125G Macroalgae/Lagoon style Reef Tank

The Macro Guy · Apr 18, 2015

Hi everyone, just wanted to share my tank build with you all. The tank is already done and running, took a little over 6 months to finish everything. (Poormans build DIY), but here is the journey I took doing this build. Had some help from good friends, had to do lots of research and planning for optimal conditions and maintenance planing. Figured if I was going to upgrade from my 50g, I might as well go all out and stay try to stay affordable lol. (Incoming long post)

Tank Stats:

125g Long w/ Custom coast to coast external overflow.

The tank started off rough, got it for about $100, had lots of scratches.

But with the help of some Novus and tons (2 weeks+) of elbow grease and some light belt sanding (btw belt sanding sucks, just use sand paper and your hand), I was able to get a majority of the scratches out, and had the tank looking close to brand new.

Next came the over flow box & drilling the tank, the box was fairly simple, used a thick acrylic from Lowes, they were nice enough to cut it for me. Smoothed out the cuts and heated the edges of the long panels using my stove top, to help give it the clear, flat finish. Using weldon combinations, I welded half the box onto the back of the tank, using a rotary I placed the marked holes, I was clenched the whole time LOL. Using a high powered rotary on the back of a tank while shards of molten plastic spew about is nerve racking.

With box in place and the holes drilled, I applied the final outer wall of the overflow and started the painting/ silicone sealing process.

Here is the box finished. I added braces along the top of the tank that connected to the back walls of the overflow, just for extra support. To keep fish from getting sucked in, I simply added small sheets of acrylic to the braces, that hung over the overflow openings. These allowed more than enough water in, while keeping fish/snails/shrimps along with big chunks of macro algae out. The overflow box consist of 3 outlets, 2 regular overflows, and 1 emergency (just in-case). I added a durso for one tube that would later be flowing slowly into the refugium area of my sump, I left one drain fully open with a vented cover to flow into the skimmer area.

-Continuing on next post :bigsmile:

The Macro Guy · Apr 18, 2015

reserved

The Macro Guy · Apr 18, 2015

Oops doesn't look I can reserve spots. Anyways,

Back to the stand and canopy, I had to build the canopy from scratch, PITA, also had to redo the front door twice. Decided to go with a long hinge front cover, that just lifts all the way up, allowing me easy access into the entire tank. I planned that part out because I've always been very hands on when it came to feeding my fish, and moving things around all the time. The stand I just decided I didn't want it to sit without support, so I reinforced everything, and added some moldings around the edges for a more boxed in look.

The Macro Guy · Apr 18, 2015

Next came the sump,

40G Breeder from Petco/ Custom stand

Let me just start by saying I built the sump TWICE. The first time I built it, after all was said and done. Had a weird feeling about something on it, like something was wrong. So I started looking up sump related problems. Came across a post regarding silicone and it killing someones entire tank. So after some research I found that it was the mold inhibiting bathtub silicone that was killing stuff, or possibly killing stuff. Now this was about a month after I had first built it, I had NO idea what kind of silicone I used, I just remember it was GE. I searched high and low for the receipt, and couldn't find it. Thankfully I looked back through all my pictures and finally found a glimpse of the bottle I used, and sure enough it was that red mold inhibiting one. I took the sump down, and completely removed ALLLLLLL the silicone with a razor blade, then sand paper, then acetone. Then rebuilt the whole thing with a new concept in mind. Decided to go with a system that would allow the water to "cook" in the refugium chamber, and flow out, without getting debris, or too many bubbles into the center return. Worked out great so far.

Were the overflow drains pass through wall into sump closet.

This was the first model, "the one with the bad silicone" it worked well, but felt cramped.

This was the last concept, large cooking chamber, center return, with skimmer/heater on the left side.

Reinforced the panels with pvc pipe, since the center baffle was acrylic, I did not want it to flex too much and cause a seal leak. Since I am running a separate remote DSB, this would've been a disaster had sand entered the pump.

The Macro Guy · Apr 18, 2015

Here are some shots of the plumbing & sump running now.

Plumbing for returns and over flows.

First piping layout was setup to allow an auto feeder on the back, the water from the refugium pushes the food into the pump, to spit out into the tank.

I changed the piping from the refugium to still allow it to mix food dropped in, but now it reduces bubbles by adding a 45 degree end cap, this pushes the bubbles straight to the surface.

Current refugium just has chaeto and some dragons breath, a few peppermint shrimp colonies (little babies) a few adults. I had it full of caulerpa, but the amount I had I believe was effecting my SPS, had stunted and very slow growth. The caulerpa was being "auto mowed" by a colony of lettuce slugs, which was nice, but at the same time was releasing too much of the caulerpa slime into the water.

The Macro Guy · Apr 18, 2015

Lighting in the tank is a combination of 2 single retrofit T5H0, and 4x 165W Chinese LED boxes. Skimmer is just a plain coralife skimmer, rated for 200g I believe. I don't much worry about skimming with all the macro in the tank. I also use a BRS reactor for carbon to help clear the water and pull out any other nasty stuff that the macro can not.

Here was the first shot of the tank, before canopy, lots of Pukani dry rock. I decided to go all dry rock this time, due to my last tank having so many random pest that it drove me bonkers. My last straw on my old tank was when it was over run by thousands of fluke worms, decided to kill them all using a flat worm killer, which in return nuked the entire tank when about a thousand+ flat worms all died in 24 hours. This time I'm much more cautious on how and when I add corals/ Plants to my tank. I don't mind the occasional weird or random hitch hiker that's non invasive or pest like.

Here was the tank a few weeks after lights and canopy, this was before I added the supplemental T5's for more purple. I believe the macros helped make the tank not experience such a harsh cycle. I never got the ammonia spike, come to think of it, I haven't had any problems with ammonia since the tank was setup. MACRO POWER!

Here is the tank about 2 months later, lots of green pigment & coraline on the rocks. I'm contributing that to my fertilizer mix.

The Macro Guy · Apr 18, 2015

Which finally leads me to today. I believe I'm almost were I want it to be, but there are still lots of macros I'm after, along with fish. I look forward to keeping you guys updated and continuing this journey into the lagoon.

Livestock: Lots of corals, lots of macro algae, lots of wrasses, 8 and counting lol. Don't call the wrasse police! They all get along for the most part. (Tank is a no tang zone obviously)
If you see something youd like to know the name of, I can answer that for you here.

The Macro Guy · Apr 18, 2015

P.S. I'm always looking for non invasive macroalgae, if you'd like to trade macro for macro, just send me a PM :wink:.

Wisihlist:
-Nemastoma
-Red Titan
-Pink Tuft
-Violet Dreams
-Red Pearl
-Rose Pedal
-Yellow & Green Gracilaria
-(Anything weird)