SudzFD
Valuable Member
Hello Reef2Reef,
It is time for my new build thread. If you have seen my last couple build threads, you know I like a simple cost friendly design and this build is not much different. In fact it could maybe be more so, considering it is a tank upgrade as many components from my previous tanks were reused.
Two recap a little, my previous two tanks were a 60g mixed reef and a 46g FOWLR with some softies tank. Both of these tanks were broken down to make way for the new 125g tank.
The tank transfer occurred in one day. I’ll try to walk through that process as well.
First, photos of the two previous tanks.
I don’t use a sump on my tanks and never have. Each of these tanks had an Aquamaxx Hf-M on the back of them. Perfect to combine them for the 125.
Since I don’t run a sump nor need a drilled tank, I was able to get a great Black Friday deal on a Marineland 125g tank and stand. I was happy to move away from acrylic with its scratches, and moved to glass. Tank Came with glass lids as well, which I love to help keep evaporation down.
Since, I wanted a new mixed reef tank with plans for some tangs, a couple fish had to go. My snowflake morey and lightning maroon clown had to be given away along with my Niger Trigger. The snowflake and Niger trigger were given to a local fish store and the maroon was traded for store credit at a different local fish store.
I used all the rock from both tanks and discarded the sand. I had to painstakingly remove all of my corals leaving some on rocks and carefully put the rocks and corals into new bins. I reused most of my water by draining it into the totes. I got new Caribsea live sand and washed it all out before adding to the tank.
Once the 60 was mostly drained, I was able to easily move it out of place and replaced it with the 125g. The 125g was given a cut to fit blue vinyl background
Here are the corals/fish waiting to be moved to their new home.
Once the 125 was in place and leveled I was able to continue filling with fresh saltwater. I don’t make my own water, so I had 6 -5g jugs to bring water from my LFS. The first 30g plus about 15g from previous tank, let me get enough water in to run a heater and power head to help get the temp up and silt out. Silting was not too bad since I washed my live-sand, but was still an issue. I didn’t have the luxury to wait days for the water to clear.
So I developed the silt slayer 1.0
Some filter media wrapped around the intake side of the pump.
After an hour, unhappy with the results, I redeveloped my silt slayer, and created the silt slayer 2.0. This one had larger filter media wrapped around it and worked much better.
The biggest delay I had, besides 3 trips to my LFS for water, was heating the water! I ran two heaters to try and get the water up to snuff before adding live rock corals and fish.
Oh, did I mention, I could not find my red Coris anywhere. I assumed he was in a rock somewhere. With just a half inch of water in my old 60g, I grabbed about 4 cups of old sand to “seed” the new sand bed. Well wouldn’t you know, that up in one of those scoops came my red Coris! He is doing great but was nearly lost!
Finally after filling everything up, I added my two HF-m’s (both run refugiums in them) and added my smatfarm LED’s. I had two leds on the 60 and one on the 46. The three together all fit great on the 125 with one master and two slaves.
I added my wave maker from my 60g on one side with my gyro on the other side of the tank, and a small gyre low on the back wall.
Finally I slowly and carefully added my live rock and corals followed by fish and CUC.
My last 60g I was always battling my BTA’s messing with my corals. This time my BTA’s are on an island on the left side of the tank.
Here is the tank setup about 20 hrs after I started. Quite the day setting this all up!
My dosing and ATO setup. Currently dosing ESV Bionic Calcium, Alk, and Mag.
Top view of the tank. My two auto feeders on top of the HF-M’s. Dosing lines go into the right HF-M. The left one has the probes and Neptune intake line. Each filter has a heater in it keeping the display clean of equipment. The redundancy is nice. If one filter fails or one feeder or one heater, it has a backup.
My left cabinet area contains some of my new equipment. My Apex controller and Trident Neptune. Testing is all from Apex with Hanna for nitrate and phosphate and salifert for magnesium.
A shot inside the HF-M
Finally, I found I needed to hide my lights. Sitting on the sofa, below the lights left them creating a lot of glare.
For me the answer was making a facade for the whole front of the tank.
Also, I wanted the tank as clean as possible so I was able to hide my intake tubes and power head cable with some staghorn coral pieces.
Here is that with a photo about a month after setup.
I also added a blink camera to watch the fish remotely!
Below are some up cLose shots. It’s been up and running for three months and things are going very well!
Final Fish Stocking list is:
Black Percula
Orange Percula
Chocolate Tang
Blue Tang
Red Coris Wrasse
Six line wrasse
Purple pseudochromis
2 skunk cleaner shrimp
New additions
Naso Tang
Gem Tang
Midas Blenny
Wyoming white ocellaris
I will say that I believe having Coris/wrasses is important for pest management in the reef tank. I think it’s something everyone should consider.
Enjoy the eye candy below and let me know if anyone has any questions! I’m really enjoying this setup and hope you do too.
It is time for my new build thread. If you have seen my last couple build threads, you know I like a simple cost friendly design and this build is not much different. In fact it could maybe be more so, considering it is a tank upgrade as many components from my previous tanks were reused.
Two recap a little, my previous two tanks were a 60g mixed reef and a 46g FOWLR with some softies tank. Both of these tanks were broken down to make way for the new 125g tank.
The tank transfer occurred in one day. I’ll try to walk through that process as well.
First, photos of the two previous tanks.
I don’t use a sump on my tanks and never have. Each of these tanks had an Aquamaxx Hf-M on the back of them. Perfect to combine them for the 125.
Since I don’t run a sump nor need a drilled tank, I was able to get a great Black Friday deal on a Marineland 125g tank and stand. I was happy to move away from acrylic with its scratches, and moved to glass. Tank Came with glass lids as well, which I love to help keep evaporation down.
Since, I wanted a new mixed reef tank with plans for some tangs, a couple fish had to go. My snowflake morey and lightning maroon clown had to be given away along with my Niger Trigger. The snowflake and Niger trigger were given to a local fish store and the maroon was traded for store credit at a different local fish store.
I used all the rock from both tanks and discarded the sand. I had to painstakingly remove all of my corals leaving some on rocks and carefully put the rocks and corals into new bins. I reused most of my water by draining it into the totes. I got new Caribsea live sand and washed it all out before adding to the tank.
Once the 60 was mostly drained, I was able to easily move it out of place and replaced it with the 125g. The 125g was given a cut to fit blue vinyl background
Here are the corals/fish waiting to be moved to their new home.
Once the 125 was in place and leveled I was able to continue filling with fresh saltwater. I don’t make my own water, so I had 6 -5g jugs to bring water from my LFS. The first 30g plus about 15g from previous tank, let me get enough water in to run a heater and power head to help get the temp up and silt out. Silting was not too bad since I washed my live-sand, but was still an issue. I didn’t have the luxury to wait days for the water to clear.
So I developed the silt slayer 1.0
Some filter media wrapped around the intake side of the pump.
After an hour, unhappy with the results, I redeveloped my silt slayer, and created the silt slayer 2.0. This one had larger filter media wrapped around it and worked much better.
The biggest delay I had, besides 3 trips to my LFS for water, was heating the water! I ran two heaters to try and get the water up to snuff before adding live rock corals and fish.
Oh, did I mention, I could not find my red Coris anywhere. I assumed he was in a rock somewhere. With just a half inch of water in my old 60g, I grabbed about 4 cups of old sand to “seed” the new sand bed. Well wouldn’t you know, that up in one of those scoops came my red Coris! He is doing great but was nearly lost!
Finally after filling everything up, I added my two HF-m’s (both run refugiums in them) and added my smatfarm LED’s. I had two leds on the 60 and one on the 46. The three together all fit great on the 125 with one master and two slaves.
I added my wave maker from my 60g on one side with my gyro on the other side of the tank, and a small gyre low on the back wall.
Finally I slowly and carefully added my live rock and corals followed by fish and CUC.
My last 60g I was always battling my BTA’s messing with my corals. This time my BTA’s are on an island on the left side of the tank.
Here is the tank setup about 20 hrs after I started. Quite the day setting this all up!
My dosing and ATO setup. Currently dosing ESV Bionic Calcium, Alk, and Mag.
Top view of the tank. My two auto feeders on top of the HF-M’s. Dosing lines go into the right HF-M. The left one has the probes and Neptune intake line. Each filter has a heater in it keeping the display clean of equipment. The redundancy is nice. If one filter fails or one feeder or one heater, it has a backup.
My left cabinet area contains some of my new equipment. My Apex controller and Trident Neptune. Testing is all from Apex with Hanna for nitrate and phosphate and salifert for magnesium.
A shot inside the HF-M
Finally, I found I needed to hide my lights. Sitting on the sofa, below the lights left them creating a lot of glare.
For me the answer was making a facade for the whole front of the tank.
Also, I wanted the tank as clean as possible so I was able to hide my intake tubes and power head cable with some staghorn coral pieces.
Here is that with a photo about a month after setup.
I also added a blink camera to watch the fish remotely!
Below are some up cLose shots. It’s been up and running for three months and things are going very well!
Final Fish Stocking list is:
Black Percula
Orange Percula
Chocolate Tang
Blue Tang
Red Coris Wrasse
Six line wrasse
Purple pseudochromis
2 skunk cleaner shrimp
New additions
Naso Tang
Gem Tang
Midas Blenny
Wyoming white ocellaris
I will say that I believe having Coris/wrasses is important for pest management in the reef tank. I think it’s something everyone should consider.
Enjoy the eye candy below and let me know if anyone has any questions! I’m really enjoying this setup and hope you do too.
Last edited:
