125G Reef build

[Palmer]

Unfortunately the 120G basement reef's days are over, I had a tank crash about a year ago and it has been slow demise ever since. I will be salvaging some corals from it and all my fish are fine.

After a long hiatus of active reef keeping I am starting a 125G mixed reef in my living room. I have never been allowed to have an Aquarium outside of my basement/ man cavern so I jumped at the opportunity when my wife suggested it. It's been fun starting up a new system I started the last one in 2009. The tank setup is from a Cichlids setup I had going for many years. The setup itself is over 15 years old. The cabinet came in two parts stand and light cabinet but I added an extra third section under the light hood to extend it. One requirement I was given is that no lights would be seen that it would be enclosed. I don't think it came out bad.



In some ways this setup is not ideal for a reef tank but I was determined to make it work. The stand is very narrow inside and the double doors allow little room for a sump to be taken in and out once the tank is on. So not my preference but I purchased an acrylic sump that met the space requirements I needed. It's a little crowded but it's doing the job. In it I have-

CSC protein skimmer
TLF reactor with carbon
Two heaters 150W
A ton of cheato (thanks to FishyFishy!)
Eheim return pump
Tunze Osmolater
Tunze nano power heads in display (to be replaced soon with Vortech MP40's I have)
Work light






One of the non ideal aspects to the setup is that it has one return pipe which I turned into a Durso style and it's only 1 1/4 inch. It's working well but I am concerned about it getting clogged based on past experience. My 120 had a herbie style with 2" returns so no problem there. I put some plastic gutter screen at the overflow box to help prevent critters from venturing out and catch large things from going through the overflow. I will be making it a routine part of my maintenance to ensure the overflow is free of anything that might clog it.

The tank has been up and running since August I only added some blue chromis about a month ago and my clown and fox face a week ago.



My lights are Evergrow LED I installed three of them in the hood



Well that's it for now we will see how it goes!