Andys 125 build

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Howdy guys.
I'll start with some background. I've been in this hobby for about six years. However not all of those years were spent reefing. I am pretty big into freshwater and have had many different types of tanks. Currently I have a single 6 year old piranha (he was one of my first fish) named Norman in a 75 gallon planted tank. I also have a 10 gallon planted comunity, 10 gallon guppy grow out tank, and a 3 gallon betta tank.
But enough about my freshwater experience. Onto saltwater. I've had two different saltwater setups. My first ever saltwater endeavor was a 30 gallon DT with a 20 long for a sump. Lots of DIY stuff including the cabinet and electrical. It was home to some clowns, damsels, dottyback, dwarf angel, Cardinal, various clean up crew, and some soft corals that came with the live rock I bought out of an existing system. That system ended up falling victim to hair algae and I battled it for a while but in the end I gave up. When I moved into a new house I moved existing live stock from that tank to a 29 that I set up which was supposed to be temporary until I set up my 125 that I had recently acquired. That never happened. Everything in the 29 died due to lack of interest and now almost a year later the 29 and the 125 are for sale because as I was skimming craigslist for live rock I found somebody tearing down a 125 reef ready tank with pretty much everything I needed. So long story short I'm trying this saltwater thing again and that's the route I'm going. Here's the tank:

 

[Duke4Life]

Be patient! Can't wait to see more. I have a 125 myself.

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

The specs of this build will go something like this: -125 gallon aqueon reef ready DT. I'm going to make my own durso's utilizing both 1" bulk heads and both 3/4" bulk heads just to have some headroom when it comes to flow. I will bring a single 3/4" return line into the middle of the back wall which will split into two nozzles via loc line.
-Custom sump made from a standard 55 gallon tank.
-Custom cabinet which will fully encase the tank leaving just the front pane for viewing. Very excited to start construction of this. I will post my sketch up drawings as soon as I can.
-I have a Jabao 6000 for a return pump.
-Jabao wp60? For flow.
-I have a pretty large protein skimmer but it doesn't have any markings on it so I'm not sure what it is exactly.
-for light I plan to do the Chinese MR-120 dimmable LED fixture from aquatraders
-also I have more dry rock than I know what to do with
Oh and here's the RO/DI I will be using:

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Be patient! Can't wait to see more. I have a 125 myself.

Do you have a build thread?

 

[Duke4Life]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/phils-125-dream-getaway.220722/
I started as fowlr. I'm slowly upgrading and adding equipment. Should have an algae scrubber up and running by end of weekend.

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

I'm hoping somebody can help me out here. I got 2 sumps with the tank I bought and quite frankly I just don't understand how the guy ran them. They confuse me.

Seems to me like the water would just skim the top of that middle chamber since it doesn't have a baffle to direct it down after it spills over. There's also no place to put filter media and I don't understand why the thing is so high if the second baffle is so short. Apparently he had it connected to another one via 1-1/2" lines.

I don't like this one either so needless to say they are for sale and I plan to make a custom sump out of a 55 but maybe you guys can shed some light on how these are supposed to work and if I have a better understanding I might use them. Thanks in advance guys and gals.

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Here are my sketch up drawings of the stand and sump. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[cameronh]

Welcome to reef2reef!

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Welcome to reef2reef!

Thanks I've used this forum for years and it has helped greatly so when I started in on my 125 I figure I had better create a build thread.

 

[cameronh]

Thanks I've used this forum for years and it has helped greatly so when I started in on my 125 I figure I had better create a build thread.

It's an awesome forum man!

 

[Salty1962]

Looks like a good start. The sump looks like it used to be a trickle filter. Not sure about 2 feeds coming off the sump.

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Looks like a good start. The sump looks like it used to be a trickle filter. Not sure about 2 feeds coming off the sump.

Thanks for the input. Yeah I don't like either one of these sumps.

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Got some work done on my water station today. Still lots of work to do. Does anyone know if you can buy JUST lids for these brute trash cans?

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

My light was delivered today. I had a 4 bulb t5 that came with my torn down 125 purchase but I didn't care for it so I sold it and got me a Chinese LED fixture. I have full confidence that it will grow soft corals and maybe LPS. If I get into SPS I will add more light or a different fixture all together. Here she is:

I plan to add blue LEDs to this fixture some how for more of a 15k look. I have a 16ft strip of blue that has double stick tape on the back. I may run some on either side of the fixture.

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Got some work done on my LED fixture today. Added actinic blue.

Here's the fixture in its stock form.

Here it is with the LED strips installed.

Actinic blue

And with everything on.

And over the tank.

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Also did some work in the fish room. Changed up some electricity, painted, and worked on the water station.
Here's the water station plumbing:

Ball valve underneath the fresh water reservoir for easy mixing of saltwater and a ball valve at the front of the stand for getting top off water.

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

My fish room is starting to look like a fish room!

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Got some work done on the stand. I call this part the "core" as this is what will support the weight of the tank.

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

I started the dry rock in a vinegar bath a couple days ago.

Excited to be moving along =]

 

[AndyOneTwentyFive]

Update: My vinegar bath didn't get results (rock is still green) so I'm going to do muriatic acid when I get the chance. Also my stand has been repurposed as a miter saw table. Darn thing was wobbly when I built it and I didn't realize how bad until I set the tank on it. Also I didn't like how tall it was so I built a new one.

Went with a complete redesign. I like this design a lot better as the canopy will be removable when it comes time to tear the system down. (I don't plan on living here forever)
This setback had me bummed but I'm moving forward once again and couldn't be happier.