New to Reef Systems

[fazmataz]

Hello All. Great site.

I was just given a 125 gal tank and stand. I want to make it a reef tank. I owned and operated a 125 gal fish only tank. I have plenty of room for tank/sump/etc. I need to know exactly what I need to get goin.

For starter, money is no object (I like to know all my options and work down from there). Also, I am not thrilled with the hang on overflows. How hard is it to drill a tank?

I am handy and a bit of a techie so I will do all of the work myself.

Any comments will be helpful.

Oh, please include the type of lighting, amount of live sand and live rock, etc.

[tendar]

I guess first question is the tank glass or acyrlic? Acrylic is easy to drill but glass take a diamond bit and if you have never drilled one before probably some luck not to break it. Also you need to find out if the tank has and tempered glass if it is glass that is since tempered glass can not be drilled.
Lighting will depend on what you plan to keep for corals. If not for sure and money is not a problem then I would go with 3x250 watt Metal halides that way you keep what ever you like.

[fazmataz]

I decided to sell the tank and buy a 125 reef ready. Anyway, Thanks for the lighting tip. 3 250 MH. Will that be too much?

Also, LFS guy is trying to sell me PC lighting. Whats the difference. Also, I like the moonlight idea. What do you guys think?

[tendar]

PC lighting is pretty much like VHO lighting just the bulbs are folded in half. Halide lighting is a point of source lighting and much more intense. Wiht halides you can keep sps, clams and about anything else you want. With PC your limited to lps and softies and some low light sps. With halides you also get the glimmer effect from water ripples. It would also take a lot of PC lights to light up a 125.
You can get by with only 2 halides on a 125 and that maybe the way to go anyways depending on the tank you get. If the tank has a center brace which most do you dont want a halide directly over it will block a lot of the usable light anyways.

[Katspaw]

to answer your question on sand and rock. you will need about 2 to 3 inches of fine sand such as southdown playsand, it is cheaper than live sand from the LFS at $4.00 for a 50 lb bag. Live rock you will need 1 to 1 1/2 lbs per gallon or in your case 125 to 200 lbs of rock. If I was in your situtation, and planning a new tank that would house corals, I would go with MH as Greg stated. I use 250 watt 10,000k bulbs, and 03 Actinics VHO's to add a blue color to the MH. If you go with the 20,000k bulb, I believe they are more bluer and would not need the extra VHO lighting. I personally perfer the actinics as the give a dawn and dusk effect to the tank. I have been looking at moonlights, but as my tank is at work an it is on rare occassions that I get to view it in the evenings, I don't see the since of using them at this time. I am planning on having them in my tank once I retire and have the tank in my home.

Tracey