Dominic's 125 gallon tank

**domjd05** · 10-14-2009, 01:50 AM

I've been saying for almost a year now that I wanted to get a 125 gallon tank to build my dream tank.. a planted discus tank.

Well, here's the beginning of it...

I picked this tank up about a week ago from craigslist for $150, tank and stand. The tank has a few cracks in the trim, but nothing that will prevent this tank from holding water! Overall I think it was a great deal.

This tank is going to be a long term project, so I thought it would be a great idea to take pictures and chronicle my progress of transforming this tank into my dream tank!

Some future plans:

1.) DIY Wet/dry filtration in 35g sump - Tank's already got a built-in overflow and plumbing came with it, I've made the DIY wet/dry filter, and the 35g tank/sump is ready. I just need a pump and filter media and it's complete (pictures coming soon)

For my filter media I plan to use a filter mesh cut to fit the drip plate to catch any large debris from clogging drip plate

Inside the filter I will use pot scrubbies, phospure, and bio-balls.. some with carbon, some without.

Eventually I plan to add an XP3 to this tank as well

2.) DIY Lighting, I plan to build a new top to this tank, and will put 3 4' fluorescent light fixtures built into the new top.. should give my tank about 2.2WPG

3.)For substrate I'll be using eco-complete, probably 2-3'' worth of it.. topped off with white pool filter sand.

4.) LIVE plants, for my background: Vallisneria gigantea and stargrass. Heavily planted background, mid-ground and foreground will have some plants but not as much as back of tank.

5.)For fish, at first I'll simply be swapping my angel, keyholes, acaras, cardinals and cories from my 46g.. but this tank will become a discus tank once it has been set up and established for a while.

6.) for decorations, mostly driftwood and some slate, I may make a "cave" out of slate and put it in the back corner of tank, not sure yet as that's where one of my returns for the sump is.

Any other plans/progress will be posted, thanks for viewing!!

**Northernguy** · 10-14-2009, 01:55 AM

It'll be nice to see the drastic change take place! lol

Thats going to be a nice tank!

**domjd05** · 10-15-2009, 12:26 AM

Today I toyed with the idea of making the tank into a front/calvus tank, went to my LFS, turns out, fronts and calvus (in my area) are twice as expensive as discus! plus, since I have naturally soft water and a lower PH.. I think I'm just destined to be SA junkie

**domjd05** · 10-17-2009, 03:11 AM

Brought the tank in from the garage today as it's getting below freezing at night now and it's pretty cold working on it in the garage at night lol. Set it up in the living room.. it's definitely the elephant in the room lol, it makes my entertainment center look like a coffee table hah.

Bought my pump at Petsmart today. I was going to order it online, but I was surprised to find it very close to Dr. F&S's price online in petsmart. I went to Petco first, because they always have a better selection of fish.. but their supplies are through the roof.. they wanted $69 dollars for the same exact pump.

Dug out and cleaned up my 35g that I'll be using for the sump.. put it under the stand and starting "mocking up" my plumbing.. I ran some water through my overflow down into the DIY wetdry, into the 35g sump.. and man is it loud.. but right now the wet dry filter has no media in it.. hopefully that will quiet it down.. and the 35g will be half full which should cut down on the water draining/faucet like sound effects lol. QuietOne 2200 pump that I bought is indeed quiet, and at 540gph it pumps some water! Also think it will be much quieter with the doors shut on the stand.

speaking of the stand, my next step will be completing the mock up of plumbing, then re staining one part of the stand, and replacing magnets and hinges on the stand.

Hopefully pics up tomorrow...

**bushwhacker** · 10-17-2009, 07:49 PM

this is tomorrow wheres the pics??

**domjd05** · 10-17-2009, 08:01 PM

Right here my friend

Sorry they are just cellphone pics.. (motorola cellphone at that..) Just a pic of the DIY wet/dry, and the pump.. the tubing going to the return in the tank is clear.. so I didn't get a picture of that.. but its there! lol. Had to do some more siliconing around the bulkhead for the return.. that pump is pretty powerful I hope that wet/dry filter can put out as much water as the pump does lol, or I may be bringing it back! Here's the link I used for the concept of my wet/dry.. you can't see inside obviously but there's 3 chambers inside.

basic wet/dry filter concept...
http://www.gerasimov.net/wet-dry_main-chamber.html

As you can see I didn't just set the drip tray on the bioballs as this guy did.. that seemed to shoddy for me lol, I also built some compartments inside using plastic egg-crate, and added some height to the bucket (hard to explain if you look at pic carefully you'll see how I did it) because other wise the water wouldn't be dripping it'd just be.. soaking.. through the media inside if it was lower.

Water test once again tomorrow when silicone dries, I'm hoping I wont need a less powerful pump. (this one is 580gph).. I'll get try to get some pics up tomorrow also..

**domjd05** · 10-18-2009, 05:09 PM

Filling up the tank all the way for the first time.. right now, thought I'd check the forum while it fills up (takes a while lol) Gunna run my sump and see if I need to a get a smaller pump... I'll post an update when I'm finished my trial run.

**domjd05** · 10-18-2009, 11:01 PM

Had to go and change out pumps, the one I bought was too big and had no flow adjustment on it, found a tetra brand one at lowes for roughly the same price/gph rating + it had a flow adjustment.. had to drill more holes in drip tray and so far everything is working great! My next task is to find ways to quiet down the wet dry filter

**domjd05** · 10-26-2009, 01:51 AM

Didn't do too much to the tank this week, changed out the hinges on the stand, put new magnets and door knobs on as well, it looks much better now.

For next week hopefully I'll be able to order my filter media for the wet/dry system.

Here's a look at what I'll be getting...

for the Wet/Dry:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...28_30358DZ.jpg

^The "solid" ones

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...7&pcatid=14727

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...37&pcatid=4337

for the Mechanical filtration I will have the nylon pillow fluff type stuff in the drip tray.

Will also have 2 penguin 350's for the chemical filtration running this stuff in it:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...00&pcatid=4200

**hybridguy** · 10-26-2009, 03:16 AM

So where do u live? U say frontosas are twice as much as discuss, i might can work out a deal if u want, i have lots of frontosas, PM me and let me know.