Fedukeford's 125 reef diary!

[fedukeford]

MY 125 is finally almost up and running!! heres a little info about the tank so far:
-125 gallon prefecto reef-ready tank
-stand is DIY, oak wood
- the canopy is going to be DIY, made of oak
SUMP
-40 gallon sump( a little more than 1/3 of it is a refugium)
-ASM G3 skimmer run with a sedra 5000
- theres a media tray in the sump to run carbon
- a mag 12 is the return pump
- the lighting for the fuge is a sigle 96 watt PC bulb, half 10k, half actinic
LIGHTING
- the lighting is going to be 2x250 watt 10k metal halides, with 2x160 watt super actinic VHO's run off a icecap 660
- its gonna be a mainly softie/LPS/clam dominated tank with a few SPS
ROCK/SAND
to save some $$$ for livestock ive decided to use 200 lbs of base rock, and add 20 lbs of rock from my current 55 gallon tank, i might also order 25 lbs of rock from SWF.com since iver heard its so good.
to save $$ on sand too, we orderd 40 lbs of caribsea special reef sand and i will add a few cups of live sand from my 55 gallon, its going to be around a 3/4 inch sandbed
Fish
i manily want the focus to be on one fish, so i'm going to get some type of bright, big tang (mabey a hippo, mabey a powder blue not sure yet) with many other small fish (dragonnet, pair of firefish, pair of true percs, bicolor blenne, mabey a dwarf angel,a few clown gobies, mabey a small school of anthias)
will post pics soon, right now theres only 60 gallons of water in the tank and nothing else, but atleast it will give everyone the idea of the tank

 

[fedukeford]

heres some pics, the overflows arnt fully plumbed yet (waiting to get berlin sock, and get the mods done on skimmer so we can run the skimmer directly from overflow), the blue container is for the auto topoff system(the system itself should get here monday or tuesday)
1)stand
2)stand and tank
3)right side of sump w/ skimmer/fuge
4)left side of sump w/ mag 12
5-6) some pics of the plumbing so far

 

[fedukeford]

any suggestions on a tang or any comments??

 

[reefer75]

Nice looking set up you got going. Keep us up to date with some pics. You want a Tang huh! Just my 2 cents, but you don't see to many people on here with Convict Tangs. They do well with each other and other fish, but they do not get along with other tangs. Something to think about. You could also do the norm and get a blue hippo.

 

[ryanhayes9]

a chevron tang is cool

 

[fedukeford]

ive always wanted a cheveron tang, but i think my parents would make me pay for it (they dont like spending more then $60 on a fish, so if i want a more expensive fish i have to buy it)

 

[fedukeford]

almost all the water is finally in!! (our RO machine only does 15 gallons per day) but theres one problem, theres this white film on the glass, it showed up after we added most of the salt to the tank, any ideas of what it is?

 

[fedukeford]

well the tank is full, everything is running (except the skimmer, still need to get mods done) theres 40 lbs of sand (3/4 inch) and 150 lbs of barse rock in there right now, going to pick up 75 lbs of live rock tonight, will post pics soon

 

[fedukeford]

today i added 2 cubes of frozen brine (pretty big) and a few pinches of pellets, do you guys think that is enough to start the cycle?? (this is my first tank where i actually knew about the cycle BEFORE i started putting fish in

)

 

[sea_star]

I think that's enough to start the cycle. Sounds like it will be an awesome tank! Oh, if you're lighting you're fuge, what lights are you using?

 

[fedukeford]

96 watts of PC (half actinic half daylight) theres about 30 lbs of liverock in the fuge, just need to get some cheato after the cycle

 

[fedukeford]

well ive added another cube of food and a dead hermit crab (pretty big) beacause i still dont see a spike in anything... am i just being impatient or should i try something else?

 

[fishgeek01]

give it time, you have a large tank to cycle your setup is awesome, i wish my parents would have let me do something like that, you did say your parents are helping you right?

 

[fishgeek01]

i was 8 when my dad gave me my first freshwater tank, and now i am 23 on my own with 2 kids and a wife, and i know she wont let me do anything like that

 

[fishgeek01]

at least not until i really bring home the bacon... she has a wish list of shoes and clothes twice as long as my fish tank wish list, but about 1/3 as expensive...

 

[triga22]

Nice tank!

 

[fedukeford]

Originally Posted by Fishgeek01
give it time, you have a large tank to cycle your setup is awesome, i wish my parents would have let me do something like that, you did say your parents are helping you right?
ya my parents are helping out a ton, they bought most of the equipment, and we'll be splittling the price of the livestock, im hoping ill be able to have a few fish in it by my birthday (oct. 1)
thanks for all the comments everyone

 

[fedukeford]

Update: it has started cycling, the mods for the skimmer were finished yesterday but i still havent gotten it back, the auto top off system is set up (the 10 gallon tank you will see in the pics)
heres a few pics
left side of tank

right side of tank

full tank shot

left side of sump

right side of sump

 

[pat713]

With a 125g., you could actually go with 2 larger tangs. A blue spotted kole and blue hippo would look nice together, or a Naso , yellow, and Achilles tangs, these colors would go very good together. Just make sure you have enough algae for your tang(s) no matter what kind you get.

 

[fedukeford]

Originally Posted by Pat713
With a 125g., you could actually go with 2 larger tangs. A blue spotted kole and blue hippo would look nice together, or a Naso , yellow, and Achilles tangs, these colors would go very good together. Just make sure you have enough algae for your tang(s) no matter what kind you get.
the hippo and the kole is what im most likly going to do, im deffinatly not going to do a naso cuz my tank isnt big enough, i MIGHT try an achilles, but they may be too hard, i dont really want a yellow because of the aggression