Help with 125 Gallon Reef equipment list

G

guitareefs

Premium Member
Can yall help give me a good equipment list to consider for a 125 gallon reef? As far as all aspects. Don't know if yall need more info to help me, but please ask...
 
1. what do you have already?
2. what's your budget?
3. what do you want to keep?
4. under tank sump or seperate room?
5. do you require top of the line or specific items (like 400w halides, giant skimmer or a chiller?)
 
Ok, here we go :)

I have nothing right now. Things are finally settling down to finally get this reef project going...

My plan is a 125 gallon reef- mostly sps
I want to use halides- I'm thinking 10K reeflux bulbs with t5 supplement
I want an in stand sump
I want a nice skimmer that will do an awesome job at skimming
I want nice wave action and great air movement- koralias, vortecs???

I want to keep a couple tangs- yellow tang, regal tang
The rest of fish I want Anthias

I've had help on this before, but I was wondering if there were any new suggestions. But, I'll do a search on my old threads to catch up on what I forgot.
Budget really not a factor. I want to get a NICE setup now and slowly build up as I learn more such as calcium reactors and such.
 
Now that we know what you are aiming for... and that the budget seems limitless...

125g tank is 6' long, correct? Reef-ready with two 1" drains and two 1" returns.

(3) 250w MH 10,000K ReefLux bulbs
(do they make a 6' T5 yet?)
Euro-Reef RS-135 skimmer
Sump & refugium that is 48 x 16 x 16
Internal Mag 12 return pump, or an external Panworld pump that pushes 1000gph.
(2) VorTech pumps with the new Wireless Wave Controller
Cooling fans in the canopy and over the sump
Aqua Controller or other controller to turn items on and off as needed
(2) 175w heaters
GFCI outlet or GFCI protected power strip
Salifert or Elos test kits
Favorite salt
 
Nice Mark =)

- I personally like the 12k bulbs better
- I'd say the Euro-reef rs-135 as the minimum if you want SPS... I'd also use a refugium. Personally I'd go with a stronger skimmer... more is better is waht I say.
- reefflo pumps are good too =)
- Vortech - very nice, but they're out of my budget =( I'm going Koralia's and getting a CA reactor with the saved money. You'll want a lot of current.
- most seem to like red sea salt, I'll probably go with that or instant ocean/reef crystals
- On my 220 I'm going straight MH and no supplemental lighting
- you'll need to think how you will want to handle sand... I'm going with sand in a bucket approach... you can do it in the tank itself or none at all
- maybe consider a UV sterilizer or phosphate reactor? miracle mud is also something to consider, I'm not going with it for my tank.

That's all I can think of for now... btw, I'm going with an orca reefflo needle wheel skimmer and 2x400w 12k reefluc bulbs with lumenbright reflectors. 4 koralias #4 and OH, don't forget a chiller!!
 
make sure you go with (3) mh bulbs id suggest 250 watt 12k i have 10k reeflux now but will go with 12k next go around,when i set my 125 up i bought 2 large luminarc reflectors thinking they would light that 6ft tank,wrong after marc help me setup and thats when we noticed the big v shape dark spot in the middle of tank.i then added a third mh bulb with just a reflector and it looks nice,luminarc reflectors do put out alot of light but (2) would not cover six foot.im useing the coralife 220 skimmer and its doing a great job. i supplement with (2) 6ft vho atenics.im running a mag 9.5 as a return pump.if youd like to see this setup just give me a call sometime.i really shopped around and got great prices for everything
 
(do they make a 6' T5 yet?) said:
I'm not going T5, I'm gonna stick with VHO super actinics for supplement. Change of mind :)

I don't know what tank to get. I want to get at least 1 tang in my tank with a few anthias, so I want a long tank, but I want depth from front to back. So I still can't decide.

Mickey, I remember asking you a while back what lighting you used, because I was new to lighting and I loved the look of your tank. I'll consider the 12k. Fish2morow uses 12ks right? I like his tank look as well.
Click to expand...
 
hey if money is not an object and you want a 6' tank get a 215g Or bigger I just stepped into a 265 which is bigger than my wife likes but hey its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
 
I thought about getting a bigger tank. I had a 200 gallon at one point, but it got to be too much for me. And the main thing I'm more upset about is the price of live rock. I wanna stock up my tank pretty good with rock and a bigger tank means more live rock. I liked having the 200 gallon but I want something smaller. But, I have considered getting a bigger tank with both length and width. I guess I should have said, I want to get the best equipment out there and I plan on it, but I would rather spend less on rock as much as I can. So i guess it's that I don't really have a budget on the tank size I want.
 
go with tufa thats what i did. Just a chisel and a wood boaring bit and you can make some cool looking rocks. And at 20 cents per pound you cant beat that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top