At the meeting yesterday, I purchased this from John. My plans are to build a tank for my two young nieces. They love my tank, but can only look at it when I am home. I wanted for them to have a tank that they can just sit and look at if they wanted to. I will for sure have to add fish to this tank. I'm thinking maybe a pair of clowns, but open to any suggestions you all might have. I for sure plan on filling it with softies and zoas. But then I got to thinking, well maybe I could put some kind of LPS for the clownfish to host in. And then I got to thinking I want something growing up the back wall. Green star polyps would be easy, but eventually go crazy. So I dunno if I want to try a monti or something. I've got one starting on the back wall in my main tank. But the plan for this tank was to make it low maintenance so I didn't have to dose much. Any suggestions on equipment would be greatly appreciated. I currently use a canister filter on my main tank. I could buy one for these, but I would like for this tank to have a more minimalist look. I don't want a bunch of hoses hanging all around the tank. I really don't want a huge HOB protein skimmer either. The tank is not drilled, so I don't know if a sump is out of the question for it. I don't know much about HOB filters either. As far as lighting, I liked the looks of the ones John had over his tank. They were square, and would compliment the design of this tank, I think. So if anybody could offer any recommendations for filter, skimming, and lighting, I'd greatly appreciate it. I don't want to throw a whole bunch of money into this tank, but I don't want to take shortcuts either.
Drill it, glassholes.com have complete overflow nano kits for like $45, even comes with the hole saw. Get a small sump and you'll have everything out of sight.
Ok, I watched the video on that, and I'm going to order a kit. But is there somewhere to purchase a small sump for a decent price? I know you can DIY, but I'm not so sure about my skills. I think I can handle the drilling the glass on the tank, though.
If you can drill the glass, putting in baffles in a sump should be a breeze! Didn't you watch Greg's demo?
Just get an prefilter/overflow and no drilling will be required. Lifereef and eShopps make good ones. That tank is a Marineland one, so you might want to make sure that it's drillable first if you decide to go that route.
John what happens with those in case of a power failure? Don't you have to manually start the siphon? I would think if you weren't home and the return pump comes back on it would either overflow the tank or run the pump dry? I don't know anything about those. Yeah, John's right about making sure it's not tempered glass. Not an option if it's tempered.
Everything I have read online says the bottom is tempered, but you can drill on the sides or back. I know our local Wal-Mart sells 10 gallon tanks, which would make a good sump, but I've got to measure the cabinet and see if one would fit under it. I would like to do a sump so that way I'm not so intimidated when turning this 125 gallon into a sump for my other build.
John, were you using black sand in the tank? It looked like there might still be some left in there. I am thinking about using black sand, and was wondering your experience. I've heard mixed reviews, but I really like the looks of the black tanks I have seen online. I want to paint the back black, and use black sand. And then run my lights around 20K. I think that would really make the colors of everything pop.
If you want a dark substrate I would use grey coast by seachem. I used carabsea's black Hawaiian and it had particles that my magnet would pick up and scratch the glass.
I think I also want to build a "tower" of live rock in the very middle of the tank, and leave LOTS of sandbed space. I would try to find some brightly colored SPS, and zoas to fill it up. And then on the sandbed space, grow all kinds of bright SPS.
Not sure. I know I can always go with the Maxspect Nano lights if I have to. I'm still trying to find some good lights. I really want something in the 20K spectrum though. I've decided that I might put a little bit of money into this build. I know a little bit more about tanks now and know what I want, and this will be in the main part of the house. It will be the tank people see if I am not here.
