Jumping Back Into the Hobby After A 15 year break (125G Tank Build)

[ReefWithCare]

Hi All,

I've been in love with the hobby since I was in high school and over the years dropped off the radar and lurked forums waiting for the day to jump back in. My first tank was a 55G acrylic sumpless softie tank that do pretty well until I had to take it down when I went to college. Oh man, things have changed so much since!

I'm probably one of the rare people on this forum who's spouse is 100% supportive of jumping back into the hobby. For a number of years, she has been bugging me to start back up but I always kept out knowing the amount of effort and money involved in maintaining a quality tank. Well, the time has finally come when I got this great looking tank from Craigslist for only $300:

My initial goal is to start off with a FOWLR setup and transition into a Softie/LPS tank. I've never been into SPS and always wanted to have LPS corals like Hammer, Torch, and Frogspawn corals.

I've been out of this hobby for a LONG time. Lots thing have changed and I actually lack a lot of knowledge never building a sump and working with hard plumbing before. I hope I can learn a lot from everyone throughout this journey. I will be posting up my plans and documenting my actions so feel free to offer advice or point out if I'm about to screw something up. Let's get this started .

 

[ReefWithCare]

Here are my current plans:

Tank Placement

Best placement is in our dining room area that is currently a kids playroom. Over time, this will become a study area - perfect for a tank. It actually is right in front of the guest bathroom so if I was savvy enough I could technically route to my plumbing and automate water changes...but that's not in my plan. The main issue I'm dealing with is there are only two outlets here and they are both on the corners of the wall. Once I get all the drilling and piping down I'll figure out which outlet will be my primary and install a GFCI there.

My Equipment List:

I setup a google doc with my equipment list:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1e-3tNPbY210fN-AVND5MMAJ7Z1tKYft_Y7NwHtCBjF4/edit?usp=sharing

I'm going to be using a protein skimmer + algae turf scrubber combo with BRS Pukani rock. I will be curing Pukani with bleach and rinse & soaking with RODI like BRS recommends. I don't want my family dealing with the smell of a straight cycle and just prefer this route overall vs. acid wash.

My overflow will come from Modular Marine. I've followed them for years and have heard great things about their overflows. I will be setting up bean animal sytle overflow and will be plumbing with a manifold similar to this graphic below from Marine Depot:

Fish Stocking:

I don't like bringing it up this early, but wanted to share with you the fish stocking plan. I tried to have a purpose for every fish in the tank. I feel like the tank may be restocked and not since how many of these fish I can introduce initially after the tank is cycled:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1e-3tNPbY210fN-AVND5MMAJ7Z1tKYft_Y7NwHtCBjF4/edit?usp=sharing

List is:

McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
Yellow Prawn Goby
Tail Spot Blenny
Ocellaris Clownfish
Royal Gamma
Kole Tang
Coral Beauty Angel
Yellow Tang
Blue Jaw/Sargassum/Pink Tail Trigger

The trigger is a must for me. I always wanted one and never had the tank size to have one.

 

[ReefWithCare]

First step is the leak test. I fille up the tank and let it sit full for about 18 hours. Everything looks good

Petco was also having their dollar per gallon size so I picked up this 55G to be my sump .

The stand's center brace can be temporarily removed so I can fit this sump in the stand. The main issue is that the tank has a backing that the previous owner was using that gets in the way of plumbing. I'm thinking of removing it for now while I build out the plumbing and cut a few pieces when I'm ready to add it back in. I will also need to place the overflow off center because the center brace is in the back and gets in the way of the plumbing:

 

[Greybeard]

Welcome back!

I was out for a decade, jumped back in 3 years ago, with a 60g cube. That system crashed at a year and a half, due, I believe, to me sticking my dirty hands (I'd been cleaning guns) into the tank. Anyway, never let a good crisis go to waste.. I upgraded to my current 140g peninsula. Happy as I can be with it.

When I first got back in, I was overwhelmed by all of the new equipment, LED lighting, new techniques for various tasks... Take what you will from the 'new', but after a few years back in, I'm back to T5 lighting, a good skimmer, macro algae refugeum, and ESV's B-Ionic.

I won't say the new stuff doesn't work... it does, but none of them are the miracles that you might think they are from the way people talk. Just as it's always been in this hobby, the key to success is a conscientious aquarist, willing to spend the time, make the effort, and do the WORK required to build a successful reef.

 

[jrlg]

after a 8 year break after having a 55 gal reef I just transformed my front room / kids play area into a fish room with a 200 gallon tank with sump. still in the building stage, it came with a sump that doesn't fit my needs so I'm redoing the baffles. But good to see I'm the only one getting rid of the kids space for my hobby, although my 9 year old is really excited about having star fish in the tank. I like the FWLRO idea at first then going to corals, but I'm not set on going to SPS coral as well, (first attempt of SPS did not go well) and a soft , LPS tank sounds my route as well and maybe a T5 upgrade down the road. hope all is going well with the tank.

 

[ReefWithCare]

lol this reminds me to update

Sump is getting built

Water changing station completed

 

[jrlg]

where does everyone have room for this set up I'm jealous I have 24 in x 36 in space in my laundry room and the garage is not an option, living in phoenix water changes with 100 degree water wouldn't be good, and they don't build many basements out here either.

 

[ReefWithCare]

where does everyone have room for this set up I'm jealous I have 24 in x 36 in space in my laundry room and the garage is not an option, living in phoenix water changes with 100 degree water wouldn't be good, and they don't build many basements out here either.

That space for the station is 2 ft wide by 6 ft long. I could have done 2x4 if I squeezed stuff together or 2x2 with and about 6ft high if I need to go tall and skinny

This is in my garage and in the summer the water gets to about 98 degrees. Doesn’t really bother anything as long as I bring the water in to cool down. In the winter it will be easier to change water because the water willl be heated correct and I can just pull the ball valve to fill up my tank

 

[User]

Dude- this build is going to be awesome, best of luck.

I don’t particularly like that plumbing picture ftom marine depot, because they forgot to mention one very important detail when running a manifold off your return pump.

You need a gate valve on the main return line just after the manifold Tee in order to provide back pressure to drive water into the manifold. Without it, your manifold will get a small amount of flow but nothing like you are expecting. I did the same thing using the same diagram and my build stalled for a week until amazon prime could send me another valve. I later posted a question on the forums and was told why I needed it. Now, it works great.

See here- location of additional valve is marked with red dot.

Best of luck.

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My build thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/neil’s-in-wall-180-with-basement-fishroom.390436/