reefninja Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 (edited) Slowly working to get our 125g tank changed over from a freshwater tank to our first big saltwater tank. We'll be moving over most of the live rock from our 40g breeder and another smaller tank into the new tank. This first picture is the 125g as a freshwater Frontosa tank. Not the best picture of the tank, as I was just trying to get a picture of the dog. For the life of me, I can't find a picture of just the tank, but this give you an idea of what the tank and stand looked like. We drained and cleaned the tank, painted the back and trimming black and raised the stand up about 10 inches by building a box underneath. Edited August 30, 2012 by reefninja Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Is it drilled or are you going to have hang on overflows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 Is it drilled or are you going to have hang on overflows? I was afraid to drill the tank and risk cracking it, so we picked up a used hang on overflow box, added new hoses and cleaned it up. Works great and no leaking (so far... crossing fingers). This is probably a good place to add that we are doing this tank on the cheap...using what we already have and getting good deals on used equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 Here's a picture of the hang on overflow box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 We made a 20g sump out of an empty tank in the garage. First time to do this, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Still need a sponge...We put a 900 gph pump to return the water to the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Sweet build Reefninja. I have the exact tank but had mine drilled and overflows added (completed by Prof). Question on raising the stand, you mind me bugging you on your exact build on the base? I've been wanting to do that myself but was afraid I'd screw up and the whole tank come crashing down on me. Is your sump just sitting on the base inside your stand? We can chat via PM if you want, don't want to fill up your build thread with questions about how to build the base. :-) -Ty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 Sweet build Reefninja. I have the exact tank but had mine drilled and overflows added (completed by Prof). Question on raising the stand, you mind me bugging you on your exact build on the base? I've been wanting to do that myself but was afraid I'd screw up and the whole tank come crashing down on me. Is your sump just sitting on the base inside your stand? We can chat via PM if you want, don't want to fill up your build thread with questions about how to build the base. :-) -Ty We can post it here in case someone else is wondering the same thing...We bought a 10 inch by 2 inch board that was 20 feet long and had it cut at Home Depot. We ended up with two 73" long pieces, and five 16" long pieces. We screwed them together with the longer pieces in front and back, and the 16" pieces on the sides and three for support in the middle about every 15 inches. The sump is sitting on two by fours. You could probably use a good plywood inside, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Thanks Reefninja! One last question, what kind of wood did you buy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 Thanks Reefninja! One last question, what kind of wood did you buy? I think it was regular untreated 2x10 lumber. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 I really like the changes you did to the tank and stand. Wow, that made a big difference! Great job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted August 30, 2012 Author Share Posted August 30, 2012 I really like the changes you did to the tank and stand. Wow, that made a big difference! Great job. thanks, Kim! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted August 31, 2012 Author Share Posted August 31, 2012 Today was a good day. I added more live rock to the tank out of the 40g breeder. The rocks are a mixture of fiji live rock, base rock, Texas holey rock, and fake live rock that we made from oyster shell and portland cement. I'm not very good at aquascaping, but I think this will work. I ran out of rock, so this will have to do for now until more of the fake live rock cures. A few coral frags made it into the tank because they were attached to the rock and I didn't want to pull them off; one sps, a green tree coral, some mushrooms, a few zoas and palys. A lone blue leg crab also hitchhiked into the tank on a rock. The substrate is crushed oyster shell, which I like because it doesn't blow all over the place like sand. I'm waiting to add anything else until it finishes cycling. We'll see...I'm so impatient! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 What type of lighting are you going to use? Is this going to be a FOWLER tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted August 31, 2012 Author Share Posted August 31, 2012 It'll be mostly a LPS tank. I have two 3 foot LED EVO light strips which were over the 40g. The light strips fit perfectly over the 125, as it's essentially the same footprint, just twice as long. I may add a kessil pendant for supplemental light for a few SPS. Will see how they do with the light strips. So far good growth on the LPS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 Great start! When I switched from FW I had a 180 undrilled tank. I wasn't quite as good as you are with fitting the pieces together and ended up doing the sump 3 or 4 times. I wish I had had it drilled from the start because it would have saved me a lot of trouble. Awesome job on the stand. It looks really good. One thing I would suggest, based on past experiences, is that you might want to increase your flow or change around your rock structures to allow more flow if you start to see detri build-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted September 5, 2012 Author Share Posted September 5, 2012 Great start! When I switched from FW I had a 180 undrilled tank. I wasn't quite as good as you are with fitting the pieces together and ended up doing the sump 3 or 4 times. I wish I had had it drilled from the start because it would have saved me a lot of trouble. Awesome job on the stand. It looks really good. One thing I would suggest, based on past experiences, is that you might want to increase your flow or change around your rock structures to allow more flow if you start to see detri build-up. Thanks, Sascha. The flow looks pretty good right now with the powerheads and return flow. I'll keep an eye out for any dead spots. I would love to add a wave maker for the more random movement in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 Looking good Reefninja! Keep us updated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Cob Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 I know what you mean about waiting! I hate it too. Tank looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 Thanks!!! Appreciate the encouragement. Will keep you posted on the progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefninja Posted September 9, 2012 Author Share Posted September 9, 2012 The tank is coming along, and we've added some more inhabitants. We started by adding a Tomato Clownfish pair, and a Black Combtooth Blenny. Then after a few days we added a pair of Bengali Cardinalfish and a Hoeven's wrasse (tail spot wrasse). The Tomato clowns are not my favorite, so we decided to take them out and put in our Clarkii clownfish pair instead. BIG mistake! . The female Clarkii decided she wanted to kill everyone else in the tank! She was chasing the two Bengali cardinals, the Hoeven's wrasse and the poor Tomato clown that we couldn't catch. We knew we had to take either the Tomato clown out, or the Clarkii out, so it was a matter of who we could catch first. Since the Tomato wasn't messing with anyone, we really wanted the Clarkii out. After moving a lot of rock around to get her out of all the hiding places, we caught both the Clarkii and put them back in their original tank. What a nightmare. Tank is going through some algae stages with brown algae on the substrate and green algae on the rocks. I need to add more crabs to help with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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