In with the new... 125 Gallon Build

[VSVP bet]

Hello all,

After 3 years, our 90 gallon reef finally got too stuffed to contain our coral collection. As getting rid of some colonies or refraining from buying new coral is clearly not an option, we decided to upgrade. @Bob the Bass and myself decided on a 125. Obviously a 180 would have added better depth, but space was limited, and the length of the 125 suited our need to expand. We built a stand, drilled the tank, built a sump and a 15 gallon frag tank, and plumbed it all together with hard PVC. We conducted the transfer this weekend. I will compile all the pictures and post them here.

System:
Tank - 125 gallons
Sump - 55 gallon DIY sump with a 15 gallon frag tank
Pump - Danner Mag Drive 18 (1800gph)
Overflow - Modular Marine 18 (1800gph)
Skimmer - Aqua C Remora S HOB x3 (We already had 3 of these skimmers, and as they each are capable of processing 75gallons, we didnt see a need to upgrade the skimmer right away, perhaps a new skimmer is in our future, but honestly, these skimmers work fantastic.)
Lights - AI Hydra 26s

Here is a shot of the original 90...

This is the 125 before the tank transfer.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Looks like alot of fun If this is going to be a build thread for you, would you like me to move this over to "Member Tanks" ?

 

[VSVP bet]

Looks like alot of fun If this is going to be a build thread for you, would you like me to move this over to "Member Tanks" ?

Yes please.

 

[Captain Quint]

Yes please.

Sounds awesome and looking forward to it!

Definitely deserves a build thread.

 

[VSVP bet]

So the first order of business was to design and build the stand. As the 90 gallon is a taller tank, the 125 would have sat lower if we used the same stand height as the previous tank. Instead, we designed a very tall stand, but after it was complete, I am glad we did, the tank sits nicely at eye level.

Doors soon to come!

 

[Captain Quint]

So the first order of business was to design and build the stand. As the 90 gallon is a taller tank, the 125 would have sat lower if we used the same stand height as the previous tank. Instead, we designed a very tall stand, but after it was complete, I am glad we did, the tank sits nicely at eye level.

Doors soon to come!

Love it man...keep em rolling for many *drools* to come.

 

[DSC reef]

Nice! Looking forward to this build.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

I see a great build happening here!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Very nice start!

 

[Bob the Bass]

Hello all,

After 3 years, our 90 gallon reef finally got too stuffed to contain our coral collection. As getting rid of some colonies or refraining from buying new coral is clearly not an option, we decided to upgrade. @Bob the Bass and myself decided on a 125. Obviously a 180 would have added better depth, but space was limited, and the length of the 125 suited our need to expand. We built a stand, drilled the tank, built a sump and a 15 gallon frag tank, and plumbed it all together with hard PVC. We conducted the transfer this weekend. I will compile all the pictures and post them here.

System:
Tank - 125 gallons
Sump - 55 gallon DIY sump with a 15 gallon frag tank
Pump - Danner Mag Drive 18 (1800gph)
Overflow - Modular Marine 18 (1800gph)
Skimmer - Aqua C Remora S HOB x3 (We already had 3 of these skimmers, and as they each are capable of processing 75gallons, we didnt see a need to upgrade the skimmer right away, perhaps a new skimmer is in our future, but honestly, these skimmers work fantastic.)
Lights - AI Hydra 26s

Here is a shot of the original 90...

This is the 125 before the tank transfer.

Lol, rough day for @Teddy Marshall

 

[VSVP bet]

Lol, rough day for @Teddy Marshall

just wait!

 

[VSVP bet]

After the stand was done, the next step was drilling the tank. This was the second tank I drilled, so it was still nerve racking. The last thing I wanted was for $440 to shatter.... I knew I had a non-tempered tank, so I followed all the standard glass drilling techniques and it turned out fine. The end result were two 3/4 inch return holes, and two 1 1/2 inch drain holes.

It took 3 weeks for the tank to arrive. Apparently Aqueon has no idea which tanks are tempered and non-tempered. The rep from aqueon shared that to keep up with demand, they source glass from anywhere, meaning, one tank at the same store could be non tempered, while another one next to it would be tempered. So make sure you check before you drill, I custom ordered a non-tempered tank and used the sunglasses phone trick to confirm it was in fact non-tempered.

Another thing I was nervous about was making sure the water line for my modular marine overflow would be hidden under the top brace. Im not sure if there is a technique to make sure you achieve a desired level, I honestly eyeballed it and it turned out perfect. Not sure if that was luck, but im happy regardless.

 

[VSVP bet]

This was the exact overflow I used https://modularmarine.com/collectio...-low-profile-overflow-box-with-removable-weir . I was really happy with the construction. During the install, a seam separated (completely my fault), and I repaired it using acrylic welding material, and made a new seam inside the unit using acrylic cement. It held fine and my acrylic work survived the water test.

 

[VSVP bet]

As for the sump, we used an old 55, one of our first reefs so it really came full circle. Sump has room for a large fuge, rock, media, and equipment. The return pump goes in the final chamber. The tank next to it is the frag tank. It was drilled and bulk heads with drains were installed. It is plumbed into the drain line (so it is fed by the overflow) then the water drains through the bulkheads into the first sump chamber.

Ive always wanted a frag tank, and this tank may not be ideal size, but we only had room for one to go under the stand, so the 15 gallon column tank was our only option, I think it came out pretty well.

 

[dantimdad]

Following

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Looking great !!! Following>>>

 

[VSVP bet]

After the sump was complete, we had to do the plumbing. @Bob the Bass, @Teddy Marshall , and my self measured, cut, and glued the PVC. This was our first time hard plumbing a system, it came out pretty good.

 

[kaxt]

Looking good so far. I like the dimensions of the 125s.

 

[VSVP bet]

Looking good so far. I like the dimensions of the 125s.

me too. we needed more room and it was really the only size tank that would fit the space we had. I was nervous it was going to be too narrow and short, but that isn't the case. im really happy with it so far.

 

[VSVP bet]

Next came the stressful part, the actual move. We drained the all the water we could into a 75 gallon tank, and placed all the fish and the majority of the coral in there. The rest went into a separate bin or buckets. I rinsed out the sand from the 90 with salt water (to remove detritus) and returned it to the 125 with the addition of 40lbs of new live sand. We didnt have enough water (thought I did, clearly not), so everything sat tight with heaters over night. The following day we competed the transfer. The final picture is before I installed my AIs. As of now, everything is looking good, I will post later today. Got my water tested, everything seems good. I was afraid of a slight nitrate spike, but hopefully that will not be the case. The 125 has been running for 4 days now.