Morgan 125 Reef Build Thread/Journal

[jacob.morgan78]

It's been a long time coming but she was finally born today! She's had water for a few weeks and a couple rocks but I put the rest of the LR in and set up the lights (plus finally cleaned up the build mess) so I'm considering today the "start date". I'm super excited to be back in and I'm looking forward to sharing here and getting feedback from everybody that has tanks that I've been drooling over for years! Enough of that, I'll put up the first full tank shot! Here is my 125 gallon reef tank.



Not the best shot but I think it's a good start! I definitely have some cord management to do and some overall tidying up to do but I'll get there!

Goals

One of the main goals I have for this tank is consistency. I want to keep my hands out and stay on a somewhat EASY routine because we all know if it's not easy it's not going to happen as often as it should! Another goal is to not break the bank. I'm a big believer that you don't have to spend a million dollars (although it helps!) to have a successful and beautiful reef tank. It helps that I love the look of softies, zoas, and LPS. I'll put sps in there but I'm not going to kill myself or the bank making it work.

Stand

I'm proud of my stand. It's not bulky, it's open, looks clean, and was very inexpensive. It's just 9 cinder blocks, and 2 12' 2x6 painted white. Done.

 

[jacob.morgan78]

Lights

These are leftover (as is most of my stuff) from the last tank. They are three reef breeders led fixtures. Nothing fancy but I like them. I didn't want a hood this time around and did a lot of research on how I wanted to hang them. I went with a build option that, again, definitely didn't break the bank. Consists of three 8' pieces of metal conduit (cut to length), two elbows, four brackets to attach it to the stand, and white spray paint. Came out looking pretty good. If I had to do it over again, I would have gone with the next size up in conduit because there is definitely some flex in the middle. It was so cheap that I may end up redoing it. The lights hang from this using fishing leaders. Yes! Steel fishing leaders!! :lol: :lol: Why not? I'll have to keep an eye on them to make sure they're not too suspect to the salty air around them but I'm pretty confident they'll be fine. I have them doubled up for some redundancy but once again, I think it looks okay without spending an arm and a leg. Take a look.














Next, I'll add some information and pics with the sump that I was able to put in the garage that shares a wall with where the tank is. It's a 150 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank. I'll hopefully have some pictures and details of the refugium, skimmer setup, return setup, and my settling tank. I'd like to have a container that accepts the drain from the display that both: is a place for detritus to settle and a container that makes water changes super easy. Dump it out, fill it up, done. I don't know if I'll be able to add a container that holds enough water that I want my water changes to be but we'll see.

Although I've mentioned several times that I don't want to break the bank, I will spend money where needed in order to have a good environment for the inhabitants. But! I will research and do what I can so it can possibly be DIY!

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to give feedback and point out any red flags you may see!!!

 

[jacob.morgan78]

This is what I have setup for a settling tank/water change reservoir. I basically want a place where it's easy for detritus to settle out and a reservoir that would make water changes really easy. It's your basic storage tote sitting on three pieces of pvc that are wedged into the rubber maid stock tank sump. There is a little flex in the piece of pvc closest to the drain but it's holding nicely. Kept a real close eye on it last night and even put extra weight/force on it to see what would happen and it held really well. If it does fail, it's all within the sump so it shouldn't be catastrophic. But I wanted to put it out there to get feedback from you guys! You see any red flags? You'll see in the pictures after the video that the top still fits on so no light gets in and I shortened the drain pipe so that if it did fall into the sump, it wouldn't take my overflow with it!

Tell me what ya think! Thanks!

Click Below for a Short Video