Magma's 125gal Upgrade

[Magma]

So I finally figured it was time to join the big kids and get into the 100+ range.

I picked up my stand a few weeks ago and have been getting plywood cut and painted and started to collect some of the electrical work I want done and some plumbing supply's. I really have no clue on what im doing with this tank.

I had 2 smaller tanks. One 38gal running a canister filter (Bad idea!) and the other 40gal I bought as a plug and play system with a sump but all plumbing done. It is a very basic system with a central overflow basic sump just to give me the idea how a sump setup should work. It has been going for over a year with little problems.

But enough about the past! lets get to the now!

New tank is 72x20x20 I went with this size for a few reasons.

#1 I wanted a 6ft tank
#2 I live on the top floor of a 4plex so I wanted to keep the weight down. (tank is placed in the middle of the house near the dividing wall of the 4plex and near the front of the house)
#3 The wife wants to keep tangs so longer the tank the better imo.

Sump is 60x16x16 which works out to around 67gal but of course I dont think it will be full with all 67gal.

So of course everyone wants pictures! here we go...

Stand in the house


Some Plywood cut


Display tank


Stand with sump and part of the plywood in place.


This weekend I hope to get the stand leveled out (needs a small shim for the front). Get the side panels for the stand mounted. Get the back panel painted and mounted then if time permits cut out the holes for the bulk heads in the top.

The tank will probably go into place sometime in the next week or so.

Still need to figure how I want to plumb the system (this will be all new to me) rather confused but I figure with help from Kevin at RC I can figure it out.

The electrical I have a plan and just need to sit down and do it, I want to be able to control parts of the tank from switches mounted on the side of the tank. so i can shut of pumps when I want to feed/clean the tank.

I really down know what return pump I will use or what skimmer. I do know I would love to go LED with this tank but the costs are so high I might end up with a MH fixture, I dont care much about SPS but I do like softies and LPS and want to keep my options open if I want to do SPS later.

Stock list is a whole other issue...I have some fish from other tanks I will keep and others im not so sure about.

I have and want to keep

3 Clowns
1 yellow tail damsel
1 coral beauty
1 Banggai Cardinalfish
1 Yellow tang (being held in a friends tank till mine is ready)

Unsure of keeping
6 line wrasse (I love him but I know he can be mean)
Orange Spot Goby (wife loves him I hate him, the sand everywhere is getting start to get old.)

Wanted
Blue Tang
Powder Blue
Bristletooth Tang
Leopard Wrasse
Mandarin
Bartlett's Anthias


Now I know I cant have them all but I figure others on here can help me narrow down what to keep, what to sell, what to switch out etc.

Thats about it for now, thanks for reading/skimming through

[Cade]

Looks good.

Your off to a very good start, IMHO if you go metal halide dont buy new there are lots of good deals out there, BUT seriously consider LED's. The AI Sols are getting great reviews and at only $400 are a really good bang for your buck. Of course if you want to spend some dogh there are the EcoTeck Radion's an AMAZING light!! Oh and about SPS.... One day the bug will bite you and when it does LOOK OUT It bites freaking hard! I never thought much about SPS but now Im obsessed. Its just natural progression after having a successful reef for a while you get bored/brave/confident.

Good Luck.

[Magma]

Been looking into LED systems, sure AI SOL units are nice but AI has also been saying the Vega/Phoenix units are coming soon for months now but still seems expensive, 3-4 AI units is still $1200-1600 and 3 Radions are $2450 now if you look around some "no name" brand units can you run you 400-600 for a full setup but not as many fancy options.

Im thinking I will go MH if I can find a cheap unit on here and if not order one off ebay for around $500.

Problem is being an Electrical Apprentice I am going to school April 23rd so budget is tight already and once school starts the tank build gets even slower

[Cade]

I just finished carpentry 4th in january. Nice work my fellow tradesman.

Ahh the never ending light dilema.. I know man I know.. Im currently running halide and I just dream daily about owning LED's, after seeing radions in person on a fellow reefers tank I was hooked. Dont go with a cheap brand, Im constantly hearing about whole rows of led burning out and no way to fix them. If anything go DIY you are an electrician...

[Cade]

For DIY.. Modular LED is a sponsor here and had great review. They sell whole kits so the guesswork is taken out.
check em out.

[Magma]

Originally Posted by Cade

I just finished carpentry 4th in january. Nice work my fellow tradesman.

If anything go DIY you are an electrician...

Doing 3rd year myself, not finished yet but hey its 1 step closer.

and sure I could go the DIY route but after working with power all day I have little patience to come home and fiddle with LED's and my own $$ lol

I have checked out things like Modular LED but even then im still looking around 1200$ plus my time to build them so all said and done isnt it still cheaper to buy a bunch of AI units lol

[Cade]

You could allways spend $100-200 on some cheap 2-4 bulb t5ho fixtures as temporary light till you find something..

Where did you read about these new Sol's any word on price?

[Magma]

Found them through the AI facebook page, cost seems to be about 100$ more per unit than the SOL, and yes my "temp" fix for this tank will be my 2 current HOT5 fixtures end to end on top of the tank.

[Cade]

There yah go.. no rush, save for LED's !!

[Magma]

Well I managed to get the top and back onto the stand tonight, and start some of the electrical.

These plugs will be controlled by 1 switch and will be for my lighting system, so this way I have 2 plugs will both have a main on/off switch in case I need to turn the lights off for whatever reason.

Later this week I start the other feed which will power the pumps and powerheads.