Finally my 125g build thread

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I'm leaving it. I put 3 coats of stain on it. I had wanted it to come out a tad darker but no big deal. Only thing I still gotta do to it, is put a vertical corner piece on each side to cover where the sides/front join together. I'm not carpenter for sure, but this is without a doubt my best work to date. Tank is 3/4 of the way full. Now I'm back to waiting on my RO/DI. I did make a smart move, and put my ro/di unit along with the brute can in my front yard. Can mix up the salt outside and then pump it through the window. Will take farrr less time than mixing in 5 gallon buckets which is what I did when I first got the tank and filled it halfway. I did save all that water though which is the only way i'm almost to the top.
 
Thanks. That was my whole plan to use it as a fallout shelter as well. lol. In other news the tank is full to the tippy top. Saw the plumbing in action for the first time today, and so far no leaks from the bulkheads or any of the plumbing. These two 1" drains are beasty. I had to use 2 heaters in the sump, as my 300 watt one is too big to fit. The original owner was only using a single 50 watt heater. I assume he keeps his house very toasty. Got the salinity up to 1.025 which takes vastly more salt with this size of a tank. I was beginning to think it would take me all week to get it up. Soon as the temp gets up to 78ish I'm gonna start moving the 60lbs of rock in the gray tub over. I do have a foxface in there so I'm kinda debating on if I should only move part of the rock over and leave him in the tub for a few weeks, or just move all the rock plus him. It's all been established for about 14 months now and since I used all RO/DI, I don't think i'm gonna see a cycle. Any thoughts on that? Once that's taken care of i'm gonna give it a week or 2 until I move my 40B over. Not in a big hurry on that one, but I can tell the fox face is stressing be in the tub. He's all spikes swimming around. Still gotta get the other powerhead in and get the controller for them setup. Also still gotta get my ATO going. I have 2 powerstrips on that wall, and 1 is running the temp tub so I'm kinda limited on power until I get that put in the main tank.
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Ok, after the first day of having everything running I have a few issues. First issue is because I separated each drain to run to their own filter sock instead of conglomeration the previous owner used, my skimmer section is extremely crowded. I have the 2 filter socks behind the skimmer side by side. Getting to them to actually change the sock out is gonna be a huge PITA with the skimmer in the way. The one on the right side isn't to bad, but the one on the left is a pain. No clue on how to fix this with the current setup. Only thing I can come up with is moving the skimmer to the back, and putting the filter socks on the front. Second, my drain on the right side belches about every minute or so. Not sure if this is due to the flexible hose on the drain, or the fact it has to go all the way across the tank and then down or what. I have watched the overflow, and the water level doesn't change, it just belches so I'm assuming its trapping air somehow that takes about a minute for it to release, and then starts over. Lastly, my heaters. This is my first setup actually putting the heaters in the sump. I have two in there, a 150W and a 50W. Both are set at 80 degrees. You can see them in the pic above, one is right next to the skimmer, the other is just to the right of it between the first set of baffles (yes this water stays at a constant height). I put them in about 4pm today. The lights have since went off on both which should mean they are at the right temperature. I then stuck my hand in the gray tub to the left to start pulling some rock out, and the water there is considerably warmer than the new tank ( that heater is also set to 80). Any ideas what is going on here? My return pump is a mag 9.5 on 3/4 pipe, going up about 5 ft. I'm taking a rough guess and assuming it's running about 5-600 gph through the sump.
 
Got half of the rock from the tub moved over today. Was trying to aquascape it and out popped a brittle star fish that was a good 6" across. The rock was from my 55g that was setup like 14 months ago and I had never seen it until today. 14 months with a mystery hitch hiker,lol. Just goes to show, just because you never see it, doesn't mean it's not there. Had my hands wet so couldn't get a pic but I left him in. Ammonia is sitting at .25 so hopefully the rock I added will get it sorted in a day or 2.
 
Oh the dredded aquascape portion. This tank is friggin tall. My plan right now is to move over my arch aquascape from the 40B and put it on the right side of the tank. It's small enough it should fit nicely. For the left side and middle of the tank I'm gonna build it with the rock from the previous 55. Also, does anyone know how much 1/2in glass absorbs light? For the interim, when I get it moved, I'm gonna put one kessil on the left and one on the right. I have that large glass brace in the middle where a 3rd should go, but not sure how effective the light will be getting through it. Also I can't use my normal kessil gooseneck in that spot either so I'm undecided.
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Ammonia is rocking at 0 this evening. Think i'm about to move over the remainder of the rock and the foxface.

Edit: Rest of the rock and fox face is in. Fish doesn't know what to do with so much room,lol. May end up having to buy some more larger rock pieces. I've got a good 70-80lbs in now, but a lot of it is smaller pieces and I don't like stacking 4 or 5 rocks on top of each other. Still leaving the right side open for the 40B transfer.
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Yes, plenty of room. Soon as I figure out which way I'm gonna go with lights, I'll start packing it in more. With the arrival of my D7200 today, I had to try it out and get some tank shots. Macro lens should be here next week. My BTA is still looking bleached. I'm hoping he will move up higher on a rock. Also got my ATO up and running today so only thing I got left to do is figure out them lights.
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Macro lens came in so tried getting some macro shots in.Its a second hand old lens that is manual everything. Still didn't turn out too terrible for a lens made in like 1978. All the fish have taken the transfer very well thus far.
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Picked up my first new fish today. Flame hawkfish. Wasn't originally on my fish list, but I decided to get one anyways. He's in the qt hopping around. Now trying to decide if I'm gonna leave him there, or do TTM
 
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