I'm combining my pre-existing 34 and 65 gallon tanks in an upgrade to a 125. The threads for these tanks can be found here:

34g Solana
65 Reef

The tank is your generic 6 ft 125. For lighting, I'm going with a somewhat DIY (someone else already did most of the DIY part) fixture that is six feet long. It features two 250w MH fixtures and two six foot strip VHOs. The ballast for the MH's is a BlueWav and the ballast for the T5's is an Icecap. My sump, to start with, will be a 29 gallon tank with the skimmer (Tunze 9010), a small macro fuge area, and an Eheim 1262 return pump. I am starting with some Koralia powerheads I already have (1 K4, 3 K2's), but I will eventually (6 months maybe? lol) go with at least two MP40's. And of course, I will have multiple heaters. I'm not sure I'll need a chiller, yet. My 34 needed one, but my 65 has been disgustingly stable in terms of temperature. I'm thinking that the 125 should be even easier to control. It is also on the lower level of the house instead of the upper like the current two are. Are there any changes you would make to this list of mechanical stuff or anything I don't have that you'd include, such as reactors or a UV?

The overflow that came with the tank appears to be small and I'm not sure it'll be enough. I may end up getting a second and possibly upgrading the one. It was used in tandem with a Mag7 by the previous owner and I get the feeling that I'm going to want more flow than I can get with the current box. If I go with the dual overflow boxes, I'll probably either get a second 29g tank and use that for some other media or connect it to a Calcium and probably Phosphate reactor. I'm not sure if I'd use the Mag7 I got with the tank or if I'd order a second Eheim. What are your thoughts? Please feel free to go into detail if you have plumbing recommendations.

I'm also mentally challenged and unsure of how to set the box up. I have the part that has the hang-over lip that goes on the back of the tank, and the box that goes on the interior. I also have a u-tube. Does the tube just go from the from to the back and act as the means of flow delivery from the tank to the overflow box itself? Here are a few pictures.





The lighting is another problem. I purchased a used aluminum frame that another reefer put together. It's meant to either be hung over the tank or to fit inside of a hood. The problem is that it's too wide to fit into the hood that came with my tank. It is just about exactly the same width and length of the hood. The frame does fit over the tank and it won't hang over any side. I can cut and weld the frame as needed. Would you alter the frame to fit into the hood, scrap the aluminum frame altogether (may not be the easiest choice in this case), or adjust the hood to fit the frame? Also, I still need reflectors for the VHO's. What would you recommend? These are a couple of pictures of the frame and the hood.




Besides those major issues, everything is running smoothly so far. I need to get a 50 gallon drum and figure out where I can hide it. I may put it on a roller so I can hide it out of the way but be able to easily roll it over to the tank when it's time for water changes and such. Just for fun, there's the first official FTS: a tank with nothing in it but a little sand!



Besides stating that this will be a mixed reef with a nice variety of fish and a predominance of SPS corals, I'll save going into detail on the stocking list until later. Thanks for your help.

Yay! another 125
def looks like u will need a larger overflow box or 2 like u stated, my tank is the RR and it has 2 large overflows.

Yeah, I wanted an RR but those just don't seem to exist around here. Oh well, overflows are fairly cheap. I like your tank, too.

A little update on the hood is that we're going to expand it and make it taller. The way it is right now, the bulbs will end up being just 3-4" off of the surface of the water and I want them to be at least 6" up. The nice thing is that I'll have tons of open space in the back to attach fans for ventilation. Because of how the supports are built, I won't be able to have the MHs right where I want them, but I'll be able to make two columns or hills on the ends of the tank instead of piling up in the middle.

I only had one overflow on my 135g, but it was larger than yours, with two drains. Did the trick though. I had a Mag10 as a return pump, plus a bunch of modded MJs in the display for flow. The return was in the center of the sump with a skimmer on one side and a fuge on the other, which is why I got the overflow with the dual drains. But if you set up your sump to go skimmer->fuge->return, that overflow and pump you have may be fine. There's no reason your return pump needs to provide a huge amount of flow to the display.

dude, drill your tank and add a bulkhead while you still can. you'll be glad you did. those overflows are a pain

I thought about drilling, but at the point we're already at, it'd be cheaper to go with the overflows.

Jere, the sump I already have goes skimmer -> fuge -> return. To start, I'm reusing the one on my 65. My thoughts were possibly mirroring that with whatever additional reactors I may end up using. Thanks for the advice about using it as a source of flow. My main concern is overall turnover rate for the tank.

Good start, but I would seriously consider a visit to glass-holes.com. I did, and don't regret it.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have to check it out. I've had a crazy week and a half, so I haven't been able to do any work on it yet besides organizing things and getting them out of my dining room.

yea, i would def drill it while you can.

If you drilled, would you go through the back wall or the bottom?

Through the back. The bottom is almost certainly tempered. With the glass-holes overflow kits they're designed to go through the back anyways. They'll send you an overflow, a bulkhead, a holesaw, an elbow, AND a t-shirt. You'll just need your piping of choice.

You'll either need to also get smaller holesaws/bulkheads to drill for your returns or just make U-pipes over the back to save a hole or two.

My 125's plumbing: http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/few...lz/IMG_4241.jpg

Yay another 125! Great tank.

I have 1 overflow on my tank and I stuck it at the end. Made it into a peninsula tank. Great views from 3 sides. Return pump is a Mag 9.5. Flows into a 3/4'' spray bar tucked up and into the rim of the tank and runs the 6 feet. Interesting to watch is the slow rotation of 6 feet tunnel of water.

I have 1 MP40W set to max on reefcrest. It works, I have zones in the tank. Closest to the MP40w is the sps, middle gets LPS and far from the pump is softies and low flow LPS.

Skimmer is a urchin 100. Will work until the tank gets more populated then will have to upgrade.

Lighting is a ebay score outer orbit 72'' model 150w

Getting enough LR in these big tanks is a major $ drain. Consider dead rock such as lace rock as 90% of the fill, get some good premium LR of your choice and it will turn the rest into LR over time. Saved me lots of $$$.

Good luck and keep us updated!

I recommend going with quality base rock, such as Marco Rocks. It's still much cheaper than live rock, but will be awesome once it's grown in. Then it's worth more if you're ever forced to sell. Crappy base rock isn't worth the money to me.

About 1/4 of my rock is Marco Rocks, and now, it's some of my nicer live stuff. Definitely worth a couple dollars a pound.

Some of my rock in my 55 gallon was over 10 bucks a lb.

I actually have well over a hundred pounds of LR in my existing tanks and some really nice, massive base pieces. I may not drop any money on adding any more LR once I have the display filled. They want $10 per lb around here for dead stuff. You have to wait until someone that knew what they were doing breaks down their tank. One shop did get in some stuff that looked like it could have been from that Tampa Bay place. That was the only stuff I ever would have paid $10+ a pound for.

Anyway, I ended up not drilling. I tried a few times on some scrap glass and I just was not comfortable doing it. I couldn't get anyone to do it for me, so I ended up getting a huge used overflow. I did try a spray bar but didn't really like what it was doing, so I'm just going to go with the boring loc-lines. Right now I'm just using my existing Koralias, but I will be getting at least two MP40Ws for this tank, just takes some time to save up the $800 to drop on them. On a side note, Rocket, I love the peninsula style, but I just don't have a place in the house to do it at.

Today is the day I'm going to start actually moving livestock into the tank and I'm still very nervous about it. The advice has been to do it all in one day, but I am extremely worried about doing damage to my more sensitive fish and corals, not to mention the clams. I have a couple of large, empty rubbermaid containers (never used for anything before) that I plan on using to hold the fish while I move the live rock. Right now, I'm seriously considering taking a few smaller pieces of rock and placing them into one of the containers with a powerhead and an appropriately sized heater for a holding tank of sorts for the fish.

I would love to hear what you all would do, so here's a list of the livestock in question, besides the rock:

Tank One:
-1 Peppermint Shrimp
-1 Harlequin Shrimp
-1 Neon Goby
-1 Helfrich Firefish
-1 Ocellaris juve/male
-1 2.5" Potter's Angel

Tank Two:
-1 Ocellaris juve/male
-1 Pyle's Wrasse, female
-2 Tricolor Anthias, one male, one female
-1 Pearly Weed Wrasse (assumed shrimp-safe, but never been with a shrimp to test the theory)
-1 2" Hippo Tang

Thanks a ton for the help you've all offered already.

P.S. here's the cloudy tank shot. The canopy's off to make things easier until I'm done with the move.

I'd move them all. Just take your time acclimating everything.

Yeah, the only thing that's not going to get a drip acclimation is the rock and corals.

Well, I've been looking and nobody really lists what they use for heating on their 125's and larger. I have two 250w heaters in my tank, turned all the way up, and I still can't get the temp above 76. Is adding the 150w that's been running my 34 the solution or am I just doing something wrong? There is one heater in the bottom and one (ugh) in the display.

I run two 250s in mine and it's at 79* all the time.

Hrm. I haven't run the tank with the lights on yet, so I'm sure that'll make a difference. If it levels out at 79 with lights on, I may add one more just to be able to use to micromanage it so it's not reliant on the lights.

I had my Wednesday afternoon off, so I did some work today and put a good deal of the rock in. I'd say it's about 75 lbs worth, with some really dense base pieces. Even though I have some stuff left, I'm thinking it's gonna need more...I haven't looked at rock online for awhile, but I'm thinking I'll go with the nice lace packages that Reef Cleaners (I think it's them, anyway) offers and get the CUC I need as well.

I plan on finishing the move tomorrow and Friday. I'm sure all the rock I put in today will do well, but I'm holding back on finishing just to be sure. For now, here's an FTS and one showing the addition we did to the canopy.




We added to the top to hang the MHs inside of it. That leaves it with the bottom, original part completely empty and two levels where fans can be attached if heat removal is a problem. I ran the set up on the tank when it was still empty for about five hours and there were never any temp issues, but that's with a large empty void beneath it.

Thanks for looking!

Are you running your MHs on it yet?

Well, according to Optikal's 90 gallon tank thread, Koralia 3s put off quite a bit of heat. If that's the case, that helps in my tank as I have two K3s along with a Mag3 and the two 250w stealths.

I think if you got one more heater it'd be enough to get you where you're wanting. Even if it's a smaller sized heater.

I have 2x250w heaters right now. I don't have any powerheads in yet, but I will be starting wtih two K2's and one K4, so that may help. This is the first full day of MH being on and the tank was stable at 82 all day, so I think I can turn a heater down.

Yeah, I think you'll be fine after powerheads.

I have most everything moved, except, of course, the sand sleeping wrasse. She buried herself when I wasn't looking and now I'm thinking that I may be stuck trying to dig through the sand to get her. Seventy-five pounds of sand. What my plan is, is to let her come back out on her own and then chase her when she's the only fish in the tank. If I don't catch her, at least I can see where she buries at. Any dis/agree?

Update: The wrasse came up about an hour ago and I was able to catch her without her going into the sand. She was acclimated to the tank and promptly found a nice spot to bury and hide.

My female Pyle's and my Neon are both being extremely reclusive, but everybody else was out and having fun, so here's some pics.

This is my luitenant tang, or Acanthurus tennenti. He had some scratches and discoloration yesterday in QT, but he ate well and they went away as the day progressed. He looked great so he finally ended his QT today.


A couple of group pics.





Some individual pics.





I wanted to finish with my anthias. I guess I should have known that they could flash. As soon as the male got comfortable, he started flashing. The first two are normal coloration, the last is a flashing.

Very nice, I like, I like. But why so little tangs I blew up my tank with them

There was really only one group of tangs that I liked that would fit my tank for a long time, and I'm not brave enough to risk the war of more than one Acanthurus. I'm also just keeping it to three larger fish, the last to be added when I finally find a healthy one.

And what would that be?

Flagfin Angel. I kind of missed the season on them, I think.