Intro thread with 125 gallon reef pics...

[camaroguy]

Hi folks,

I am new to the forum, not as new to the hobby. In the past I had a 55 gallon FOWLR tank for about 6 years. Last year we were given an old 125 gallon glass aquarium and decided to take a stab at reef keeping. It has been quite an adventure so far.

We started by drilling the aquarium for a "BeanAnimal" style drain system. I special ordered some tempered glass to make a coast to coast overflow/weir. We then built a home made stand from a mix of 2x4 and 2x6 framing lumber wrapped in 2/3" poplar plywood and solid poplar boards.

This is a shot when testing the stand, no overflow/weir, doors, etc yet.

A more recent shot with the doors and transition piece on the stand.

Here are the various stats of the system.
Filtration:

• ~120 lbs of Pukani Live Rock in display
• 30 Gallon Aqueon ProFlex Sump running w/out filter socks
• Second chamber ~20 lbs live rock + Giant Cheatomorpha ball
• Third chamber heaters, skimmer feed/return and return pump
• Pushing roughly 2000 GPH through the system with a Reef Octopus 10500 DC pump (currently broken using backup Fluval Sea pump)
• Return feed to both sides of aquarium, each spit into two 3/4" lockline outputs
• Carbon 24/7
• Hydor Performer 505 Protein skimmer external to sump

Lighting:

• AquaticLife Expert Series LED 48", 275 Watts of LED, fully customizable on all 4 channels.

Other Equipment:

• 2x 200 Watt Ehiem heaters
• 1X 300 Watt Aqueon heater
• Tunze Nano ATO, feeding RO/DI water
• 2X Tunze 6095 controllable powerheads
• GHL Profilux 3 controller running heat, powerheads, skimmer, refugium light, and slave doser. Monitoring Temp, PH, Salinity, Redox
• GHL Doser, dosing Mg, Alk, Ca

Fish:

• 4x Green reef chromis
• 1x Clownfish - had for 6+ years now
• 1x Yellow tail damsel - had for 6+ years now
• 2x Gold/Blue neon gobies
• 1x 8.5" Power Blue Tang

Inverts:

• 1x large Coral Banded Shrimp
• 3x Emerald crabs, one large two small
• 6x Peppermint shrimp - who as of yet do not seem interested in aptasia
• 2x Medium RBTA - recently split from one large one
• 2x mini/maxi carpet anemones that came on my rocks

Corals:

• Tons of pink pom pom zenia, grows and spreads very fast
• 10-15 head Duncan colony - started as 1 about 9 months ago
• 15-20 head green trumpet colony - started as 3 about 9 moths ago
• Red plating monitpora - also grows very fast
• Pink birdsnest
• Green Hydnophora
• Green polyp Acropora? - also grows very fast
• Purple Stylophora
• Blue/White Encinata?
• Various mushroom and other stuff that came on the rocks.

Some photos taken recently.

 

[camaroguy]

A few more photos...

Comments and suggestions welcomed.

 

[tubbs2323]

The tank looks very nice, any reason the water level in the display tank is so low?

 

[camaroguy]

You cannot see the water line in the display. You are either seeing the full length overflow in the top portion of the back, or you are seeing through that and seeing the water level inside the overflow box. The front glass on the overflow is tinted, while the bottom glass is not.

I had hoped this would mostly hide the overflow box from view when looking in from the front, but there is a little bit of light that gets behind it, making it a little visible.

 

[BigAl2007]

The tank looks very nice, any reason the water level in the display tank is so low?

This is a common mistake when looking at a full length in-tank overflow.

camaroguy you have an amazing looking tank and I look forward to following it along as it keeps growing and growing. Great work

 

[camaroguy]

Thanks, its sure been a learning experience. The Tang seems to eat and eat and eat...It has even taken to eating coral. Mostly Xenia which I have so much of, its ok, but recently I have noticed flesh missing at the tips of my hydnophora and wonder if its the Tang's doing.

 

[Miguelh1302]

Beautiful tank u go there buddy

 

[Flippers4pups]

Nice!