The not so budget, 25g add-on

[fishytime]

As some of you may already know Ive decided to plumb in a 25g tank to my 110g mixed reef. I have had a NNTC(no new tanks clause) in effect from my g/f since we moved into this house a year and a half ago. She has always really wanted seahorses and she has been upset with the direction Ive gone with the big tank. Ive removed all the softies and most lps that move and sway. (10000 gph and things that sway dont mix well.I say "the polyps on those sps sway and move" She misses the xenia, gsp and frogspawn that I used to have. So I told her if I did a smallish, inexpensive add-on tank, then she may be able to get her ponies and some other corals that sway and move......she said yes

Ok.....so phase 1 of the whole project is what ended up being the "not so budget" part of this build. The big tank's total system volume is around 130-140g and Ive been running a euro-reef RS135 skimmer. Some may say that the system is somewhat heavily stocked, so the first thing that would need to happen is a skimmer upgrade . After carefully measuring my skimmer section and going over the specs on the skimmers easilly available to me at RC, I had my choice narrowed down to two....a Hydor.....or a BK mini 200.....what would you get if you could?.....So.....gettin a BK *does geeky little happy dance*.....shhh...dont tell the g/f....about the BK or the happy dance

The BK is on back-order atm , but that gives me time to get the rest of the parts together and a stand built. So as Im sitting here one night looking at the sump area of the current tank I realize that a 12"x12" footprint skimmer is not going to go in the 8" of space I have between the top of the sump and the display above it..........Then I got to realizing what a pain in the butt this sump has been to work in and around..... so I decided to get a custom sump built.....The old sump was one I built from a 55g tank(48"lx12"wx20"t)....It was both too tall and too narrow....so the new sump is 54"lx15 1/2"wx15 1/2"t which works out to about 56G...not a huge change in volume, but way easier to work in (I will include the pics in this thread as well, as it is a integral part off this tank build).