Gwen's 125g

[gwen_o_lyn]

The stand and canopy were just delivered. The tank will be delivered tomorrow.

[gwen_o_lyn]

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[CarmieJo]

Gwen, I can't wait to see your tank develop.

[sscheitel]

WoW sexy...love the color...

sorry I did not send the pipes yet...I will get them off tomorrow.

[sscheitel]

is the top of that canopy open?

[gwen_o_lyn]

No the top isn't open. The back of the canopy is mostly open.

Thanks for making the standpipes

[JayBeDriften]

I'm so jealous and wish that I still lived in my old apartment. I have no room for a 125 now.

[Danamck]

Awesome stand and canopy! When's the the tank coming? What are the plans? Spill the beans!

[Seahorsedreams]

O.O That is SWEET!!

[CarmieJo]

I noticed that you are using the cat standard measurement too.

[gwen_o_lyn]

Yes the cat measurement- he he!!

The tank is to be delivered tonite- yay!! The LFS owner is coming out again after the store closes. The tank, stand, and canopy came from CapBay, which is the well known pet store "must see" here in Atlanta.


Ok here are the plans so far:

Lights: I'm leaning towards getting 3 of these: 250W HL MH Retrofit Kit (HQI)
No plans for atinics- gonna stick with 14k bulbs. If anyone has used ARO ballasts and has any feedback about them, I would appreciate it. The price seems a little cheap, so I'm kinda wondering about quality, but everything I have read so far seems mostly ok.
For bulbs, I was thinking Hamilton or XM- which is the best? Is there another brand I should consider?

Plumbing: The wall behind the tank is a closet which is under the stairs. Back in the fall, we knocked out the wall straight ahead into the closet and that opened up a lot of space so I could plumb back there. I will get pics of that construction project up soon. It's still a work in progress- I gotta do a little more sheetrock and then paint, and also put the baseboards in before that is finished.

I'm having mom build a short 48x14x5 stand in which a 55g sump (48x13x20) will sit on inside the closet. I do want the sump to also have a section for a fuge. I will need help baffling off sections and figuring that out. Ideas on how to section that out would be much appreciated!!

My BIL is mailing standpipes soon and I will prolly plumb those to 2 mag7s since I have two overflows. I am using Mag7's because I already own a few since I have one on the old tank.

Skimmer: I will use the 2 skimmers I have: Euroreef and an AquaC Remora. The other 2 tanks (72g and nano) will be completely taken down. One tank is all I can handle!!

Flow: 2 Mag7's for the returns and I have 2 Tunze 6100's and the controller, that are currently on the 72g.


My BIL is thinking about coming down here in about a month to help me plumb it all together- I hope they make it- I really need a lot of help!!



Immediate Projects: I need to paint the wall the tank is up against. Finish up the closet- sheetrock, and paint it.

[Danamck]

It all sounds awesome! Setting up a new tank is so much work but so much fun. It's so nice when you have smaller tanks to help jump start the new tank. Thanks for the info!

[gwen_o_lyn]

One pic with the canopy closed and one with the canopy open. How does it look??

The wall behind the tank got a fresh coat of paint tonite. A tank this good lookin deserves a freshly painted wall, right??

When the paint first went on the wall, it didn't look like the right color, even after Matt gave it a good shake up. So I went to HD to make sure it was the right color. The guy at HD put it in their shaker machine and the color came out right. This can of paint was bought a year ago, so it just needed a good mixing. I also picked up a can of black spray paint to paint the back of the tank.

[CarmieJo]

It is going to be beautiful!

[V]

sweet effort Q, your branching out of nano territory, an im branching into it, whats going on there! Congrats, look forward to future developments > cause you've been picking our brains for long enough! hehe

[Danamck]

Very very nice.

[fat walrus]

Gwen, real nice...........but when are you going to do a big tank?

[popeye]

That is going to be one niice tank.. Love the stand an lid..

[wildeone]

Looks nice Gwen. Glad to see you have something to keep you busy this Spring!

[gwen_o_lyn]

Thanks Carmie & Danamck & Duane!

BB- yes I agree- it's time to ditch the 72g 'nano' and go bigger!!!

FW-a big tank?? ha ha.. I don't think I can handle this tank! Seriously, I won't be upgrading for a long long time. I keep thinking 125g plus a 55g sump = 180g = OMG!!!!

popeye- yeah it's cool all the space up there. I was thinking tonite that I could put some cute knick-knacks up there. Maybe add to my lighthouse collection??

Ok so the paint I had picked up the other day matched the little color chip and the color chip seems to match the wall, but I don't know. The paint doesn't match the wall- it's way too light. I don't know if Glidden changed their formula for this color or what. Sooooo I picked a whole new color. It looks about the same as what I had, but a little darker and it has a reef name. It's called Oyster White- how can you go wrong with that???

So tonite the wall was painted Oyster White. I will check tomorrow to see if it needs a second coat. I tried to paint it thick so I wouldn't have to do it again. I'm not a roll it on kinda girl and I just stick to the brush so it takes forever. To me, rolling it on is too risky because it gets EVERYWHERE!

I never finished painting the downstairs "antique white" so this one wall may be a different color for awhile before I get around to painting everything else.

Stay tuned... I need to get back to working on the closet, but every time I look at the sheetrock job that I did, I think to myself "omg, this is a mess!" Any smoothing out sheetrock tips would be very appreciated. I remember my dad telling me to get a longer smoothie "thing" like 12". Ya know, the tool the you spread the sheetrock gunk on the wall with??

[thesaent14]

hey gwen i am so happy you going big if you need any points on diy let me know good lock

[Astrivian]

The cat standard of measurement (CSM) needs to be proposed to our respective governments as a international standard

Out of curiosity, have you (or anyone else on here) looked and/or considered using all T5's for lighting? I have seen some setups at my LFS, very nice ones too, using nothing but T5 HO lights with individual reflectors. Just curious.

This is a beautiful setup gwen. Congrats on this, it looks great!

[Small Fry]

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww man, evenm gwens tank will be up before mine?!?! boooooooo

Yeah thats right, small fry aint dead, just been incredibly busy with being the best sandwich maker in the country and all, that and im just kind of being lazy The stand only needs a lil touch ups and then we're done, but u know these teenagers, cant finish what they started XD

Yeah, so sorry for the absence, should be updating soon, good luck with ur tank gwen

[mikellini]

Gwen- I've heard that Phoenix makes a nice 14k bulb, you may want to check that out... although, if you're not totally set on MH then I would encourage you to check out T5s for the cost savings alone. And then there's the Solaris LED system... have fun choosing!

[gwen_o_lyn]

Thanks Manny for offering DIY help. I will let you know if anything comes up!

Astrivian... lol.. I'm sure the CSM is better than our current system that the rest of the world complains about...

I haven't really considered T5's only because I've had a frag or 2 given to me from one of our reef members that he couldn't keep alive under t5's. I'm not sure his exact t5 setup, but he's our club vp so I would imagine it's a correct setup with good reflectors. He just lost an anemone recently. Also I've had PCs for way too long, and I love what MH's did on my nano so I'm pretty much sold on them.

Josh- we should have a race to keep us both motivated to work on our tanks. When I first got the 72 bow, it took 4 months or so before it had water. And one year later, it only had one piece of live rock. So don't be so sure that I will get ahead of you!!

You need to stop by with a sandwich!! We had a Subway put in 2 miles from my house and I went once and haven't been back -the sandwich was a soggy mess and I'm not sure how that happened!! Subways seem to be hit and miss for me. But I bet you can make a killer sandwich and get it right everytime!!

Mike - I actually saw the solaris for the first time today and it's a sharp looking system. I've been considering LED's but I'm not 100% sold on them yet. Once they have been out a little longer, and some improvements have been made, I'm sure I will be sold on them. And like all electronics, it's a waiting game for the price to come down, but it will happen.

And for you Canadians.... expect your population to double. I think every snowbird in N America has headed back home in the last few weeks.