Please Help Me Design a 125 for my Parents

[r@ise]

Hello Friends.
Ive been a member of this board for awhile, but stopped browsing and eventually forgot my username and password. So Here I am again
My parents want a 125g, and have given me a $4000 +/- budget to work with.
I want to get a glass tank, possibly AGA unless somone knows better.
They want their stand and canopy to be an off white/white wash color. Is there somewhere I can order these goods and have them colored to my liking? Also, is there any place that I can order thhe hood +canopuy from that ALSO does lighting? Itd be nice if I could recieve the hood complete with lighting. I was thinking 2-275 MHs + 4 4'VHos. What do you guys think about that setup?
Im also undecided about th eoverflows. 1 center, 1 corner, 2 corners.....how should I do it?
The sump will be a rubbermaid. Im also unsure of what kind of return pumps (for SCWD)il use and also what brand skimmer.
So, if anyone knows of specific companies/brands I should look into Id really appreciate it. Im excited about this tank Thanks for helping!
Ray

 

[elan]

i would go look in your LFS for some setups... you seem to know what you want and the LFS should give you some more ideas.... with shipping costs involved, you are probably much better off going locally..
if you are trying to stay within budget and have a great tank, i would only get the tank and stand, and then go search for a retrofit lighting kit...... and i would go with EURO REEF skimmer since you budget should allow that...

 

[elan]

oh.. i would do two overflows... gives you more options for your fuge/sump setup.

 

[r@ise]

hehe, DERRRR i meant 250. Thanks for catching that.
I actually do maintanance for a LFS, but my boss has been a ---- so im taking my business elsewhere. Long story.
Im not very handy DIY. So building my own stuff isnt the best idea
Thanks for da help

 

[jonthefb]

first off you have to decide how the tank is going to be viewed...from the front only, both sides, etc...as this will dictate where your overflows will be....if the tank is to be viewed form all sides, a center overflow is your best bet...if only from the fron and back, side overflows work great, and if only from the front, go with corner overflows....as far as tanks, oceanic makes a 125 and 135 reef ready that they can build cabinets adn canopies to custome orders...they are also considered the best glass tank out there by many...i would definately reccommend checking thier site out, or a catalog at your lfs....they have a new 140 gallon tank that is only 4 feet long but is 24 inches wide and 28 inches tall....a killer tank size if you ask me....0
other than the tank itself, with cabnitrey, lightign is going to be the next most expensive thing....when calculating mh lighting you want to use 175 watt bulbs for tanks 18 inches deep or less, 250 watt bulbs for tanks 18-24 inches deep, and 400 watt bulbs for tanks 24 inches and up! and you generally want to have one bulb per two feetof tank....this means that a 125 or 135 that is 6 feet long will need 3 bulbs while the 140 i just discussed will only need two cause it is only 4 feet long.....bulb brands are another thread topic..... however bulbs come in a variety of color temperatures.....but again lighting is also going to depent on the types of corals you plan to keep...sps and clams will thrive best underMH, while many of the lps and softies will do fine under pc or vho lighitng....and bulbs come in varieties of color temps as well....65K bulbs have a yellow appearance, while 10K bulbs have a crisp white appearance, and 20K bulbs have a very blue hue to them and dont require supplemental actinics....many people say that sps grow fastest under 5k lighting but dont look as good as they do under 10 or 20K......your best bet would be to search the forum for mh lighting topics, as many of these discussions have been debated many times!
Filtration in a sump wll be a piece of cake....you an basically design your sump however you like and can include whatever you like in the design...skimmers, calcium reactors, etc...whatever you do, make sure that you have a light above the fuge and that it is lit 24/7, plumbing, etc is really goign to depend on what you want to do with your returns, etc...but with that budget, you have wuite a bit of freedom!
thats all i can think of right now, if you have any other q's post away and well all try to answer them as best as possible!
good luck and have fun
jon

 

[shep]

where do ya live ill help ya spend your parents money in person if your close..
I would ditch the rubbermaid sump also..much easier to just spend a couple of bucks and buy a tank.
Figure in skimmer and wet dry if your going that way, might as well just do CPR type system or equal system.
My CPR system was 23 dollars more than buying parts and trying to cheapo it.
4k dollars thats insane can they adopt me?

 

[krux]

just off hand a couple things stand out that you might want to consider...
a scwd will most likely not handle the return flow, i can not recall the maximum flow off hand, but you should look into that before nailing down what you are going to buy.
depending on what you are going to keep, a scwd might not be the best flow choice anyway, for a tank that size you will probably want more outlets, through the use of an actual wavemaker and some powerheads, or you might want to go with the oscillating current provided by 2 1" seaswirls with eductors, one on each side. i think a 1" seaswirl is rated for 1400 gph, so if you split the flow between them, you should be able to run a fairly good sized pump. alternately you could run a closed loop, or run through 2 scqds and take 4 lines back into your tank. depends a lot on your rockwork and if you are keeping high flow species.
and i agree about using a tank, if you are getting a nice new tank with nice cabinetry and nice lighting and all, spend the extra 50 bucks to make the sump out of a glass tank. invariably guests will want to look underneath, and your parents will want it to look tidy, unless maybe your dad will be doing the diy, in which case he can do rubermaid and show off his handywork (it looks more rustic and home made).
finally, as for lights, you can get some pretty much turn key lighting systems, you screw a few screws into the canopy to hold the reflector array up, plug in the wires, and turn the thing on. it will save you a couple hundred dollars most likely that will buy you another good sized box of rock.
HTH

 

[serpentine5]

What jonthefb said about Oceanic makes a great tank. If you could get them to do a custom cabnet and hood, you might be able to pay the shipping on a big truck when they make a shipment to a store in your area. Shipping like that would be much cheaper than by UPS or FedEx. I know of a guy here in Tennessee, not too far from Chattanooga who builds custom cabinets and hoods and sells them on ---- and to local stores.I could find his email address and give it to you if you want to maybe get a quote from him. I dont know if he does lighting or not, but it would not hurt to ask if you ask for a quote. Good luck, and we would love to see pix once you get it all done, or even step by step pix as you are building it.

 

[jlem]

You could easily build your own stand and canopy. If you had a circular saw, miter box, and a good square you could build one pretty easy. I posted pictures ( 125 DIY stand progress ) in the DIY forum. I saved litteraly hundreds of dollars and it was a lot of fun. I used oak which cost a lot more than you would spend since you would paint it anyways.

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by krux
a scwd will most likely not handle the return flow, i can not recall the maximum flow off hand, but you should look into that before nailing down what you are going to buy.

Hey Krux - where did you get that the scwd would not be able to handle return flow? Here is a quote regarding the flow it can handle:
The SCWD will run on any pump with a minimum output of 50 GPH and a maximum output of 1400. The switching speed and current duration is dependent on the volume of water flowing through the SCWD
If Ray goes with the four foot long tank a mag 9.5 or the next one up with a scwd would work nicely as a return pump - my plan is to do that with a 75 gallon I am building - I am just concerned that you said it can't handle it - need to know so I can re-think my setup. Thansk Krux