My new 125 build

Just got the 125 up and running 2 days ago. Using 2 small fish for mini-cycle as I transferred some sand and rock over from the 46 to get the cycle over quickly.
Painted my stand black, I'm lazy so I just painted what you see on the outside. Using a 29 gallon tank as a fuge on the left side and a megaflow 4 wet/dry as the sump on the right.

Using a dual 1" HOB overflow rated at 1200gph.

Here's the sump and fuge plumbed in, 1 drain runs to the fuge and 1 to the sump, then the fuge drains into the sump. You can see my ASM skimmer in the sump there also. I would have liked to have a bigger skimmer but that was the largest one I could get and still fit under the stand.

Built the canopy, nothing special, running 6 x 80w T5s with Icecap SLR reflectors, and waterproof endcaps. 3 12" strip LEDs mounted down the center for Moonlights.


I went with 3 ATI Blue +, 2 ATI Aquablue specials, and 1 KZ Fiji Purple to give a 15,000K appearance. These pics are pretty blue on the computer, it's really not that blue in person.

I put the light rack in the canopy on sliders so I could move it out of the way to access the tank. You can tell it makes a big difference as there was only a few inches inbetween the front light and the tank lip.


Completed (don't mind the mess, I haven't cleaned up yet and my wife makes sure to remind me that every day)

I wanted to get a school of blue/green chromis and still plan on getting 5-6 more next week when my LFS gets them in but when I got there yesterday they only had 1 left so I had to get him a tankmate and a decided to get a Bangaii cardinal.

 

You call that a mess, I like the lighting idea on sliders, looks good.

 

LOL, ya you can't see the rest of the basement.

 

Thanks for the pictures !! You have the same 125 tank as I do....except my stand has the decorative center ( totally not functional !! ) and will be plumbing it thru wall into garage.

I am still researching and learning from my 90 gallon and reading before i start my set-up....will be great to see yours progress!!!

+ K for your tank build !!!

 

I like it. Looking good. I like the 2 islands you have. Are you going to add more rock or leave it the way it is.

 

I was kind of leaving the space in the middle for some of the rock out of my old tank. All of this rock was dry reef rock and I used the texas holey rock from when it was a chichlid tank for base rock. I have 2 large (20 lb) rocks from the 46 that I'm going to put in the center of the tank, I like the 2 island deal but I don't think it's enough space for corals. Plus the brightest spot in the tank is right in the middle.

Basically I still have some more aquascaping to do once I start moving my rock and coral over from the 46.

 

I have moved all my softies over to the 125 and the LPS and SPS along with the remainder of the rock will be tomorrow. I decided there wasn't enough light on the ends of the tank as I want to keep my softies around the tank perimiter moving into LPS and SPS in the middle. So, I ordered 2 x 32w PC retrokit and I will be installing the PCs tomorrow on the ends of the light rack to take up the remaining 6 inches on either end of the tank.

 

Did this tank cycle yet?

 

It had I guess what you would call a "mini-cycle" I used rock, sand, and cheato from my existing tank and fuge to cut the cycle time down to almost non existant. I was never able to read any NH4, NO2, or NO3
I started moving fish and corals over from the 46 yesterday, moved my pair of clowns and soft corals over. They all are doing well, opened up nicely and look happy, so I will move some more over this weekend.

 

Finished moving everything over from the 46. I took out the smaller two of the 4 powerhads, I have mostly LPs and softies and a few SPS, I know the SPS like heavy flow but it was making the LPS and softies miserable.