Bringing the 125 back to life build thread

[Lifelongaquaria]

So right now am running a 40 gallon breeder with 20 gallon sump. It is in its second temporary build state and will lead up to my 125 gallon build. First sump had a huge wad of polyester then a bunch of dish scrubs followed by row of sponges then pump. Now running three drawer wet dry with floss carbon scrubs and sponges. Have a diy cheatomorpha reactor. Using a combination of dead corals pumice and live rock. Still have no skimmer. The next phase I will install baffles and cease wet dry filtration and hopefully add a skimmer soon. My inhabitants right now are only an urchin and a Coral beauty. I managed to cycle the tank with no diatom or alge outbreaks but am walking a very fine line with no skimmer an very little pumice but both of these things will change soon. Also doing an entire aquarium room build but it is slow to say the least.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

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[Lifelongaquaria]

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[Lifelongaquaria]

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Macro reactor

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Shows substrate and reactor after being covered

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Didn't get any photos of the first phase of filtration. Sorry. Should begin baffles tomorrow.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Nice start!

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Simple sump

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Plexiglass cut to fit

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Silicone on one side of baffles and a little reseal now so I don't have to do it later. Will let Tack up then do the other side of baffles so they don't move around.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Third baffle cut drilled and siliconed.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Holes in bottom half of baffle. Gap sized to sponges I am using.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Padding put into return pump chamber, chips of Plexi siliconed for lid insert, lid insert cut to size and hole sawed for overflow pipe .

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Lava rock thoroughly washed (after an hour of rinse and repeat), and the ancient and faithful Berlin awaiting skimmer pump.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Small mod for light diffuser to cover skimmer pump. Will add two more chips of Plexi in on glass side and baffle so three sides of diffuser will be supported. Waiting on pump to arrive so I know where to place them.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Pumice added to existing sump.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

So the company I ordered the Skinner pump from sends an email saying they don't have the Venturi and silencer that come with the pump but they can give me the pup pump still with no Venturi and no silencer and the pump will still work fine. Which obviously does me no good at all as the Venturi is the only part I actually need having lost the one I printed to previous agriculture partner. So the skimmer is delayed yet again. Trying to give me only half refund. No worries on the refund though backed up by pay pal and eBay. Seesh; at this point I feel like I should start a book on my skimmer called this old Berlin. Luckily my current filtration is holding out but really don't like walking such a fine line when it comes to my ecosystems.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Finally got the new sump in and running. Was waiting for skimmer pump but as things went screwy with the company I ordered from I decided to go ahead. Using skimmer compartment as refugium so I could run the system on one pump.

 

[Lifelongaquaria]

Crap. Just woke up to find my baffles collapsed went to thin on silicone especially since it's acrylic to glass. Knew I should have done a second application to make up for it whenever I checked it after drying realized it was to thin but did not do it. Told myself the water pressure on both sides should be enough. Dumb. Oh well nothing left but to fix it.