Breiwa1's 125 H build

[breiwa1]

Hello everyone. I am pretty new to the board but I have met a few of you though the classified. Everyone I have met was really nice and gave me a fair deal. :beerchug:

Most of my recent purchases have been to get my 125 H (60x18x24) tank up and running. I am upgrading from a 65 gallon tall tank, which I have had going for about two years. I only have a few mushrooms and an anenome, but I want to be able to keep just about anything in the new tank.

As of right now, I have the stand built and picked up 125lbs of sand, and found a great spot in my house for the tank. I filled it with mixed water, about 1/3 of the rocks from my 65 and have a few powerheads blowing around to keep everything moving. I will not be moving any live stock into the tank for a while.

I am about to start on my canopy and need to get a few opinions on which way to go. First of all I am going to use 175 watt metal halides. I have four of them I purchased off this board. Two of them are PFO's and the other two are older magnetic balast. The pfo's have standard reflectors and the other two don't have any right now.

I was thinking of using 2 10k halide, and use some of my pc (off my 65) for actinics. From what I have been told if I use a 20k MH bulb I would reduce the output too much, so use a 10k and some other means for actinic. I have four fan's I plan on running in the hood plus one on the sump water and will buy a chiller if I need to, but I'm hoping not to.

I mounted 2 of the 175's on my 65 to see what they look like since the tanks are both the same depth. They look great on the 65 but I am pretty sure two 175's will not cut it on the 125h.

Question's:
How many of these 175's should I use on a five foot tank? (I have a center brace if that helps) Could I use three (or even four) at 20k and not have any other lighting?

I encourage anyone to comment, thanks for the help!


I will update this thread as I progress, here are a few pictures to get it started.


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[veloboy]

Looks like the beginnings of a nice set-up:biggthumpup: I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in, but if it were me I'd use at least three 175's over your tank. Really depends on what reflectors you use. IMO Lumenmax & Lumenbright are worth looking into. I'd also try to build your canopy to incorporate your pc's or if you could -upgrade to t'5's. THis way you can still view your tank when halides off.

As far as bulbs go - largely matter of personal preference and what animals you plan on keeping. 10k is good for stonies (although bad for color IMO). Particularly with 175's I'd stay with higher output spectrum bulbs 14k-10k if you plan on keeping SPS.

Looks great so far. Keep us updated with pics on your progress!

[Aberrix]

I have no idea about your lighting question but just wanted to say I really like your tank and stand!

[breiwa1]

I looked into the spendy reflectors, but I just can not justify spending $100+ per refletor. I think I will use the cheap ones. As for using three MH, I like what I am hearing. How do I position the third one? Would it be a problem to mount it above the center brace? Does anyone want to offer input on how high the lights should be off the water?

Thanks for you input so far.

[breiwa1]

Aberixx, Thanks I hope the canopy turns out as good as the stand. I didn't mention that I built the stand in the basement and it wouldn't fit up stairs. Classic. I used a 2x4 frame and was able to remove the back 2 pieces to snake it up my stairwell. I overbuilt it after looking at your stand build. Thanks for your kind words.

[breiwa1]

Here is my canopy progress shot. I ended up using two of the 175 MH's and 4 65 watt PC's. I know the PC are old news but I had all the balast and reflectors and I am a big cheap skate. Although the pc are spendy in a 21 inch lamp (which I had to use before) I found some good deals on 24 inch 50/50's. Which should work out pretty good with the 12k XM MH lamps I am using. The combination seems to be plenty bright on the 125H.

I used my handy pocket hole jig for all the joints and glues every joint so this is a very sturdy canopy. I also made a vented top by over lapping the top and leaving a 3/4 inch gap, but it overlaps so not much light can escape.

Next up my fan's.

[breiwa1]

Here are a few more canopy pics. I stained it but have not added the shellac top coat yet. (if you want to know why I use shellac; I am an old house nut and it is all I use on everything)

[acharpenter]

I love pics of things in the tank other than SW, fish and corals! Just cracks me up as then you get a true idea how big the tank is!

Ty for the pics, makes following the build threads fun!!!!!

[reef junkie]

nice work. Looking good....

Where did you get the pocket jig from? Ive been looking for one just didnt want to pay out the wazoo for one from 7 corners. Also do they hace ther step bits for the pocket jig?

[breiwa1]

I bought mine from Menards a while back when I built my kitchen cabinets. It is call a kreg Jig. I think the whole kit with all the bits was about 100 bones. I use it for everything. I showed it to my Dad, the next time I was at his house he had one too. It makes very quick work of any type of joint (not that kind of joint);)

[breiwa1]

OK, my tank cycled and I decided to move everyone in. It was a whole sunday of dripping these guy's in, one by one, but everyone is ok. Bonus: My Brother in law saved a baby hippo tang from a lfs two months ago and has nursed him back to life in QT and after two and a half hours of dripping he is in the tank a well. It was kind of shy so I could not get a picture, but today he was chasing my royal gramma around and eating well so he must be doing ok too.

[Aberrix]

looks good!

[DamselDebbie]

I like your rock formation. Did you just lay them on top of each other, or did you adhere them together somehow?

[breiwa1]

Yeah, I pretty much just put the biggest ones on the bottom and stack them together until I have something stable. I tried some green marine epoxy (comes in a stick) but I didn't have very good luck with it.

[breiwa1]

Here is a quick update on the 125 build. I picked up a bunch of cools zoo's from the Pet Store up at Sunray center (I think it is called petland). They are starting to carry a few frags. The zoo's have a really bright green color and opened up right away. My photo skills do not do much justice to the color. I also posted a picture of the orphan blue tang.


Edit to add

I am starting to get an algea bloom. Does anyone have any opinions on how to deal with it or will it go away. Anyway I will be doing a 20 gallon water change this week, maybe that will take care of it.