Pharmacist Reefer...First Timer 120gallon build...let’s do this!!! Need your help!!

[Reefacist]

Hey fellow druggist! I’m impressed. I just came across your post and was pessimistic about the used tank, but it looks really good. I’ve recently got back into reefing since 2009 when I graduated pharmacy and it’s crazy all the technology now. I bought a used Red Sea reefer, and I’ve spent quadruple on hardware/supplies compared to the price of the tank/stand! When are you looking to add water?

Hey there. Good to see another pharmacist on here. Graduated from USC aim 2010 myself. Ya I honestly put wayyyyyyyyyyy too much time and effort in renovating the tank so I can’t throw it out just yet. I decided to use it as my practice tank in the apartment before going to 180 or above once my house is finished being built. My wife has been asking when I will put the water in the tank for the past 3 months lol but I think I will do it this weekend. I will check out your build now too

 

[Reefacist]

Alright y’all biggest update so far. I really want my posts to at least help someone out there so even if it’s been 5yrs after this post feel free to send me a quick message and I’ll let you know all that I went through. So just to recap I bought this tank/stand used without knowing what I was getting myself into. It was more of a “hey I want a saltwater tank and hey this is a big tank for cheap lol” ohhh boy was I wrong. I purchased the tank early June and finally got some water in it. I had many obstacles along the way but learned alotttttt and not only about fish and coral. I learned how to sand old furniture, paint, redo furniture doors, drill holes in aquarium, redo silicone, paint aquarium, all the types of pvc out there, types of pvc fitting, how to be a plumber (actually felt confident enough to redo my own toilet), how to organize wires and cables, how to diy a sump, how to set up a bean animal overflow and even how to aquascape and I’m sure I’m missing many more.

So now I’m at the point of water in the tank. Hardest part towards the end that I had no idea about was that my stand was very short. Measuring only 25” on the inside. So it was a pain in the rear to do the plumbing as I couldn’t even put my head in once the sump was inside. Even my skimmer hardly fits and I have to take the head out for cleaning from the other side of the stand.

one of the problems I had due to the small sump was my vinyl tubing from the pump to the plumbing was short. So since I used a varios6 and it had a 1.25in output I used and 1.25” vinyl tubing. What I didn’t know was how extremely difficult it is to turn this into a S shape with only 6-8” of tubing. Therefor as you can see in the oic below I had to turn my pump backwards.

Another difficulty was figuring out how to set up all the wires and controllers. I have a plywood on one side of the tank and attached all the controller to it and put all the power bricks in the back. I didn’t know how to attach them so I put them in place with some velcro and zip ties. I got the excess cables and zip tied them to their respective power brick and I like the way it turned out.

anyways I am extremely happy the way it turned out and that I was able to do all this in an apartment. Next up will be programming the apex and all the other electronics and cycling this bad boy.

here are some pics and let me know if you all have any recommendations. Just don’t tell me to get a new stand lol.My goal is to use this as a practice run and upgrade to either the largest waterbox or Red Sea once my house is renovated in about 6-12months

 

[kitpoon0315]

Hello fellow pharmacist reefer! 2004 University of Alberta grad. Looking forward to more updates, tremendous build so far!

 

[FortLivingRoom]

Nice job on the sump/plumbing! Only thing I can think of is make sure your pump is big enough for once you attach equipment to your manifold.

 

[Reefacist]

Hello fellow pharmacist reefer! 2004 University of Alberta grad. Looking forward to more updates, tremendous build so far!

Hey there. Thank you. Seems like quite a bit of pharmacist are into reefing

Nice job on the sump/plumbing! Only thing I can think of is make sure your pump is big enough for once you attach equipment to your manifold.

thank you. Yeas I'm currently only running at 60%