125g Reef Cube - Design Planning

[Cleverbs]

So i was looking at cubes because I am planning on building a 125g Cube in the next few months but have LOTS of questions and were better to get some good information then on a forum dedicated to cubes!

So I am going to get a cube that will be 3'x3'x24'' with a Eaurobrace because it will be open top (No canopy and the lights will hang above it) it will be a reef tank and I have some questions when designing and planning things out. I plan to buy the equipment slowly over the next few months so that when I move into my new house I can buy the tank and get it up and running. I currently have a 75g Reef and 40g Reef that I will be combining into the 125g So heres my current equipment and am wondering what I will be able to use in the new 125g

Mag 7 or mag 5 dont really know
Quiteone 3000
Reef Octopus MWB-150
3x 1250 GPH Korilias
Vortex MP10
Phosphate/Carbon reactor
30g Sump with 3 chambers
ReefKeeper Lite Plus (has PH and Temp Prob)

So I am going to kind of ask one question at a time and as they go along but at first I have a few main questions

I dont know how many GPH ill want to have in the tank so I may have to get a new return pump if so what kind of GPH will i want?

do I need a steel stand or will wood work?
where can I buy a quality LEVEL stand?
Is a 30g Sump big enough?
What other equipment should I have?

 

[Cleverbs]

Ok so silly me I asked questions I know. I will just use my Skimmer and my quietone or the mag 5 (if its a mag 5) so that it matches my skimmer flow rate. 500gph is fine for the return in the tank correct?

I doubt ill be able to use my MP10 beings the tank will be so think unless I can mount it inside my overflow. If i cant ill use two mp40's that I will save my money for. My lighting will be LED, however with the rate that LED's are getting cheaper and advancing I will not buy the LED's till i get the tank. I am hoping that I just have to purchase LED's, Stand, Tank, MP 40's.

The tank will probably be Barebottom but I will see. I hate vacumming sand and well i just simply dont want to have to deal with that. I want to be able to suck up some gunk on the bottom of the tank and then just drain the rest for my water change. I should have plenty of rock for the tank beings i have about 130lb's of live rock right now and about 40lbs of it will be in the sump or something because I dont like having alot of rock in the display. The tank will be a mixed reef (no softies)

Stock List is one of my grey areas. I want to have about 4 tangs in the tank (sailfin,Powerder Blue, Blond Naso, Hippo), a designer clownfish pair (black ice clowns or picassos), a shoal of Chromis, and some other random little fish like firefish, Flasher Wrasse, Cardinals so on.

What are your guys experience with Tangs in cubes. I know they stress out easy but based on what iv seen from pictures of cubes you can keep quite a few in a cube tank because they ahve the ability to swim all the way around the tank. My tank would deffinitly have this feature because I cannot stand rocks against the back wall of a tank so it would have rock formations that would allow fish to swim all around the tank and between different areas.

 

[Riblet]

Hi I had a 36x36x18" tank and just had a 36x36x24" built. I use a Water Blaster 7000 Circulating Water Pump. It's 1800 gph with 6' of spa flex and 2 mp40s. I wouldn't go with less then that, getting good flow in large cube with reef structures is a challenge.

Wood or steel it's up to you, I built one out of wood. I built strong enough to hold up to earthquakes, if it falls I have bigger problems.