Critique my tank please - 125 gallon

biggredd

biggredd

Member
I did about 4 months of research before I set this up and want an opinion about my set up.
*125 gallon tank - 6 ft long. I have a hand built stand about 38" tall with canopy.
*3 175 watt MH lights on 7.5 hour light schedule and 5 bue led moon lights on 24x7. Have a fan blowing across the water for cooling. May increase to 250w lights.
*120 pounds of black and white live sand
*105 pounds or so of live rock
*3 295 gph powerheads, 1,100 gph CPR overflow box
*in my sump - Coralife 220gallon skimmer - 2 200 watt heaters - Rio return pump
*in my fuge - 5 pounds of live rock - ball of Chaeto - 10,000k light
*Fish list: Fire clown, false perc clown, pink tip anemone - some other kind of anemone, serpent star, 3 sand sifting crabs, anemone crab, coral banded shrimp, feather duster, 8 blue leg crabs, 2 nass snails, mex turbo snail, 6 margarita snails, 2 scarlet hermit crabs, 3 grocery store bought clams (1 is in my fuge), and about 100 snails I bought off the bay recently.
*corals: 8 mushroom corals, 3 frogspawn frags, 1 very small frag of zoo spores, 1 small frag of a leather.
I still plan to get some additional lighting for before and after the mh light cycle as well as an auto top off system for the evaporation.
My nitrates are around 5-10. Working on raising my calcium level a little and trying to understand all those crazy water parameters. The tank has been running for exactly 3 months now.
Any suggestions? comments?
Here is a bad cell phone pic - but gives you the idea.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
well it doesnt really give a good idea IMO lol....
take some decent pics and you will probably get more feed back.
you say "1,100 gph CPR overflow box"
what is CPR? what is the diameter of the return line? because if 1100 GPH is the rating of your pump, you need to take into account the height of the return outlet, and that different sized return bulkheads, limit flow to the sump... IE, 1" is rated at 600 GPH.
 
biggredd

biggredd

Member
I'll provide better pics this evening if I can.
CPR is the brand overflow box. It has two one inch outlets, so 1,200 gph flow. The return pump is ratedat 1900 gph but I have a valve to adjust for proper flow. I do lose some volume pushing it back up about 4.5 feet and still have to throttle back a little bit on the return. The rturn line starts out at 1.5" and splits into two one inch returns and they enter at each corner.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
ok , you should look up manufacturer website or distributor websites on your return pump. every brand is different, but 4.5' will make a massive reduction in your total GPH turn over. that way you will have a more accurate idea of what you are pushing. if you have to cut it back because your two overflow holes still cant handle it, then your turn over is capped at 1200 GPH regardless
 
dogstar

dogstar

Active Member
Everything sounds good so far, even lighting for the coral you listed and flow too.....as long as the levels are testing OK then filtration is good.....Your wet/dry is fine but a fuge is always a good thing to add if you can for a reef.......Why do you only run the lights 7.5 hours.....natural photo period on a reef is 12 hrs, 10 hrs of intense lighting from the sun thru the day....
oops, I missed you do have a fuge....
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Sounds decent, but if you upgrade to 250's you'll need to increase air circulation.....1 fan won't cut it
 
biggredd

biggredd

Member
Well if my lights are ok I may just keep them but I need to replace the bulbs soon so it was just a thought.
I only run the lights for 7.5 hours cause the tank was relatively new and I was getting the brown/reddish breakout. That has since passed. Should I put my MH's to a 10 hour cycle? I thought everyone recommended an 8 hour cycle for those. Want to make sure. That and I am already at $3g's and I'm about to lose my job so it's hard to justify spending another 3 or 4 hundred bucks on some additional lights such as vho that come on before the mh's and after since I assume running mh's all day long could be bad for the tank, but that is why I am asking for a critique.
As for my overflow it probably is losing a little bit of flow from the sponges that are inside the overflow box, read that on their stupid website. I probably am running 1,100 per hour with it so that's probably what I'm pushing back up. It's a rio32hf, says rated at 1,900. I know they probably claim high and considering the couple of turns and whatever I have it dialed in just right.
 
biggredd

biggredd

Member
Give me about two hours from now to post the pics. I've been meaning to get a good pic anyways of it. I think it's looking good. I got a foxface for my birthday but it's since gone missing and I assume my coral banded shrimp ate or had something to do with it because while I only had the fish for a couple of weeks it was doing very good and I have nothing aggressive in the tank except that so I'm only assuming. I'm bitter about it to cause it was a birthday gift and I forced my sister to spend $90 just to get this $30 fish and the people here at swf.com aren't all that understanding since I don't have a body to ship back under the guarantee.
But I'll have pics here shortly of the tank and the sump/fuge.
 
dogstar

dogstar

Active Member
The corals need the light..........
I run my MH 12 hrs and you may have seen pics of my tank, IDK, but its fine.
Many people may say to reduce the time to lessen heat issues or electric bill or algea growth but it reduces the time for photosynthisis to accure and that what keeps many corals healthy and growing and keepr pH up and oxygen in the water.......Some reefers run them alot longer....up to you but definately change them when needed.
 
poniegirl

poniegirl

Active Member
Originally Posted by Dogstar
you may have seen pics of my tank, IDK, but its fine.
Dogstar, your tank is coverpage stuff. Biggredd, trust him.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top