125 gallon **need a mentor**

[kien]

^ +1 what she said. Plus, I will add that, if you have the means to do a sump at this early stage (ie, you have the space, time and money), then I don't think there is a reason NOT to use a sump. If you can do a sump now but decide not to, you will probably regret it later once you get going and start wishing you had a better place to store your heater/skimmer/reactor/ATO, etc. At that stage in the game it will becoming annoyingly difficult to install a sump.

[Madreefer]

You should be able to sell that filter for at least $100 which will get you a decent sump.

[ChefFish]

I currently use a FX5 on a 90 gallon reef and its a major pain in the a**! I wouldn't advise anyone to go that route. Put a sump in now, as you will regret it later. They are a great filter for a freshwater tank but not really made with saltwater in mind. Listen to everyone and save yourself the time and headache. Just my 2 cents...

[shanks]

ok going with a sump. my light is a 250 double ended HQI metal Halide?
by Coralife. I do not know the exact depth of the tank but prob around 30 inches or so.

[CM125]

Originally Posted by shanks

ok going with a sump. my light is a 250 double ended HQI metal Halide?
by Coralife. I do not know the exact depth of the tank but prob around 30 inches or so.

You would need one of those for every 2 feet of tank, so another 2, but again that depending on what you want to do. You may want to sell that and get a full length light fixture, there are nice ones with built in timers and things. And you can also get combined t5 and MH fixtures. If your not gonna be running high demand corals you may want to go with a all t5 setup (less heat) or even an LED setup. Unfortunately I dont know much about LED setups and because they are fairly new there is alot of misinformation out there. But if you can find a good setup they have very low power consumption and almost zero heat.

[shanks]

the light i have has T% and Halide combined right now.

[CM125]

Does it go across your whole tank? how many bulbs total?

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by CM125

You would need one of those for every 2 feet of tank, so another 2, but again that depending on what you want to do. You may want to sell that and get a full length light fixture, there are nice ones with built in timers and things. And you can also get combined t5 and MH fixtures. If your not gonna be running high demand corals you may want to go with a all t5 setup (less heat) or even an LED setup. Unfortunately I dont know much about LED setups and because they are fairly new there is alot of misinformation out there. But if you can find a good setup they have very low power consumption and almost zero heat.

So your suggesting that he put 1000 Watts of metal halide over this tank? Plus the T5's which I doubt they are. Most likely PC's if it's Coralife. I would assume this tank is 48" long but even a 36" will do. Coralife doesnt build anything shorter if it's 2 250W combined with supplemental lighting and moon rays. 30" does sound a little deep for a 125G
What he has is fine for this tank if he is going to use this Coralife fixture. If he adds another 2 like you suggest he will need a pretty good chiller.

[CM125]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

So your suggesting that he put 1000 Watts of metal halide over this tank? Plus the T5's which I doubt they are. Most likely PC's if it's Coralife. I would assume this tank is 48" long but even a 36" will do. Coralife doesnt build anything shorter if it's 2 250W combined with supplemental lighting and moon rays. 30" does sound a little deep for a 125G
What he has is fine for this tank if he is going to use this Coralife fixture. If he adds another 2 like you suggest he will need a pretty good chiller.

I made that recommendation on the assumption it was 6' long, running 3 MH across a 6' is quite common, but it sounds like it may not be (were still waiting on dimensions) so yes, if its 4 feet long you are quite right, that would be a lot of light lol

[Kryptic4L]

IMHO. Run what you got, no matter how much you prepare, we evolve as much as our equipment does. Just make sure the fx5 was not used with copper treatments.

I guarentee within a year you will have a better idea if sw is for you, what type of corals you and fish you really want.

I feel the only way to really know is get salty for a bit and get used to the maintence schedule.

Nothing wrong with cycling some rocks and adding a few fish and evolving from there. I've gone through about 6 tanks in 6 years and I'm still not sure what the next year will bring.