125 acrylic build

Hey there guys how's it goin. I've been out of the aquatic scene for a while now and recently decided it was time to get back to it. Well my plan of action was to get a medium sized tank so I picked up a 125 acrylic off of my buddy. Got an alright deal only paid 80 bucks for it. So I've started to sand it down and buff it out. Certainly had its share of scratches. Now about this time I started realizing something wasn't right with the overflow box. It just looked a littel crude. Well come to findout it was an addition after the previous owner had gotten a hold of it. It has 2 2.5 inch fitting on the bottom a littel large for my taste. Now for the rest of the plan. I picked up a 55g for 10 bucks I'm going to make it a 4 chamber sump. One part will consist of a hospital tank. Next portion will consist of the refugem next will house media and the final will have heaters uv etc. Lights are unkown at this point. The tank will be havily planted with co2 defuser. My problem is is I need guidence on building the stand and a littel help with a pump choice for my sump. Also very curious about what people have to say about about a light sorce. I will post pics soon. Again any help is apreciated guys!

Since you posted this in the blog section, give us a run down of what exactly you are doing and your process of doing it. Pictures and instruction would be nice.

I'll post pics very soon, sorry such a hectic schedule. Well right now I'm dancing the tank started with 1000 gritt now I'm on 2000. Have my polish and its soon to be done there. I'm planning on running a densily planted freshwater tank. Haven't exactly decided on species yet but I'm thinking I'm gonna build an amazon based tank. The stand I'm planning to stain a dark cherry I just have no idea for layouts of the stand also I lack and blue prints. It is also more difficult because I want stand tank and canopy to go from floor to ceiling withch is 86". And again I'm lost on lighting. Lights are expensive and as it stands for now I'd rather not dump a bunch of money into a light that's built for growing coral fraggs so id like to keep it as basic as possible but at the same time ill build or buy the system I need. I want my plants and fish to look there best!

There is many DYI stand plans on the internet. I built my own stand 5 years ago. Hardest part for me was getting it perfectly square and true. I got it down to a 16th of an inch. Just built the stand no top for future plans of growing plants out of the water. I was going to install doors but decided to plant the sump and add display tanks... I used a black stain.

Heres a basic link. There is many other plans on the internet. My tanks frame is made from 2X4's. The skin is finished 3/4" plywood and 1X4's and 2 coats of black stain.
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Thank you very helpful link and gorgouse tank

Right on, another build!

As for sump pumps I would look into the Rio line. I have used a few different ones and they are all plug-n-play, and pump well. For a planted tank I would keep the flow low and make a custom spray bar to diffuse your return water, giving the plants a "flowing in the wind look." Oh, and they are very decent on power usage and price, a big plus!

Awsome thank you! I'm finding a lot on uvs as well I'm debating on inline or getting one of those weird ones with a filter in it. I think an inline would be more effectove personally cause every drop of water will see the uv

You dont want the uv in line on your pump back into your tank. The water will fly through the uv so fast, it wont serve its purpose. If you have a wet/dry, if able, hang the uv above the area where the return pumps are then hook a small 200gph pump to the intake on the uv, and the out will flow right back into the pump chamber.

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Great diagram. So am I collecting all the water in the pump to the uv or just what's cycling in the area and dump it back into the refugime

Your basically re-cycling the water in the pump area, 200+ gph. Yes some of the non UV water will be going back into the tank, but most of it will have been uv'ed.

If that makes since. LOL

Nice madness. Thats exactly what I have planned for the 325 for the most effective use of those expensive UV's!

Like madness stated with the 200gph, there is a balance point that you need to find with the UV turnover in relation to your tank size. Too fast and the dwell time with the water around the bulb wont kill anything, too slow and you end up with too much dwell time which is effective but not turning over enough of your tank volume per hour to thoroughly clean the water. I'm a bit OCD and like to shoot for 1x tank turnover through the UV per hour. So on a 325 I will look for a pump in the 300 range. Hope that all makes sense!

It does thanks.guys. do u guys think putting ky quarintune tank in my sump is a good plan

catfish2012 wrote:It does thanks.guys. do u guys think putting ky quarintune tank in my sump is a good plan

If your talking about a q-tank connected to your sump thats running the same water through it I wouldnt do that. The point of the q-tank is to rid the fish of anything it has and i wouldnt want to risk anything spreading to the main tank through the water.

It would be a sealed tank bassically. Just on the side of my sump

Agreed, your QT tank should not have anything to do with the main tank.

K. I was just gonna comppetly seal it off just to hide the quarantine tank