Lynn's 125 gallon build

Well since I am new here, I thought I would share my build with you guys! I got a used 125 AGA tank from my sister who had a couple of tinfoil barbs in it and NEVER cleaned anything in the tank. Their canister filter was growing algae on the carbon it was so bad, and this was for the 4 years they had it!

Anyways, the stand needed the most help out of everything. It was scratched from their cats and peed on by their dogs so I sanded it down and bleached it and hosed it off.


I then decided to paint the stand black with a satin finish. I used Behr ultra premium paint. This paint is indoor/outdoor so it will seal it nicely.


I also didn't like the oak trim that this tank had so I decided to paint this black with Behr ultra premium paint which is the best paint ever imo. I also painted the back panel with the paint as well. I did about 3 coats.

 

I'm liking the build so far. The stand looks much better. lol. The tank looks nice too.

 

I forgot to add this picture: I painted the inside of the stand black as well.


The only sump I could fit under the stand is a 30 gallon and I didn't have the money to spend on those fancy acrylic sumps. I just cut some acrylic and siliconed it in there. It has been holding up pretty well so far! Here I am leak testing it.


After some conversation with people about how I should drill my tank, I decided to take the plunge and ordered the 1500gph kit from glass-holes and 2 return kits as well. I figured if a man could do it, a woman could definitely do it! lol




It wasn't too hard to do, but it was difficult to drill the returns with no template as they don't provide one for some reason. What I did is held the drill at an angle to get a groove and then slowly lifted it parallel to the tank. Don't forget to use water and plumbers putty!

 

Nice stand nice tank nice dog nice home= Sweet !....LOL welcome Lynn

 

Here is with some of the plumbing attached. The overflow box is installed after using some plumbers grease on the gaskets, not too much though! At this point I was just proud of what I had accomplished myself! What is not shown are the metal clamps I bought to keep the hoses on their barbed fittings. I also had to find some vinyl tubing that wasn't kinked so badly (thanks home depot *rolls eyes*). I did find some nice tubing at Lowes. The reason I did flexible plumbing is that I honestly did not understand much about pvc. If I could go back, I'd add some of those fittings to help release the plumbing and such.




If I could go back, I would also drill the returns a bit higher to prevent backflow into the sump. Right now I just have them pointed towards the surface which works fine.


The backside


The pieces of pvc and fittings I had to get that confused 5 employees at home depot.

 

Here's a top down look at the overflow box.


finally the tank is on it's stand with the light in place! It is an aquaticlife fixture with 8 36" bulbs in it. It also has moonlights and is programmable! I eventually changed out the stock bulbs for ATIs as the ones that came with it stunk.


I left about 4 1/2" of clearance behind the wall in case I needed to fix something.


Return side: I do not have this viaaqua pump anymore and I will never buy from them again. This pump worked a month and then wouldn't turn on again. I now have a mag 12 that is dialed back


Drain side with my eshopps psk-200 skimmer. I still love this skimmer!


leak testing with freshwater.

 

Just be sure you have a ball valve of some kind if you are going to have a refugium. Refugiums need slow flowing water in order for the chaeto/pods to have time to break down the nutrients.

 

OK, no fuge. That works too. Do you plan to run an aglgae turf scrubber, bio-pellets, or the like?

The sump looks good too.

 

everything was working great! I left it for a couple of days to see if anything went wrong, and nothing did phew!


This is the level my return side usually is.


Drained the tank, washed my tropic eden reeflakes and put in my BRS ecorocks/pukani rocks and started filling with RO/DI. It took about 3 and a half days off and on.


all filled up with salt inside. I also got 2 live rocks from my LFS to seed the system. I then just let it sit and do it's thing.


left side


right side

 

I love the aquacsape. Was that your first for this tank or did you change it up a bit?