Griepp06
Active Member
So this is a long story. I have in the last few years had 2 separate saltwater tanks one that ran for nearly 2 years that I shut down in 2022 when my son was born and I got too busy and one I started in January of 2024 when things started to calm down or maybe I just got used to the chaos that is called being a parent. All the while I had bought a 125 gallon tank and stand that needed a lot of work the tank leaked and the stand had water damage and was also stained a horrible color. So while I was still working on my last tank in 2021 I was removing every scrap of silicone that could possibly be the source of the old leak on the tank and then replaced it with new silicone after watching I dont know how many tutorials and reading tons of forum threads on here from people who had also done it. Once it had cured I let it sit in my garage for 8 months from spring till fall making sure the water level never went down and that the colored paper I put under it never showed signs of leaking. right before winter hit MN I drained the tank and put it in my home office where I would have loved to put it but the total weight when finished would have been too much without reinforcing the flooring right below it so it just sat there. I would have finished the tank over the winter of 21/22 right before I shut down my first saltwater tank when my son was born. When the tank was just sitting in the garage to long term leak test it I started working on the stand. It was the original stand that who knows who built and I like the design because it had a large double door section where i could easily later on fit a sump. The doors were busted and the bottom and sides were rotten so I removed the sides and bottom and replaced them with new wood and just because it felt under engineered I added some more lumber anywhere I thought it was lacking. There was never anything on top so I added that and the left to right didn't seem very strong so I clamped all 6 feet of it together and added some 2x4 with 5 inch screws to hold both walls together at the bottom. I also strengthening the corners to increase the downward pressure ability since it was originally just 1" red oak and seemed a little minimal. All in all It is probably way over engineered and nearly double the original weight but I am no longer worried in the slightest is could handle 2000 lbs of water, fish, rock, and equipment. When everything was replaced and strengthened I sanded all the surfaces with a sander and stained it a darker color that I could agree with and put a poly clear over the top of that. Because I didn't have a place for the tank yet since it was going to weigh too much when finished I was not exactly in a hurry to restore and stain the stand so I didn't get to this point until very recently like October of 24. That was because I bought a business in April of 24 that came with an existing office that was pretty small but in October of 24 I was moving my business to a new office location closer to my house and on the ground level with water access which made it a perfect time to finish the stand because I could finally set up the 125 Gallon. I now have the tank and stand moved into my new office and am putting finishing touches on things and getting ready to plum it. I picked up some marco rocks, two 250W heaters, some RO tubing, a bunch of other odds and ends when BRS had their black Friday sale the other day and just doing white HD plumbing since I didn't wanto to spend the extra for red and grey for something nobody will really see. over the last few years I picked up some things used if I saw them hit the local club forum like a 4 bulb 48" T5 set up, a still new somatic 120S skimmer, and a never used but incredibly cracked sapphire 29 sump that I had the cracks acrylic welded and also water tested that in the garage the same time that I was letting the tank sit there. I picked up two off brand 800GPH DC return pumps to total 1600GPH if at 100% and I will be taking a lot of stuff off of my 40G that I am shutting down to put the fish and corals from that into this. I have the Hydros 4 with three power strips that control water changes, automatic feedings, current T5s turning on and off and a dosing pump that I use for dosing Tropic Marin. All that will get moved over and then I am going to reuse the rock structure that I made since it was a negative space that I put a lot of work into making I am going to put a bristle worm trap to see if I ever got any worms in the last year and if I did I will at the very least clean it with RO water and bleach to kill anything that might be hiding in the rockwork. If i don't catch anything in the trap I will just throw caution to the wind and put it straight in the new tank. Going from 40 gallons to 125 the current aquascape will not be enough so that why i bought more and I have learned more about how to build a negative space better and am going to give it another shot to make something even nicer I am going to attach all the pictures that I have that have brought me to now and keep things updated for how my office lobby tank is turning out and if you read all the way to here wow you have patience and I appreciate you sticking around.
