FrontosaDude
New Member
So I will be moving to a new house hear in the near future and I have decided to turn my 125g (tall) Malawi tank into a reef tank. I would first like to say that I will always love African Cichlids and I hate the thought of getting rid of some of the original fish from my first 30g that got me into the hobby, so luckily my friend is going to take them off my hands for me so that I can still see them. After just moving back from Ellensburg weeks ago and managing to move my 150g Frontosa tank and 36g reef back with me without losing any livestock or crashing my SW system, I feel like I've moved enough fully stocked tanks for 1 month! For those of you who are wondering how I accomplished moving my tanks successfully across a 2hr+ trip down i90 (and I know there's a few of you out there : ) here's how I did it: I emptied most of my saltwater into 4 10g buckets (w/ lids), I loaded up 3 of the buckets with my live rock and the 4th with all my corals and larger rocks w/ corals attached, then bagged my fish and shrimp. I left enough water to barely cover my sand and called it good; I didn't save any of the water from the 150g bc I knew that it would be going right next to my 125g Malawi so I emptied half the water from that into the 150 so that I could put my Frontosa back into cycled water, unfortunately it won't be that easy when I move the 150 to my new house!
Ok, so now that I've strayed away from saltwater discussion enough, here's my plans for the 125g reef. First I'll move the cleaned empty tank to the new place, fill it with sand, and start cycling the 120+ lbs of "dead" live rock that I recently acquired (I'll also throw in a few big pieces of live rock from my existing tank during this process), that rock mixed with the 45-50lbs I already have in my existing tank should be enough rock. Luckily I'll be able to leave my existing tank up and running at the house I'm at now until the new setup is ready. After the cycling process is complete, I will start moving everything over piece by piece. As far as equipment, refugium, etc.. I have a 40 gallon breeder that will be going underneath for my refugium with a cpr 100 overflow, I will be running an AquaC EV- 180 skimmer, turbo twist uv sterilizer, an RO unit (might add a DI to the unit later on), and a TLF phosban reactor. As far as lighting, I currently have 2 24" 2 bulb T5HO's fixtures and 1 48" 4 bulb T5HO fixture, however, I am considering selling those and building an LED fixture if my funds will allow it (thoughts?).
I'm very excited to get this tank up and running, I've wanted a large reef system pretty much since the first week that I set up my current reef lol (almost 3 years ago). I will be moving within the next couple weeks so this project will begin in the very near future. I will do my best to post pics to this thread as I go and share my experience with all of you. All comments and suggestions are welcome!
Ok, so now that I've strayed away from saltwater discussion enough, here's my plans for the 125g reef. First I'll move the cleaned empty tank to the new place, fill it with sand, and start cycling the 120+ lbs of "dead" live rock that I recently acquired (I'll also throw in a few big pieces of live rock from my existing tank during this process), that rock mixed with the 45-50lbs I already have in my existing tank should be enough rock. Luckily I'll be able to leave my existing tank up and running at the house I'm at now until the new setup is ready. After the cycling process is complete, I will start moving everything over piece by piece. As far as equipment, refugium, etc.. I have a 40 gallon breeder that will be going underneath for my refugium with a cpr 100 overflow, I will be running an AquaC EV- 180 skimmer, turbo twist uv sterilizer, an RO unit (might add a DI to the unit later on), and a TLF phosban reactor. As far as lighting, I currently have 2 24" 2 bulb T5HO's fixtures and 1 48" 4 bulb T5HO fixture, however, I am considering selling those and building an LED fixture if my funds will allow it (thoughts?).
I'm very excited to get this tank up and running, I've wanted a large reef system pretty much since the first week that I set up my current reef lol (almost 3 years ago). I will be moving within the next couple weeks so this project will begin in the very near future. I will do my best to post pics to this thread as I go and share my experience with all of you. All comments and suggestions are welcome!