Susan's Grand 125 Adventure

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
Welcome to my mad adventure. Can't believe I did this during holiday season of all times! Starting a new build so I don't clutter up my other build thread (RMS c250 66g).

I thought I got a good deal on craigslist. An Aqueon dual mega overflow. It came with a stand, 47 gal sump and a bubble magus skimmer. For 450.00. Was hesitant with the stand when we got there as it was 4' tall and I'm only 5 foot and the tank adds another 2 feet. So a tank 6' high. Hmmmm So after getting it home, we realized the cabinet was not in as good as shape as it looked. And I just can't see me on a ladder to do EVERYTHING to the tank. So we decided to dump it. Found an R & J at Petco on sale for 404.00. Ordered it.

The sump was a mess. Had to cut the brace on back of stand to get it out. Decided the sump had to be completely redone. 3 sections and no triple bubble catcher before return. First section is huge, second for skimmer, and return also huge. Waste. Also, all water ran beneath the baffles.

Then I realized that the sump was too wide and too tall as cabinet was only 26" tall inside. No way to remove skimmer for cleaning. Up for sale on craigslist. After research, purchased a bashsea bio fuge. 36 inches.

Not so sure my original 450 was that good a deal after all.

Working on my time table and budget. I hope to start cycling by March or April, fish ready by June. I have tons of research to do just to do the plumbing. Think I've settled on one of 2 light choices. Sure hope I can get lots of advice, esp. with lighting!

This will be a slow build. Going to order rocks by end of month to play and get them cooking in a brute can. Rest of month will be plumbing and having hubbie build an electrical/controller cabinet in stand. Want to keep sump and water separate from all plugs and equipment. .

Excited but also nervous as I venture into this adventure. I'll keep my other tank as it is in my office. Going to ditch the display refugium though. Never got it plumbed to DT so it is just more work. Will use it for a new fish QT even though it is not 10 feet from DT.

Have to figure out what to do with gold head sand sifting goby. I have corals on the sand bed in my 66 gal, so don't want him back in there. Prob. put him in new tank, see where he picks as his spot. Damsel maybe to the current tank.

Here are some pics. First one is on the trailer. You can see the size of that stand.
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Susan
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
More updates. This will be the sloooowest build ever! Got the stand end of Dec. and my sump. Now ready to begin. Spent December planning my budget and my monthly goals for tank as well as my drawing plans for stand and sump.

So my goals for December were to get the Tank, stand and sump and do my design. Done.

January: .
Prepare stand for electrical sections, dosing shelf and controller mounting and any added bracing hubbie wants which means some painting. Ordered a large boot mat to put under sump--2 inchs deep so should catch water spills and protect stand.

See if we need to put anything under stand to protect flooring and evenly distribute weight (vinyl strip flooring so water proof and cement slab). worried water spills on floor will damage unpainted bottom of stand.
3-Cut holes for drains/returns in stand. Get neoprene so tank can get up on stand
4-Start plumbing
5-Maybe order rocks if I can swing it

Feb. goals
Rocks and rockscape. Egg crate on bottom of tank?
Upgrade water change system
--bigger water storage--50 gal min. Store outside-cover if white to shield and prevent algae
--30 or 44 gal brute--fill from 50 gal storage via hose from outside to kitchen

Mar goals
Equipment for sump and tank (return pump, heaters, powerheads)
Start Cycle

April-May
More equipment and lighting
Cuc
Fish to start in qt

June
Fish and coral added
Hopefully I can work this and keep to schedule

More pics

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Bashsea361416.jpg

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Susanedw

Well-Known Member
Here is the drawing plans. Not totally final. Debating valves on drains, not to control drains but to stop flow from overflow boxes if needed. The sump is a bit different as I will be using the bashsea bio fuge so dimensions are all different. Also, no electrical on left side. All electronics will be on right side in a box
125 tank 2c.jpg
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
Cut the stand box to use as a template for rocks. Hoping to get rock in later this month. Need to decide a few things:
-how much room between rock and glass--sides, back, front 3 inches? More for some in front for larger sand areas unless I just have those on the sides.
-how much room between rock & overflows 2 inches? Won't be scraping overflows. Just brushing?
-How to scape with overflows:
--5" deep, 5 total for cleaning room (3 front glass min., 2 overflow) leaves about 7 inches

Overflows have an inner and outer. Outer allows water to seep in low and mid, rise to top and trickle into main overflow. So do not want to block those vents. I don't think..

Think I'll post some questions on this to the community at large. Scaping this is going to be a challenge.
 
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Pat24601

Well-Known Member
thanks @Pat24601 It's very exciting and a bit scary and daunting. My first is a plug and play. The plumbing and sump make me nervous....

I totally get that. But, once you do it, I think it’ll give you a lot of confidence that you can do it and it’s not such a big deal. Then, who knows what mischief that will lead to.
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
Wishing I had rocks to play with.....

Wishing tank was on the stand.....

Hoping we get the electrical side started this weekend.....

going to be a slooooooowwwwww build........

Okay I'll stop pouting. Could work at cleaning out garage to get rid of this excess energy :bounce:
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Wishing I had rocks to play with.....

Wishing tank was on the stand.....

Hoping we get the electrical side started this weekend.....

going to be a slooooooowwwwww build........

Okay I'll stop pouting. Could work at cleaning out garage to get rid of this excess energy :bounce:

Slow builds are OK. Gives you time to evaluate and do it right. :)
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
Well, a bit of progress today. Hubby cut the stand divider to separate water and electrical. He's also adding a couple more bracing slats to the bottom (under) of the stand for the sump. He can't finish or screw in the rest of the electrical cabinet parts, except the panel for the far right side until we get plumbing done as he has to cut out for the pipes. So next is to drill the holes in stand for the plumbing, order the dursa stands and get the neoprene so once tank is put on stand, it can stay for the rest of the build time.

Been researching fish and how many. So many different schools of thoughts
So many from group A, B, C
2 in per 10 gal for small to med, 1 in per 10 for large

I'm compiling. Most of what I want are in the 3-4 inch range. Will have to whittle down.

Questions: Assuming I can have either the coral beauty or flame angel, not both. If so, one will go maybe into my other system. Love those two
How many tangs? 1 yellow, 1 Kole? 2 Yellow? 1 yellow, 1 tomini

Sorting them into rock dwellers and open swimmers to get a balance.

Updated pic (haha)on stand. Pups supervising...
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Susanedw

Well-Known Member
Okay, here is my wish list. Yes, before I'm jumped, I need to par down. A lot. Some questions which will help:
Can I have just 1 of each Wrasse? Or do they need to be in groups.
Can I have just one Anthia or do they need groups of 3

I'm trying to balance the rock-sand dwellers from column swimmers. I'm not sure if I'll follow the add 2 units from group A, 1 from Group B, 1 from Group C (counts as 2 units) or the 2" per 10 gal for sm-md, 1" per 10 gal large

1 Blenny bi color
1 blenny lawn Mower
1 Royal Gramma ??
1 Flame Hawk
1 Goby/shrimp pair
1 Goby spike fin
3-5 Barnacle Blenny--very small, rock dwellers, not much bio load

1 Angel Flame or 1 Coral Beauty. Assume I cannot have one of ea.
1-3 Wrasse-Lubbocks
1-3 Wrasse-Whip Fin or Wrasse orange/black
1-3Anthia Cariberryi
1-3 Anthia Bartletts
3-5 Chromis Lemon and or
3-5 Chromis Agile
Kole or Yellow or Tomini Tang--Can I have 2?

Going to post to main forum for those who don't visit build threads.
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
No one should jump you for starting a planning list. Besides, I don't think people jump people on this forum anyway. :)

As far as things I think I see.

Can you do a Flame Hawk and a shrimp? I think the Flame Hawk might eat the shrimp? I believe mine ate my cleaner shrimp in my first tank.

Royal Gramma are awesome. I whole heartedly support it.

Two dwarf angels are little dicey, but it's definitely doable. If you are going to try it, add both at the same time. You may or may not have aggression, but people definitely do it with success and it's not that uncommon. With your tank size, I personally think your chances are good, but it depends on what your risk tolerance for aggression is. See what others think. I'm not an expert, just going by what I'm told. :)

What you also need to think about with the dwarf angels is them munching on your corals though, assuming you are going to have corals. It's generally considered a 50/50 shot if they do or don't. I've seen a beautiful tank with nothing but Angels and a bunch of corals. I assume the owner took out Angels that munched his corals, but I don't know that. Maybe he just got lucky.

Tangs are always controversial. Conventional wisdom around my parts locally is that you'd be fine with 2, maybe even 3, so long as you add them at the same time. Especially with the smaller Tangs you are talking about. Much like with the 2 angels, you take some risk of aggression, is my understanding.

Of course, popular online sentiment might (?) be against that. There are some people that don't think any Tangs should be in any tanks. So, I don't know where internet consensus lands. I do know that on this forum different people have different views.
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
Thanks Pat I love those 2 dwarf angels. Could put one in my other tank. Hoping if I put them in early while building up the corals, and keep it well fed, they'd behave. Hoping I could do a few tangs, even if they are 3 yellow, I'd be happy but yeah, smaller ones.

lol's on the not being beat up here. Some of the responses I've seen online while googling....
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Thanks Pat I love those 2 dwarf angels. Could put one in my other tank. Hoping if I put them in early while building up the corals, and keep it well fed, they'd behave. Hoping I could do a few tangs, even if they are 3 yellow, I'd be happy but yeah, smaller ones.

lol's on the not being beat up here. Some of the responses I've seen online while googling....

What you could do with two dwarf angels too is put both in and if you have agression take the bully out and try a different one. That’s what I did with my butterflies and it worked (I think). It’s a bit painful, though.

I think with Tangs (or most fish really) you are better off going with different types than ones that are similar. So, I think the plan you have above of yellow plus Kole or Tomini (or both) is better than a plan of 3 yellow. Broadly speaking, fish are most aggressive towards fish like them unless they are schooling fish or a bonded pair or something. I think that’s true with yellow Tangs, but I’ve only barely researched it.

The other thing I’m doing with this rebuild is putting my corals in last. I’m doing that for two reasons.

The first reason may not apply to you given your approach. It’s so that I can see if I’m going to have a problem with my fish munching my corals before I get my corals all situated.

The second reason is to keep it easy to remove fish while I’m trying some risky things. I took my aggressive butterfly out in under 15 minutes by removing 5 rocks. Would have been a bit harder with corals in there.
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
I use an acclimation box when adding new fish to a tank that already has an established population of fish (and swear by the use of these boxes). This is best used after you already have some fish in the DT and especially useful if you have fish being introduced that you anticipate may not get along w/fish in the DT.

There are different styles and sizes you can buy. Fairly easy to use. After some time in QT the fish goes in the acclimation box anywhere from a day to a week. The first day the other fish in the tank aren't too sure about the box and will slowly get up the nerve to inspect it, by the second day you will see the fish in the DT reacting to the fish in the acclimation box and this will allow you to gauge the aggression level. The fish in the acclimation box obviously should be feed when your other fish are feed and the box allows the fish to be able to get some food w/o competition from the other fish.
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I use an acclimation box when adding new fish to a tank that already has an established population of fish (and swear by the use of these boxes). This is best used after you already have some fish in the DT and especially useful if you have fish being introduced that you anticipate may not get along w/fish in the DT.

There are different styles and sizes you can buy. Fairly easy to use. After some time in QT the fish goes in the acclimation box anywhere from a day to a week. The first day the other fish in the tank aren't too sure about the box and will slowly get up the nerve to inspect it, by the second day you will see the fish in the DT reacting to the fish in the acclimation box and this will allow you to gauge the aggression level. The fish in the acclimation box obviously should be feed when your other fish are feed and the box allows the fish to be able to get some food w/o competition from the other fish.

Great advice. I’ve never done it. I will.
 

Susanedw

Well-Known Member
Sound approach Pat. I remember the pain it was to remove rock with corals when MV hit my tank. I'm planning to cement groups of rocks for easy removal and the bottom layer, again, in small groups to make removal managable. Then loose rock if I can higher for the ability to make small changes.

My sil has a 300 gal and a school of tangs. I love the way they move thru the water. And I see lots of folk who also have more than one. Of course, my system isn't nearly as big.

@Oxylebius I was considering this as well.
 
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