got the go ahead for a 125g! whee!

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exodus

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
293
Location
Redding, CT
I've been trying to talk my dad into a small reef tank, he's worried about saltwater getting all over the house, wont even let me put it in the basement.

So, I asked about putting a 125 in instead. He said thats absolutely fine with him because if it leaks like crazy the basement already floods whenever it rains heavily.

So.

I plan on building a fish/tv room in my basement with a raised floor to keep everything dry during floods, with sealed floor and stand so that it can withstand it for quite awhile (I'll be out within 5yrs). I budgeted pretty heavily for my reef, so a large freshwater tank should easily fit in there.

I'm thinking about lighting it with a few 175 metal halides doing a planted tank with a large co2 tank and manifold to run both my 125 and 55 upstairs. I've been tossing around ideas about what fish to keep all day... Discus would be great, but a little on the pricey side to fill a 125. I think large schools of tropicals would be pretty cool, maybe even cichlids.

I've only ever seen a 110 once at Animal Kingdom in Brewster, NY. I work at my LFS so I can get everything at manufacturer price plus 10%, so the damage should be minimal. Does anyone have any ideas on which brand of tank would be best?

I was thinking about acrylic, but for a tank that size that would cost quite a lot, all glass might be the way to go. Tomorrow I'll check our price listings and see where I want to go.

How about filtration on a tank that size? Any input from anyone with ideas on my new setup would be awesome.
 
Frist off got your work cut out for you huh? LOL I'd go with a canster filter with the pick up on one end nd the return on the other. This would keep flow going nicely. On the cichlids go with some Apistogramma spices. They make a nice addtion to any tank. They can be housed with so many differnt spice of fish to, even a south american dwarf cichlid tank would look nice to and there or so many spices of dwarfs that can be housed togeather.
 
Definately go with 2 canisters. As far as the fish are concerned, I'd go with African Cichlids. They grow to a larger size and are very personable. Don't get me wrong, I love my SA Cichlids, but Africans are still my favs.
 
Please be sure to post photos of your progress. As far as glass vs. acrylic, I have read that a glass aquarium of that size would weigh about 200 pounds. That alone might make me go for the acrylic if it fit in my budget, depending on how many strong people I had around to help move the thing. I had a tough enough time carrying my 55 into my apartment with my husband..

Good luck and congrats!
 
Congrats on the go ahead for the 125. I have a 125 and would definately recommend 2 cannisters. Also I have africans in my tank and they are very colorful and quite interesting to watch. Mbuna are more aggressive, aulonocara are more peaceful. Do some research and decide which way you want to go. Also 2 heaters is a ggod idea.

I believe my tank is about 250lbs dry. We are moving it next Sat. LOL. I would still go with glass as acrylic IMO scratches to easily.
 
I am cycling my new to me 125 now. I am using 2 canister filters. One XP3 and the left end and
One Eheim 2128 and the other. I cant wait to put my stock into their new home. I will be taking out the slate. I dont like the look of it with the sand substrate. In my 55 with gravel it looked pretty good. I am getting some Texas Holey rock for the 125 and will be building some sort of background later on. The mesh bag has some media from the old tank, and I ran the eheim on the old 55 for about 3 weeks. This should cut down the cycle time quite a bit. I will be taking the UG jets out and siliconing sand on them so they dont stick out like a thumb at a finger party.

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Well, I think I have the equipment decided on.

*Tank is going to be an All Glass 125, 72x18x22 - $244
*As far as filtration goes, I was thinking one Eheim 2217 - $121 (do you think I need two?)
*For flow I was thinking 2 or so powerheads, probably aquaclears just so there arent any stagnant spots.

Last night I was toying around with the idea of making this an in-wall tank, but I'm not sure on that one yet as it would require a lot more space and lumber.

I'm going to do a planted tank, but even with my discount I think Eco-Complete for a 125 could be very very costly, but I'll have to check on that. As of now, PFS is going to be the way to go.


I'm going to be out of town next week so this project probably wont really get rolling for a few weeks yet. Thats fine by me though, more time to fine-tune the plans so nothing goes awry once it comes time to buy stuff.

I'll get a few pics up tonight of the build site in the basement, still needs to be cleared out, but you can probably get a mental image.
 
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