The adventure of the 125gal tank

[Fishgirl]

Ok well not so sure where to start as my dinning room is starting to look like a ummm fish store??? lol. Anyway I have a 33gal that has been up and running and I am sure some of you had seen my mess that was going on for the past week anyway that is fixed now. Now time to do the big tank. I went and picked up my tank from my mom's last weekend. The dimension of the tank are 72 x 20 x 20. Its not drilled and as of now I can't drill it as I am renting a house and live on the upstairs floor kind of afraid to put anymore weight then there already is going to be on this upstairs floor. SO with that said everything will just have to hang on the back till I move into my own house and can do whatever the hell I want lol. So if any of you have any opinions and what I should do ALL advice is more then welcome as this is the first time I have ever really set up a true saltwater tank. ( I have had saltwater for many years but nothing like this.) So far all I have is the tank the stand 110lbs of live rock (thanks to Kevin for his AMAZING customer service and help picking out some really nice rock from his store:) All this is sitting in a large rubbermaid contain with a aquaclear 500 with a ton of carbon in it. A heater and a powerhead. My next task is for the boyfriend he is going to sand down the stand and repaint it with rust proof paint, then its time to get some lighting I am thinking about going with the this:

These Aquatic Life Six-Lamp T5 HO light fixtures offer 420/460nm, 700+ nm and Lunar lights in one streamlined unit. A timer controls the T5 HO fluorescent lamps and LEDs independently, allowing for a fully programmable 24 hour lighting cycle. Low voltage cooling fans come built right in to keep the fixture cool and direct heat away from the aquarium. Adjustable frame mounts and suspension ports allow for multiple configurations when mounting the fixture above your aquarium. German made reflectors are designed to increase each individual light bulb's intensity, maximizing the fixture's overall light output. Bulbs and mounting brackets are included. Produce more light in a compact housing with these new six-lamp high output fixtures! 72" fixture includes: 6 x 36" T5 HO 39W Actinic/Blue Lamps, 6 x 36" T5 HO 39W 10,000K Lamps, and 6 x 1W Lunar LED's.

GOOD or Not so good??? and what does it mean by it offers 420/460nm, 700+ nm not sure what those numbers mean or what nm stands for????

Anyway so far that is all I have oh yeah and for filteration for now I have 2 aqua clear 500 so if you have advice on filteration I should be using other then those I am getting a skimmer just not sure what one to get I heard about one called Deltec tonight and SWC skimmers so any help in this catagory would be great too. What heaters do you guys use? I guess I will have to get some new ones of those as well. The salt I am using is Instant Oceans Reef Crystal. It seems to be pretty nice stuff so far in the 33gal. Ok sorry this is a story I will post pictures as I know everyone LOVES pic's as soon as I get them on the computer. For now I will leave it here till I do some more with this. Right now I am just going to sit on my couch and look at all my stuff in my dinning room and dream how it will look once all set up lol.

[fishytime]

Welcome to the big leagues Jenn.......thats quite the jump, from a 33 to a six footer(your gonna love the length)....cant wait to see what you do with the aquascaping:wink:

[Red Coral Aquariums]

I hope you get your rock back into the design you had in the store. You had some really neat caves and ledges happening. We also had a ton of fun and there must have been 2 gallons of water on my floor LOL.
Kevin

[kien]

what does it mean by it offers 420/460nm, 700+ nm not sure what those numbers mean or what nm stands for????


Bulbs come in different wavelengths of light. If you look on the box for a T5 light it will typically show you a graph of the light spectrum from blue to yellow/red. That bulb will output light somewhere on that chart and that is its output wavelength.

http://reefkeepingfever.com/images/sunlight-spectrum.jpg

Actinic lights, for example, produce only light at a specific wavelength--420 or 460 nm (nm stands for nano meters - the measure of wave length). This peak wavelength value, which produces a very blue light, was chosen because during photosynthesis chlorophyll a absorbs light near this wavelength. These blue lights also help to augment the fluorescence of corals. That is, it makes them glow :biggrin:

[Fishgirl]

Hey Doug, Yes it will be amazing I hope lol. I had this tank as an african cichlid tank before it was truely beautiful then, so I can't even imagine what it will look like in saltwater, I will post pictures as I go along with this project:D

Welcome to the big leagues Jenn.......thats quite the jump, from a 33 to a six footer(your gonna love the length)....cant wait to see what you do with the aquascaping:wink:

[Fishgirl]

I hope you get your rock back into the design you had in the store. You had some really neat caves and ledges happening. We also had a ton of fun and there must have been 2 gallons of water on my floor LOL.
Kevin


Yes I hope we can get it back to how it was too! That looked really neat how it was on the floor.

[Fishgirl]

Hey Kien!

First I want to say your tank is beautiful! simply wow I love your aquascaping. Anyway Thank you so much for explaining this to me I was clueless when I read that part about the 420-460nm and 700+nm I was like huh ok. lol.

So what would be the best combination in a 12 light fixture? How many of each bulb so I do? and what kind? I know the stock ones are probably what I will keep in there for the first little while, just to save money for other stuff as I won't be getting corals right away.

Jenn

Bulbs come in different wavelengths of light. If you look on the box for a T5 light it will typically show you a graph of the light spectrum from blue to yellow/red. That bulb will output light somewhere on that chart and that is its output wavelength.

http://reefkeepingfever.com/images/sunlight-spectrum.jpg

Actinic lights, for example, produce only light at a specific wavelength--420 or 460 nm (nm stands for nano meters - the measure of wave length). This peak wavelength value, which produces a very blue light, was chosen because during photosynthesis chlorophyll a absorbs light near this wavelength. These blue lights also help to augment the fluorescence of corals. That is, it makes them glow :biggrin:

[fishytime]

Hey Doug, Yes it will be amazing I hope lol. I had this tank as an african cichlid tank before it was truely beautiful then, so I can't even imagine what it will look like in saltwater, I will post pictures as I go along with this project:D

Hey me too......my current reef tank used to be an African tank too....what lake were you into?

[Fishgirl]

I had a few tanks at that time lol. This particular tank was all malawi the mubuna spieces. I had a Tanganikian tank and a victorian tank as well lol. It was allot fun, breeding and selling the fry, sometimes I miss my cichlids lol.

Hey me too......my current reef tank used to be an African tank too....what lake were you into?

[Skimmerking]

oh ya i had pretty much every type of Cichlids i loves them too loves the south aferican too alot.
JD's
Oscar's
Jag's
Terror's
lump heads
dolphins

MAY BE I sHould hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :razz: naw:lol:

[Fishgirl]

So went and picked up my fish from Gold's they all look pretty good, still some signs of ich *uhg* but nothing major I am hoping they will just kick it. Anyway today is sand down the tank stand and repaint it. Nothing great or special, anyone have any good paint suggestion I should use? its just an all metel stand made of that square piping. I want something that is not going to allow the salt to get through and start rusthing the stand.

[mytank90]

for a metal stand i would use tremclad paint .i would sand it then primer them paint final colour .tremclad comes in buch different colours so should be able find something you like .also comes in cans if you like the smell:biggrin:

[Fishgirl]

Thanks :) Here we go to sand and paint the stand:D

[Fishgirl]

ok so the stand it done and painted now I have decided to get the tank drilled and use a sump I musta measured the tank wrong and I have since found out it is 112gal. Its measurements are 72'' x 20'' x 18''. SO I am wondering how I go about getting this drilled I am not wanting to really have to drag the tank out of the house to have this done but if need be I will do it. So I guess my question is what size sump on a main floor of an older house would work? I was thinking a 45 gal tank. I want to make a fuge inside the sumb. SO anyone have any suggestions on how I go about doing this? I have NO IDEA when it comes to sumps and how to do them properly. I have so much to buy and not even sure where to start lol. I know I need some new powerheads not sure how many to go with, I need a good skimmer heaters, lights but I think I am going with the aquatic life 72'' 12x39w T5HO. I am not sure what else I need or should get so again any help is welcome.

[mytank90]

first thing you must do is make sure that your tank can be drilled .some tanks you buy cant be becuse wrong type of glass.if your very brave you can drill tank youself .i would talk to your lfs see what they would charge to drill and put in your overflow boxs in a corner of if want a external overflow .as for stuff needed i would prbly look for a used sump first then a heater/skimmer and last the light .this way you can set up tank with just the sump and a heater to get cycle going with live rock as you look around for other stuff

[fishytime]

see......now if you would just come to my lair:twised::wink:........eh-hem......I mean...... place, you could check out the whole system......my tank is exactly the same same as yours.......if I've scared you away you could check out the first few pages of my 110g thread to see what I did as far as overflows/plumbing/sump goes(lots of pics there)