Step-by-step building of my 125

[Jrmass]

As I have said before I sanded my formerly black painted pine stand down to raw wood, remade the pine doors and stained them as well... Here's how that all turned out

[Jrmass]

Here's the end product

[JY13131]

Oooh! that is going to be good!

[Afish4u]

look nice.

[hansmatt]

oooo, nice...so when does it get filled?

[Loverotties]

Looking good!

[pogodzib]

Looking good. Are you going to be building a matching canopy for it?

[Jrmass]

As for a canopy... No... I have a Coralife 72" aqualight pro with 834 watts of power MH light. So, if I wanted one (which I don't think I would) I couldn't put one in w/out taking the fixture apart to place it in there.

As for filling it up... I figure in the next week or so I should have all of the piping done so that I can run a test on it. If everything looks good then I'll make sure I fill it up on a Friday (so that I can be home incase if something were to happen unexpectedly).

Like I said I'll keep posting pics and we'll have to see how it goes. But, so far things are looking good =)

Jason

[carym]

Looks nice, have you used the coralife 72" light before? I am thinking about eventually getting one for my tank....just got to save the $$$'s....

[Jrmass]

No actually I haven't used it before. I bought this fixture used on ebay (pretty much in pieces). It needed ballasts had a wiring issue that I had to resolve (which was INCREDIBLY easily resolved *1 loose wire*). And like I said didn't come with any ballasts so I had to buy them separate. All-in-all a brand new fixture costs between $900-$1000 where I have about $450-$500 invested and it's all good =). I'll tell you how it goes when I have it up.

Jason

[Sndwave80]

Looks very good!

[Jrmass]

I've been ambitious the last few days and instead of the piping taking me roughly a week to do I have already completed the piping (or at least finished it until I have anything I want done differently or something I don't think works as well as I thought it might). If anyone has any suggestions on something I could do different I am definately open to suggestions! But, otherwise the way I have it I think will work well. Only thing I'm not so sure about is the way I have the sump partitions. I bought 1/8" acrylic and siliconed (aquatic safe) two pieces of them together for added strength then siliconed them into place staggering them. Starting from the front of the tank (which is a 75 gallon tank btw) is a 15" tall piece of acrylic, then a 13" tall piece, followed by a 10" tall piece. My only concern is being able to keep their structural integrity in place. If anyone has any ideas on how I can go about this I'm definately open to suggestions. Although I think once there is water in each stage there wont be much resistance seeing as the water will work as a counter balance on each side other than for those few inches above where I have them staggered.

Enjoy,

Jason

btw this is my first effort at attempting such a plumbing extravaganza. So if you are a plumber please don't throw me under the bridge lol.

[Jrmass]

The last few I wanted to add.

Ideas are definately welcome. Also, I'm thinking about putting my Aqua C 150 skimmer in the 2nd from the shortest compartment in the sump is this a good idea or should I try to fit it into the same bay as that of the recirculating pump? Again, just looking for some input.

Jason

[hng]

You might want to check out melevesreef.com for more info on a sump. Usually, people use baffles (partitions) to prevent bubbles from reaching the return pump. Three baffles are used so that the water flows over-under-over the baffles. The baffles are placed 2 inches apart from each other and the middle baffle is placed 2 inches above the floor of the sump. The protein skimmer is placed in the chamber that receives water from the display. BTW, is your external return pump self priming? If not, it will not "suck" water up from the sump and into the pump body. You may be better off drilling a bulkhead into your sump and connecting the pump there instead. HTH

[PHIL GUY]

Originally Posted by Jrmass

Here's the end product

I HAVE THE SAME EXACT STAND FOR MY 180..IT WAS BLACK WHEN I GOT IT, WITH THE DOORS SLOTED LIKE THAT, BUT I PAINTED IT WHITE ,REPLACED ALL DOORS AND MADE NEW ONES