My Dual 125G Tank Build

[thetruth736]

A Plan Is Born:


The original idea for my tank build started out when I decided I liked the idea of having a sump to stick my equipment in. The guy I bought my first saltwater tank, a 55 gallon setup, from did not have one on it. I very quickly ran into issues with putting a sump in as the inside of the stand was split in the middle vertically. I decided this would mean a custom acryllic sump built into the stand on both sides, and joined via bulkheads, by drilling through the middle of the stand.

Then I remembered my 55 gallon tank in the garage! So plans started to form on a 55 gallon DT over a 55 gallon sump/refugium.

In the meantime, I wanted to add some livestock to the tank as it only came with one small clownfish. A lot of what I liked, I found my tank to be too small for so I began toying around with the idea of having a 125 gallon DT, still with the 55 gallon sump... Until I saw a 125 gallon sump/fuge.

I ordered two 125 gallon tanks. The guy at the LFS INSISTED I buy the tanks predrilled with corner overflows. I almost bit on it too as I was really very new to saltwater and large tanks both, but I knew I wanted something other than corner overflows. Someone from my local reef club, Red River Valley Reefers , Suggested something called a "Bean Animal Overflow". I did some reading on it and decided this was definitely what I wanted. He said he could drill it too. And this is what I told the guy at the LFS. He argued a few more points about it, but I had my mind made up. So the order went in.

I had read people talking on the local forum about a guy who was awesome at building stands, and he turned out to be the same guy that said he could drill my tank and build my overflow, So I started talking to him about a stand. I scoured the internet for a stand design for my tanks, and couldn't find ANYTHING! Then one day, I came across a picture completely by chance and I showed it to Lyle a.k.a. "the guy" and He said he could reverse engineer it. And to my amazement, he did!

And that is how this project came to fruition.

 

[Bow]

Wow cliffhanger endings to thread posts now

 

[thetruth736]

I was going to go into detail here about all the steps I took, But I think the pictures will tell the story.


Setting up the place my rock would call home the next 2 months while it cooked and cured in the dark:


Added more rock, a powerhead and a different heater. The one in the last picture electrocuted the CRAP out of me. Awesome thing about that is that I had just bought 5 of these Stealth Pro 250 from a guy for $2 each, and after getting fried by one, found out there was a recall on them. I called Marineland, and they said while the recall was expired, they were still honoring it, and let me know I would be getting something like $45 check for each heater. Score!



Lyle suggested putting the overflow on the outside of the tank, and building a weir on the inside. I agreed! so here is the internal weir:

 

[thetruth736]

Tanks came in! Drill baby, Drill!



Internal Weir installed:



External Overflow build and setting:



Tanks getting painted. It was pretty cold though, and didn't go quite as planned, but painted nonetheless. Went with the rattle can method. Krylon Fusion. Black:

 

[thetruth736]

Time to build the stand:

 

[thetruth736]

 

[thetruth736]

Time to move all this across town to my place. We loaded it all up, drove it to my house, unloaded it all, carried it to my apartment, and couldnt get it in the door. We had to disassemble everything and rebuild it once we got it inside.




Put the door for the hood on:



Started putting the baffles in the sump:



Decided to integrate the ATO reservoir into the sump. That's the section on the left:



Stained the stand. Was my first time ever staining something so I don't know if I did it right, but it looks fine to me:



And started filling the DT:

 

[thetruth736]

Finishing up the baffles in the sump/fuge:


Installed the plumbing:



Return Pump:



Transferred my LR to the fuge for now and installed some LED's purely for aesthetic value:



Put the skimmer in temporarily while a stand for it was being built:

 

[thetruth736]

Laying out the lights before installing them. Temporarily went with a 6 bulb 48" T5HO staggered for financial reasons. These will be overdriven by 2 Icecap 660 ballast. Eventually this will be either a six 60" configuration, or an 8 36" configuration. I am leaning more towards the 6 60" setup though.



Here is a shot of the lights, first time being fired up over the tank:



And this one is a rather cloudy shot of the full tank right after putting the rock and some of the sand in, and one after it had settled down a bit:

 

[thetruth736]

I added some more LR to the Display Tank.
Here is a shot of the tank I Just took:

 

[J062682l]

Nice !!

 

[thetruth736]

Thank You! I started out about 5 days ago with a bad Diatom outbreak. I litterally watched the stuff grow, and stressed about it the whole day. I grabbed my Turbo's off the glass on the top of the tank where they had not moved from since I put them in there. I set them on the rocks and turned the lights out. The next day i was dreading turning them back on, but when I did, the snails had almost completely ahnnialated the Diatom outbreak. But that only cleared the way for a hair algea outbreak the next day, and they took care of that too. The Algae is growing here and there, but I am keeping an eye on it and they seem to be doing the rest of the work.

 

[J062682l]

Cool. That cycle is always a pain in the ***! Lol. Keep it up can't wait to see more pics

 

[J062682l]

I have a 55 with the thin stand that has the brace right in the middle and I have a double sump planned out already. Just gotta get the glass and hook it up.

 

[thetruth736]

Are you going to drill through for a bulkhead to connect the two tanks?

 

[J062682l]

Yes , and connect with PVC

 

[thetruth736]

Bought a little Blue Leg Hermit Crab today and this was piggybacking on his shell