help a noob out

D

dswofford

Reefing newb
I am new to salt water and to be quite honest a bit terrified. My LFS is decent with advice but they are WAY over priced and are far more interested in selling you the most expensive thing they can, so I'm trying to get most of my stuff off the web to save some money since it seems the live rock is going to cost me a small fortune. Here is what I have so far.

125 gallon tank (not drilled)

(2) 36" current dual 96w compact fluorescent fixtures, each has a dual daylight bulb and an actinic bulb.

(4) 1350 gph power heads

180# aragonite sugar size sand

Berlin triple pass skimmer

15 watt uv sterilizer

I was looking at this overflow http://www.lifereef.com/lg_pref.jpg and was wondering if anyone had any experience with this type of overflow. No one around me will drill tanks and I am not about to attempt to drill it myself.

I am planning on building my own sump

I am planning on getting a 1500 gph mag drive pump.


Please feel free to tell me if I am doing anything wrong or if I have conflicting equipment. Anything is appreciated. Thanks
 
welcome to the site, the only thing i see to be a problem maybe. depends on what you want in your tank of course though is your light. you wont be able to keep much as far as corals go.
 
and i looked up the pump and your overflow, mag makes a 12 or 18, i would get the mag12 you should be pretty good with that and that overlfow you picked out.
 
Knucklehead's got ya covered. If you are planning to keep coral, you will want to add some more lighting to those PC's. They will do just fine for a FOWLR but you won't be able to keep corals or clams with them. Add a couple of MH's with the PC's and you'll be set or you could look at getting rid of the PC's and just going with a T5 setup. A bit of advice on the LR. Buy some good dry rock as your base rock and then add a few pieces of quality LR to it and it will seed the dry rock. In time it will all be "live" and it will save you a bunch of money. The only draw back to using dry rock, is that you have to stock your tank more slowly as you must wait for it to become live rock before it becomes beneficial to your system.
 
Drill it man!!!!!!

It's EASY!!!

Forget about those unsightly hang on overflow boxes. Drill it, slap a bulk head in there and get to plumbing it with PVC. I did it all by myself (not the sharpest tool in the shed) and it was a piece of cake.

Look at YouTube for videos on drilling glass tanks. If you are even considering it, I can show you where to get the hole saws cheap (hong kong) and I can post a video of me drilling my first hole. Yes, I was terrified - but it was really easy.
 
Rcpilot said:
Drill it man!!!!!!

It's EASY!!!

Forget about those unsightly hang on overflow boxes. Drill it, slap a bulk head in there and get to plumbing it with PVC. I did it all by myself (not the sharpest tool in the shed) and it was a piece of cake.

Look at YouTube for videos on drilling glass tanks. If you are even considering it, I can show you where to get the hole saws cheap (hong kong) and I can post a video of me drilling my first hole. Yes, I was terrified - but it was really easy.
Click to expand...
+1 Chris!
 
that's why you drill the back instead of the bottom. I am dealing with the exact same thing. I just got word that the LFS has my hole saw and will be picking it up here soon. If all goes as planned, I will be drilling my new 125 tonight. Follow my thread here: Justin's 125 Build
 
The ONLY piece of glass thats tempered on an aquarium is the BOTTOM. And thats not even until you get up to the 55g size or larger. Most 55g and under don't even have tempered glass on the bottom.

I bought my 60mm hole saw for about $10 shipped to my front door.

You CAN do it DSWOFFORD. You can do it!!

Check this out man:
Sorry for the camera views - my wife was trying to hold the camera AND pour water at the same time.
Part 1:




_________________________________________________________

Part 2:


That was my first time ever drilling a hole. This was the back panel of a 29g tank. I was nervous as hell. But it turned out REALLY well. You just have to start the drill on an angle to get a groove started on one side of the hole. Then you can slowly stand the drill up to a vertical position and the bit will track in the groove the rest of the way down. Try to drill vertical.

Place a folded towel on the bottom - so when the glass plug comes out it won't fall all the way down and crack the glass on the other side. I SHOULD NOT have been using my hand to catch that plug. I SHOULD have had BOTH hands on the drill the entire time.

I drilled the hole in my 20H refugium in about 30 seconds all by myself after that. Folded a towel and placed it on the other side to catch the plug. Turned on the shower head at a low setting and aimed it at the side of the hole saw. Zoom ! Zoom ! :mrgreen:
 
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+1 Chris! I have drilled several tanks before. I know that if the 1st tank I was drilling was my 125 I'd be nervous as hell, but it really is very simple. Go get a 10g to practice on if you want, then JUST DO IT!
 
You can tell if the glass is tempered by looking at it using a pair of polarized sunglasses. You know how your car windows look, with spots and dots and stuff? That's what the tank glass will look like.
 
Thanks for all the encouragement guys! However all of my problems may be solved, as I was just on craigslist looking for a pump when I came across a guy selling a reef ready 125 complete with lights, stand, live rock, sand and live stock for 400! I'm going to go look at it tomorrow and if it's gravy I'm going to buy it since my sump, pump and live rock would be more than that anyways. The guy says he has over 2300 invested in it and is moving. He's had it listed for a few weeks, he started off at 1000 and has come down to four.

How would you transport the live rock? I am guessing rubbermaid trash cans full of tank water. And as far as the livestock goes styrofoam coolers???
 

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