Phillybean's 75 to 125 Upgrade

[phillybean]

With my corals and fish quickly outgrowing my current tank, I've had my eyes open for a 125 or 180 gallon for awhile. After getting a sweet deal on a Rimless Hagen the project is now on the go.

Currently I just have the tank (125 Gallon Hagen, 1/2" Glass, Rimless, Black Silicone, Corner Overflows). There was some black trim on the tank which I removed to make it truly rimless. The tank is drilled for a closed loop (2 x 2" bulkheads, 4 x 1/2" Bulkheads.

Most of the Hardware I will be using from my 75 Gallon:
Skimmer - ASM G3 (Will be modded with Gate valve, Recirc and Meshwheel before being moved over). Will be fed by one of the overflows.
Lights - 2 x 250 Watt MH, 2 x 48" T5's will most likely add a 3rd 250 watt, however may just use a 175 Watt for the time being.
Pumps - Dart for Closed Loop, Mag 7 for the Return. Will use a Rio 2100 for a Manifold.
Controller - ACJr
Sump - 40 Gallon with build in 20 Gallon Fuge

Livestock will be the same from my 75 gallon. Again, I am just running out of room for fish and corals with-out everything looking cluttered. I plan on going with a much more open look. Mostly SPS with a healthy amount of LPS and Zoas.

To Do List:
1 - Finalize Plans for the Stand
2 - Come up with a plan for the plumbing
3 - Build everything
4 - Decide how the heck I'm gonna pull this off with-out killing everything.

[mseepman]

Sounds great. I'm looking forward to the pictures of this thread.

[fishytime]

Well.....at least you have a plan Im sure your critters are gonna love the new digs.

[phillybean]

Not a lot to update, decided on a single 175 watt with my 250 watt.

Going to make DIY Lumenarc's, two SPS islands and a LPS/BTA/Zoa valley. Bulbs will be [250] [175] [250]. All will be the same bulb (10k XM's). Going to use 4 48" T5's for Actinic.

Going to strictly use a mag 7 as the return and a Rio 2100 for a manifold.

Everything will be enclosed in the stand, with the exception of the top off, which will be in a storage closest behind the tank.

Hope to have the scratches buffed out by the end of November. Going to be a long project that I will likely stretch over a few weekends.

Here are a few shots of what will be transferring:

[phillybean]

Finalized a few plans today, also did a bit of work on the 75.

Debating on ordering some stuff from J&L, trying to decide what 175 watt ballast to go with (PFO, Vertex or Used)

Spoke to a co-worker who has is a Goldsmith by hobby. He has some Jeweler's Rouge which I will be using to remove the scratches from the glass. I figure it will take me about a month to remove all of them, obviously just spending a couple hours here and there.

There is also some Silicone that I want to scrap off, any ideas on the best way for this? I've scraped it off but there is a little residue left.

Current params are:

Calcium - 500 (Too High)
Mag - 1400 (About right)
dHK - 8 (Little low, I want 9)
ph - 8.22
sg - 1.026 (Little high, will bring back to 1.025 with next water change)
Nitrate - 10 (Went up a bit, need to dose more Vodka + a water change next week)m

[Myka]

Your tangs will enjoy the new upgrade! Nice looking corals.

[Skimmerking]

your tank looks great man. good luck on the move

[phillybean]

I performed the Meshwheel mod on my G3 today, to early to review but the bubbles look smaller and I had to raise my drain tube on it quite a bit, which I think means there is more air. Still need to do the Gate Valve and I'm on the fence about Recirc Mod.

I still need to remove the paint from the back of the 125, and I hope to start removing scratches from the tank on Sunday.

[fishytime]

Scraping paint?......have fun....I did it on a 25g and it took a while...never mind on a tank that big.....just make sure you have lots of new blades.

[phillybean]

Luckily the paint is a roll on paint, so I can use a Paint Thinner, just want to avoid getting any on the silicone.