Awnuts' 125 gal build

Good morning fellow fishheads,

Well I have been making some progress over the last couple weeks. I been extremely patient with my build and I hope it really pays off in the end. All work has been done by me and only me which I feel very accomplished after putting so much blood and sweat on this setup.

Some of you may remember from my earlier threads that I came across this what seemed like a pretty good deal on a 125 gal tank. The tank held water but was pretty weathered as it was left outside as the owner had gotten out of the game. As I stared at this tank day in and day out I was starting to dislike the silicone within the tank as it was looking really old and I deff didn't want to fully trust it, so I decided to strip it and re silicone the whole tank with aqueon aquarium silicone. Also this is an older tank which when build it didn't come with a center brace. As the top brace looked pretty old I decided to make a quick stop at my local reef store and picked up a brand new brace with center brace as it would be perfect for the new perfecto glass tops that I had purchased.

Once I let the silicone cure for about a week it was time to do the leak test, filled the tank and everything looked great. A week went by and the tank was holding water, so I decided to start phase two: add weight into the tank. Luckily since I been into the hobby for a bit, we tend to collect lots accessories and equipments. I had a couple buckets filled with gravel and a couple buckets of slate rock. I slowly inserted the buckets into the aquarium to see if it was going to pass the stress test. 2 weeks go by and so far everything looks great.

So I feel much better that everything was holding together and I decided to tackle my cabinet stand and canopy build. Now excuse my build if it looks horrible but please take in consideration that this was my first time building an aquarium stand/canopy and stain work.

Once the work work was done and ready for use, I called some family over for a BBQ with the intent of taking advantage of them lol lol.

Setup details: The tank has about 130lbs of crush coral, I will be adding about 125-150lbs of live mix rock (which i'm sure its not 150lb's) lol but lots of rock for sure. I have 2 MaxI Jets 1200 with propellers for main flow and 2 Koralia Evolution 750 circulation pumps to blow behind the rock that way I ensure not to have dead spots in the tank. As for skimmer I will be using a Reef Octopus BH-2000. Now as for lighting I currently ran out of funds to buy a nice fixture so that will have to come later when I saved enough for one :*(.

Now enough with all the typing, here are some pics for your enjoyment. I will keep updating this thread as I make changes to my setup. Next pics will be of the live rock inserted into the tank. Sorry I forgot to take a pic of my live rock in the brute trash container where its been sitting at for the last couple months with a circulation pump.


Sorry that I didn't take detailed pics of everything, I was into the build too much as I kept forgetting to take pics of the in progress and finish products of each step. Stand structure I went above and beyond and that sucker was very well built. I added supports all over the place and cross bracings.
all comments welcome

 

Awesome job. I love the stand and have tank envy...

 

thanks, didn't come out too bad for being my first. I'm going to be adding some more wood corner triming on the front edges of the tank to nicely blend it in with the stand and canopy. I did a test on one side as I had a piece left and it really looks nice.

 

Here's another quick update. I been stirring the CC a bit to kick up any fine dust that way the filter can pick it up and polish the water as much as possible.

I added a bit of live rock and been playing around a bit with the aquascaping. Still have a lot more to do.

Also today I will be adding the corner wood trims to the edge of the aquarium just as I did on the right side as it blends in the tank nicely with the stand and canopy.

Also this weekend I will be adding the background and will be checking my parameters.

Once all is done and said I'll remove the T8 light I currently have as temp lighting and install a nice T5 setup and start adding fishes hopefully.

 

Looking good. What will you be stocking the tank with?

 

so far I haven't made up my mind on what I want to stock the tank with.

I was thinking of swinging by my LFS this weekend and getting some ideas.

the following are nice fishes that I like but they are all up in the air: Powder Brown Tang, Banner Fish, Teardrop Butterfly, Reagal Angel, Blue Hippo, Flame Angel, Emperer Angel and what not. I'm deff thinking of prob not stocking the tank with too large of a fish that way I can have a nice variety. So its going to be fun shopping or doing some research.

I'm prob going to start running the quarantine tank this weekend that way I could get some fishes ready for the tank.

 

I don't know anything about saltwater fish but that tank and stand setup is to die for. Absolutely beautiful.

 

thank you very much oscarsbud

 

That is a beautiful tank it'll look amazing when it's stocked really good job well done

 

Thanks,

I'm hoping to accomplish a beautiful display tank at the end. will put lots of effort to try and acomplish that.

 

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Well just wanted to give another update.

Finally had a chance to add a background to cover the nasty wires and equipment hanging on the back.

My tank finally completed its minI cycle so I transferred the clowns and damsels over to the new tank. My Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate was all good at zero and my PH was roughly between 8.2 and 8.4, I also added more rock from my other tank that way I can add more beneficial bacteria into this tank. Now i'm anxious to order the lights of my choice. It's coming along little by little. Sorry for the cell phone pics

 

Beautiful all the way around! I'm drooling!

 

Thought I share a bit more of my progress. I decided to check my water parameters yesterday and everything checkout perfect except my PH was in between 7.8 - 8.0. Should I leave the tank take its course and let it correct itself or should I add a buffer to bring it back up to 8.2-8.4 since I have a cleaner shrimp in the tank?

So last week I finished adding the live rock and spent 2 days messing around with the aqua scape. Now let me tell you messing around with aquascaping can really wear the skin off your fingers lol lol, by the end my fingers were super soar and I decided to put on some gloves.

Also I added some fish into the tank:

Gorgeous Sailfin Tang, Keyhole Angel and a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp.

I added some more pics of my current progress, enjoy

 

Keyhole Angle hanging out in the bat cave

had a hard time getting a good pic of the Keyhole Angel over the weekend, he is getting very comfortable now and is out swimming. I'll snatch a pic and update this thread later

 

thought I would continue to update my thread since its still a work in progress.

Before this update I had the following fish: 2 perculous ocellaris, 2 yellow tail damsels, skunk shrimp, Sailfin Tang, Keyhole angel.

Well, week after week i'm slowly adding more tank mates, here is a list of the new inhabitants
3 Green Chromis, 3 pajama cardinals, another skunk shrimp, I believe its a blue tip strawberry crab

sorry for the bad pics, it was the middle of the day and it was super sunny so the glass was reflecting on one of the slidding doors.

 

had a lil incident where as soon as I introduced the second skunk shrimp into the tank the keyhole angel immediately attacked the shrimp and ripped 3 antennas off him. Shrimp immediately hid for safety and I kept a close eye as my keyhole was in predator mode. After about an hour the skunk shrimp came out of hiding and hid behind a power head. At this point I saw a great window of opportunity to catch the shrimp and release him next to the other skunk shrimp so the older shrimp could offer some advance kun-fu moves. I succeeded in catching the shrimp and moving him to the opposite side of the tank with the other skunk shrimp.

I felt bad that the keyhole had attacked this new baby shrimp and he was now missing some antennas. Once I moved him to the other side the smaller shrimp stayed by the large shrimp side and I notice that the large shrimp was very defensive when the keyhole tried to come near the small one. I went to sleep worried that I wouldn't see him alive in the morning but I told myself I have to let nature take its course.

So woke up and first thing I did was go check the if the shrimp was okay. As I approach the tank my jaw dropped as I saw a carcase stuck to the power head and my first thought was the small shrimp got eaten. Looked over to the right side of the tank and walla he was still alive. The small shrimp molted over night, grew new antennas and grew in size. Never would have thought that he would have molted so quick. As I keep my salinity at 1.025 i'm sure he hardened his new shield pretty quick lol.

My older shrimp has molted about 2 or 3 times within a month and has grown so much. They deff look very beautiful. But I was indeed surprise how fast the new baby shrimp molted and replaced its missing antennas.

 

Awesome tank......not too familiar with salt water but love to admire one...

 

had a lil incident where as soon as I introduced the second skunk shrimp into the tank the keyhole angel immediately attacked the shrimp and ripped 3 antennas off him. Shrimp immediately hid for safety and I kept a close eye as my keyhole was in predator mode. After about an hour the skunk shrimp came out of hiding and hid behind a power head. At this point I saw a great window of opportunity to catch the shrimp and release him next to the other skunk shrimp so the older shrimp could offer some advance kun-fu moves. I succeeded in catching the shrimp and moving him to the opposite side of the tank with the other skunk shrimp.

I felt bad that the keyhole had attacked this new baby shrimp and he was now missing some antennas. Once I moved him to the other side the smaller shrimp stayed by the large shrimp side and I notice that the large shrimp was very defensive when the keyhole tried to come near the small one. I went to sleep worried that I wouldn't see him alive in the morning but I told myself I have to let nature take its course.

So woke up and first thing I did was go check the if the shrimp was okay. As I approach the tank my jaw dropped as I saw a carcase stuck to the power head and my first thought was the small shrimp got eaten. Looked over to the right side of the tank and walla he was still alive. The small shrimp molted over night, grew new antennas and grew in size. Never would have thought that he would have molted so quick. As I keep my salinity at 1.025 i'm sure he hardened his new shield pretty quick lol.

My older shrimp has molted about 2 or 3 times within a month and has grown so much. They deff look very beautiful. But I was indeed surprise how fast the new baby shrimp molted and replaced its missing antennas.

I love skunk shrimp I ordered two for my tank

 

Awesome come back story!!! It's like reading a short story from chicken soup for the shrimp lover soul

 

Good morning,

Wonderful DIY tank/stand AwNuts! Beautiful

Ken

 

Amazing tank!

 

Very nice!

 

I love how the aquascape looks

 

hey sorry to ask but have you tried molly fish in saltwater before I'm going to start one and some people say mollys are really good additions to Saltwater tanks does anyone know about this

 

I'm going to put them in my marine tank. If acclimated slowly, they will be fine and thrive

 

I have a pair in my Freshwater tank and wonder how they would llok when I start my Saltwater build and keep my posted on there condition I want to know how they do

 

Mollies with a very slow drip acclimation about 5 hours can live in saltwater. Sailfins are the best at doing the conversion from Freshwater to SW.

 

I have heard of people dumping balloon mollies which I have in
see link

its the 7th post down
it also says they are good alge controlers in the tank and do better as a whole

 

It is always good to acclimated them I would say he/she got very lucky dumping them most fish die from shock. Any Molly can be switched to Saltwater but I just like the look of Sailfins.

 

cool I carn't wait to try that with my mollies once I set my Saltwater tank up

 

thanks for all the comments and I hope this thread continues to grow as it is deffinitely a very fun DIY project. But I got a new project that I just finish this weekend. Since the last update I threw 3 turbo snails and 3 hermits in the tank just to keep things nice and tight. I have lots of water flow in the tank as I would deff love to avoid algae growth or dead spots.