bateria will remove and break down nitrates. You need at least 4 inched of sand to maintain one. I would recommend a refugium to solve the nitrate issue though.
5- Do not drill this tank use a double exhaust over flow box.
I have a 125 as well it for me it is the best sized tank for ease of maintaince and stability.

 

[king_neptune]

see. bio balls aren't necessarily bad. you just have to keep them maintained. I think most of the problems with bio balls is people get lazy and don't clean them regularly. this is where they likely fail. would I use bio balls? nah.. like the above stated...id rather have broken up rocks in the sump instead.
I will add a note to the over flow suggestion. they can fail if the siphon breaks, not saying they will fail...but it is a possibility.
Be sure your siphon isnt too deep into the tank, if your power is cut or return otherwise fails...you dont want it draining half your tank down below. vice versa..if your siphon fails...you will pump your whole sump into the main DT. there are solutions to this, but they require a degree of DIY
*ex: having a lip on your stand to catch water spilling over and diverting it to a drain line which goes back into the sump.
Also ive drilled before, and I got all worked up over it, but it was actually kinda easy. I just read a lot on it, and watched videos on how to do it. so i had a degree of confidence when I did it. Hope we can help you further.