Max's 125g -First Saltwater Tank

Its a looking good.

So....

Finally got the stand finished (not the canopy yet) and made a few attempts on cleaning the tank. I got yelled at by some neighbors for siphoning water off my 6th floor balcony. I was doing my best to ensure water didn’t go into anybody’s porch, but it was tough. Was able to wash out the tank 2-3 times before I had to stop. Still needs some cleaning but it will do until I am ready for water.

The lights I have on it are temp. It is the 72” Coralife PC fixture. Saving up for a nice MH set… (still working on the $$ Biffer J). My attempts at removing the scratches did not work. It was upsetting to see all the scratches in the tank. I sure hope the majority of them go away when it is filled up with water.

Also did the majority of the plumbing. I ordered a weir overflow system rated at 1200 gph because when I had previously run the tank at the guy’s house, I could see the current U tube siphon box overflows (2) could not keep up with the pump.

I guess the next steps are Lights, PVC rock Stand, possible foam back wall (to avoid seeing 2 sides of scratches) and then I can fill it with water J In order to

I am very happy with the way the cabinet came out, especially since it is my first staining job J Check out the before/after shots below (sorry about the poor quality, taken with my stupid iphone)


Before


During


After

The stand turned out very nice. Good job!
Your cat wants to be in the movies!

That looks way better! Great job.

Thanks! i was very happy with the end result.

Now it's off to my PVC projects and Refugium.

Quick question about the refugium.

I am keeping my current wet/dry filter as is and will add another 66qt container under the tank. That new container will be my refugium. My thoughts were to have a small pump, maybe maxijet 600, send water from the last stage in the wet/dry (where my protein skimmer will be) into the refugium and then have the refugium drain back into the wet/dry (same area where the protein skimmer is) in which the main pump would then return it into the tank.

Does that sound like a good plan? Any other suggestion for sending water to/from the refugium?

I could have a 2nd overlow box on teh back on the tank going right into the refugium but i heard you don't want that much flow through the refugium.

Thanks in advance

Got a few questions about my sump/wetdry/fuge setup. I am open to any suggestions. please see the diagram below for a visual.


HOB continuous overflow (weir design i think) rated at 1200 gph which flows into my wet/dry/ Goes through a filter and sprinkles down through the bio balls. That water then goes into the wet/dry's next chamber where i plan on having my skimmer. That chamber then feeds directly to the main pump and back into the tank.

I am adding a fuge next to the wet/dry. I plan on using a small pump to (recommended flow for fuge pls?) feed water from the wet/dry's second chamber t the fuge. Then the fuge would "overflow" back into the wet/dry chamber.

Does that sound ok?

I also plan on putting some LR rubble under the bio balls to help with the nitrates since the bio balls are not good with that

suggestions?

great progress looking forward to seeing it come together, i would skip out on the bioballs thats what the liverocks and livesands for. if you can post the dimensions of the inside of the stand, if i were setting it up i would use a 55 gallon tank with section for skimmer, fuge, and return. you can go either route though and be just as efficient

heres what im talkin about

i wont be able to fit it in the bottom though. I tried to see what the maximum size i could fit was here Maximum size rectangle that can fit inside a square

those doors are just so damn small so i am limited in the length i can put in, which is why i am having to use 2 "tanks" below.

Is the idea of using a small pump to send water into the fuge and then have it "overflow/drain" back into the wet/dry?

you could just split the intake to the fuge to eliminate the need for the pump to feed water to the fuge, connect the overflow from the fuge to the return section in your sump and put your main return pump in there

The wet/dry(bioballs) and refugium is counter productive.The bioballs increases nitrates and the fuge removes it.Run it empty or use a pad,cleaned weekly or replaced to prevent it from being a biological filter.Live rock and live rock rubble could go in that area if they are submerged.You can split the drain(one to the sump and one to fuge) if you don't want to add a powerhead.Personally,I like the ability to control the flow through the fuge.I'm not sure how big the refugium is going to be.Any small pump or powerhead that can do about 250gph will work in most cases.

+1 reef, remove the bioballs having just live rock will do better than having bioballs.

But your tank looks amazing! you have done a great job with it

yep ditch the bio balls

All in preparations for my rock wall.

So it is my birthday weekend (kinda) and my lovely girlfriend who puts up with all my crap asked me “what do you want for your birthday”. After a bit of thought I had a solid answer. Very solid…. “I’m turning 28 years old and all I want for my birthday are rocks!”. I felt like a little kid again.


We made several trips over the weekend and handpicked rock pieces from about 3-4 LFS’s. We got just under 100 lbs. When I say that I handpicked each piece I really mean I handpicked each piece. I was looking for specific sizes, shapes, and thickness’. I even got the Miss involved in the rocks. Every few seconds she would hold one up “ is this good?” I would always reply (regardless if it was good or not, I didn’t want to break her spirit) “looks like a perfect one babe, throw it in the box”. A lot of the rock I got very cheap (less than $1 /lb) but is still in a raw state and needed some cleaning. Anybody got a better idea on cleaning the rock then what I did below?

So I first went at the rock with the hose outside. It was clearly making a huge difference. From a solid white piece of rock I could start to see some of the holes and crevices start to form. After the hose treatment I soaked the rocks in water to soften what I could. Then started the fun part…

Each rock I would swish and swash in a bucket of water to try to get whatever sand/sediment soft. As you can see the holes and crevices started to show.


After a few minutes of that (each rock!!!) I took a screwdriver and started to hammer away. I would find the softer spots and start poking the rock. Poke Poke Poke, rinse… Poke Poke Poke, rinse. Repeat and repeat.


After a few minutes on each rock they really started to show their true form.


This is about half of them already cleaned, poked, and rinsed.


I am thinking about taking them to the local self car wash and running the pressure washer over them to blow out the rest of the sediment/sand because my hands are just to raw from individually cleaning/poking/rinsing each rock.

Started to play around a bit on the placement of some of the rock.


Should have the wall constructed this week, but Wednesday and Thursday and mini lobster season so ill be taking a break from the rock wall and scuba for some dinner!

I'll be sure to post pictures with any progress. Still some rock cleaning to do first.

Was it your intent to kill the rock? By soaking it in freshwater, what was once live rock is now dead base rock.

ccCapt said:

Was it your intent to kill the rock? By soaking it in freshwater, what was once live rock is now dead base rock.

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I'm goin to guess and say he bought dry rock since he paid less then $1 a pound for most of it

yea, it was all bought dry. Give me some credit here ccCapt :)

We made several trips over the weekend and handpicked rock pieces from about 3-4 LFS’s.

Click to expand...

Sorry, that threw me off. ;)
Car wash will work fine I guess. Just make sure you don't blow the pieces apart or use soap or wax. :)

No worries :) haha, just giving u a hard time back.

Its amazing to see the rock take form. all those nooks and crannies come to life:)

Go get some sturdier gloves for that work....I worked on my rock last week, by the time I was done I didn't have fingerprints...You don't even realize that rock is slicing up your hands until it's too late.