Our 125g mixed reef tank build

ClownBubbaJoe

ClownBubbaJoe

Member
Hello everyone, my wife and I are building a 125g mixed reef and I not only wanting to post my plans and the build as it comes together, but also wanting your advise, opinions and recommendations.

This tank will be a mixed reef with a lot of rock, some live, some dry. Our hope is to have many fish, a few soft corals but dominated LPS's. I don't believe we'll have any SPS's in this one, but, you never know.

With my bad health this build will be slow, so please bare with me.

I wish my wife and I had gobs of cash, but we don't, so we need to stick with the idea of buying some expensive products as needed and other's when we can get away with lower cost options.

In the last few months I've purchased some products and will need more as we go along.

Please ask any questions.

Keep in mind, that we all have different opinions, wants & needs on building & stocking out reef tanks, so please be kind and have a positive attitude.

So play nice ! :wavehand:

The first decision is on whether to build a steel or wood stand ?
I'm a good welder, so that's not an issue. I haven't yet,...done any research on the cost difference between the two, but I like the idea of a steel stand.

I have a drillable,....55g tank as a sump and I want to be able to work in the sump very easily, so I figure if I go with steel, I can have less amounts of vertical supports VS wood, to get in the way.

The steel will be 2x2 boxed, with possibly 3" square tubing on the top & bottom. Haven't decided yet ? No need for overkill, yet very strong.

Have any of you gone through the same issue, if so, what was your decision, why and what was the cost ?

If any of you have built a steel stand, let me know what you did, why and what you may do different a second time around.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
I think for my next tank I will go with a metal stand frame if I am building it. I have seen some really nice ones when done correctly. I would probably go a different route for your sump, a 55 gallon would be tough dimensions to work with as a sump.
 
Personally, I'd rather have something with a bigger footprint and less height as a sump, but you already have the 55g and it does work well with the front to back dimensions of a 125g tank.

As for the choice of stand materials. I don't weld, so I did wood and have had no issues. And I have a friend who had a custom metal stand made and powder coated. It looks great, and it does leave more room inside the stand, but even the powder coated metal is starting to rust. So I see that as a toss up.

Free advice, worth just what you've paid for it...
When I started in this hobby 12 years ago I was on a fairly tight budget and I made a lot of mistakes. When I started my 180g tank 6 years ago I was still financially very frugal and I spent 18 months gathering equipment from a variety of less than retail price sources. Craigslist, people selling stuff in our local aquarium club (if you haven't done it already, look for one in your area, there is a list here on RC), store close outs, going out of business sales and even repurposing 'stuff' from outside the hobby. Take your time and enjoy the build process. I think that's why half of us 'go bigger' as often as we do. We love having the tank, but doing it over, doing it bigger, doing it better is really a motivating factor as well. I just lost my big system (400g) to a leak and now I'm downsizing to a 125g tank, 40g sump and a 50g display refugium. My build thread is here as "Downsizing??? Really???".

Good luck and I'll be watching your build with interest.
 
I also have been purchasing products slowly the last 6 months, so much so, that my wife says,....ENOUGH, I WANT FISH AND CORALS !!! lol......

We we into reef keeping back in th 90's, got out to race dirt wing sprint cars, built a 427 Shelby Cobra replica (hence 427 HISS) etc. We retired from racing and now we are getting back into the hobby.

I'm a auto body man and have a lot of expierance with metal, painting and powder coatings, so it sounds like your friend or the company he hired did not prep the stand well enough, and/or did not spray the material well. Done correctly,....coatings should last many years, even with salt spray. I powder coated our sprint car frame the first time and it lasted 6 years, and we're talking a very harsh environment !

My wife bought some steel fencing at frickin Menards, and the powder coating started popping off three months later, and a year later, the fencing is garbage. It was expensive too.

Anyway, like anything,.....prepping is the most important step in quality.

I need to get buying the steel !
 
I think we swapped stories once a long time ago. I used to race sports cars up in the midwest, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Watkins Glen...

Good luck with the build and I'll follow along.
 
No. I raced small cars in the SCCA for many years in the midwest. and Currently I'm in SW Florida and have a 300hp Mazda Miata that I auto-x and do track days. That's all the more power I need!

I think at one point in time you were doing a tank under your TV or something like that?
 
I'll bet that is a very fun car to race !
On Stacie David's TV show called Gearz, he also built a cool Miata.

Send me some photo's.

I could swear I heard your name in one of the Cobra related forums.

Yes, we still may have the 93g cube under our flat screen TV in the entertainment center. Just need the time.
 
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