787will
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone! So im one of those people that loves to spend hours going through others build threads seeing how everyone does things and then the progression of their tanks, boy do i waste a lot of time doing this! Well the time has finally come for me to set up my 6ft 125g tank again so i though, you know what, this time around i'll do a build thread!
So i'll start with going back 4-5 years when i first got into the hobby. Me and my wife (newly married) moved out of an apartment and into a house and i jumped on this to setup my first tank (wife finally gave in, she couldn't think of any more excuses to say no! haha) I found a cheap 30g on craigslist and the journey began.
My First 30g tank.
Well probably about 6 months of this tank running i discovered petco's $1 per gallon sale and decided this was the perfect excuse, it was time to upgrade, so i got a 55g. I built my first stand for this tank and also decided to try out LEDs and built my own fixtures through rapid LED. Everything was going awesome, happy fish, happy coral, i was officially hooked.
A few more months passed and i was getting an ich to move. I wanted get out of rented and buy my own place. Well at the time wifey didnt have the same desire, she wasnt convinced we were ready and we had a really sweat deal on where we were living at the time and she wanted to make the most of it. I saw this as an opportunity and we made a deal, time for another upgrade! Off i went to to LFS and bought the 125g
Original 125g
Oh boy did i love having such a large tank and everything went well for the first few months as it had been ever since i got into the hobby but then the learning curve kicked in. The dreaded ich followed by aptasia and then hair algae problems. The frustrations i had read over and over of other reefers dealing with i was now personally at war with. To make matters worse after about a year of this tank running we had been told the house we were renting was being sold. Given the short amount of time we had to find a new place and not wanting to brake the bank because of our future plans we had no choice but to move into an apartment. This meant the break down on the 125.
In the apartment i had enough space to keep a 40 breader, i got to keep about half of my live stock and all of my coral which i managed to cram into this now small tank. unfortunately as everything was a transfer from the 125 i was still battling aptasia and hair algae and the move just made things worse and started to get out of control. Life changes kept coming and i landed a new job but it meant i would be away from home a LOT. My wife doesn't mind helping out with the tank but the state it was in i couldnt put it on her so i took drastic action. I sold off 90% of my coral and livestock and dropped the tank size down to a 20L to become more manageable and things started to settle down.
40 Breeder before things took a dive.
So time moved on and our lease was drawing closer to its end and we decided that the time was as good as any to make the move and buy our first home. 4 months later, a week before Thank Giving and a whole lot poorer we closed on our house! The house has needed a fair amount of fixing up which is why im only just starting to get around to getting the 125 up and running.
Every since we moved into a new home i have been using the 20L as more of a holding/frag tank. I still have a couple of my original corals that date back to my original 30g that have been put through the ringer but are still fighting strong. I also have a swissguard basselet (love this fish!) and clown pair that have made it with me since the original 125.
Now for the good stuff, the build!
Specs;
125 gallon 6ft marineland tank with 40g sump.
Lights; DIY LED with supplemental T5
System controlled via APEX
And thats it so far! haha honestly these are the only things that are for certain, mainly because i keep changing my mind on everything else, until i make a decision and make the investment nothing else is a guarantee, for example i really want the WAV pumps but at this time i cant bring myself to spend that kind of money (still investing in the house) so i could end up with jebaos or a used gyre. It'll be a surprise for all.
What i will say is im very DIY orientated so there are some things that are re-purposed and wont look pretty but hey if its out of sight and functions how it should them im all for it.
So i'll start with going back 4-5 years when i first got into the hobby. Me and my wife (newly married) moved out of an apartment and into a house and i jumped on this to setup my first tank (wife finally gave in, she couldn't think of any more excuses to say no! haha) I found a cheap 30g on craigslist and the journey began.
My First 30g tank.
Well probably about 6 months of this tank running i discovered petco's $1 per gallon sale and decided this was the perfect excuse, it was time to upgrade, so i got a 55g. I built my first stand for this tank and also decided to try out LEDs and built my own fixtures through rapid LED. Everything was going awesome, happy fish, happy coral, i was officially hooked.
A few more months passed and i was getting an ich to move. I wanted get out of rented and buy my own place. Well at the time wifey didnt have the same desire, she wasnt convinced we were ready and we had a really sweat deal on where we were living at the time and she wanted to make the most of it. I saw this as an opportunity and we made a deal, time for another upgrade! Off i went to to LFS and bought the 125g
Original 125g
Oh boy did i love having such a large tank and everything went well for the first few months as it had been ever since i got into the hobby but then the learning curve kicked in. The dreaded ich followed by aptasia and then hair algae problems. The frustrations i had read over and over of other reefers dealing with i was now personally at war with. To make matters worse after about a year of this tank running we had been told the house we were renting was being sold. Given the short amount of time we had to find a new place and not wanting to brake the bank because of our future plans we had no choice but to move into an apartment. This meant the break down on the 125.
In the apartment i had enough space to keep a 40 breader, i got to keep about half of my live stock and all of my coral which i managed to cram into this now small tank. unfortunately as everything was a transfer from the 125 i was still battling aptasia and hair algae and the move just made things worse and started to get out of control. Life changes kept coming and i landed a new job but it meant i would be away from home a LOT. My wife doesn't mind helping out with the tank but the state it was in i couldnt put it on her so i took drastic action. I sold off 90% of my coral and livestock and dropped the tank size down to a 20L to become more manageable and things started to settle down.
40 Breeder before things took a dive.
So time moved on and our lease was drawing closer to its end and we decided that the time was as good as any to make the move and buy our first home. 4 months later, a week before Thank Giving and a whole lot poorer we closed on our house! The house has needed a fair amount of fixing up which is why im only just starting to get around to getting the 125 up and running.
Every since we moved into a new home i have been using the 20L as more of a holding/frag tank. I still have a couple of my original corals that date back to my original 30g that have been put through the ringer but are still fighting strong. I also have a swissguard basselet (love this fish!) and clown pair that have made it with me since the original 125.
Now for the good stuff, the build!
Specs;
125 gallon 6ft marineland tank with 40g sump.
Lights; DIY LED with supplemental T5
System controlled via APEX
And thats it so far! haha honestly these are the only things that are for certain, mainly because i keep changing my mind on everything else, until i make a decision and make the investment nothing else is a guarantee, for example i really want the WAV pumps but at this time i cant bring myself to spend that kind of money (still investing in the house) so i could end up with jebaos or a used gyre. It'll be a surprise for all.
What i will say is im very DIY orientated so there are some things that are re-purposed and wont look pretty but hey if its out of sight and functions how it should them im all for it.
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so only half of my royal blue channel has lenses to just penetrate a bit deeper into the tank. 
