125 Gallon reset

Thedg

Thedg

Member
So after much soul searching and final approval by the children, my 125 Fowlr is being converted back to a reef tank. We had sort of hit a rut, where new additions weren't playing nicely or being played with nicely. I had lost my emperor and clown trigger a few months ago to fish on fish violence. All of the new additions met the same fate or were intervened with before it happened. This meant taking "George" our porcupine puffer/family dog back to the LFS.
So now my decision is when removing the pests(worms/aptasia) on my LR should I try to do it naturally by adding in predators to the pests or should I just go for broke and dip the LR and start from scratch. This tank has been up for 4 yrs. Also the substrate, dump it, leave it or add in some more, it's currently about 2" of fine sand. I probably ran one of the most over filtered Carnivore tanks.
Suggestions, advice, and criticism are welcome.
Pics will follow shortly.
 
Joe5688

Joe5688

Active member
How quickly do you want it back up?

If ur not in a rush id do a fw dip for a week and then let them dry for a week. As far as substrate id just get rid of it and replace. Sand is fairly cheap.
 
Thedg

Thedg

Member
There's a sailfin that I would have to relocate to a 45gallon if I did a full reset. Otherwise the one thing I have learned about our wonderful hobby is patience.
 
Thedg

Thedg

Member
I started the process of hopefully removing any pests from the first 1/2 of my live rock have 4 5 gallons buckets of fw soaking the LR. I didn't want to displace my remaining resident for too long.

I recessed the tank into the wall when I finished the basement.


Behind the scenes, it's usually not this messy.
 
Thedg

Thedg

Member
So I soaked my live rock in fw for a few days then air dried it. Everything is back in with new aragonite.
Added one Mp40, still one more on the wish list.
Picked up a RKL and a new Iwaki pump.
Finished the plumbing last night.
Ran the first wet test and no leaks.
I plumbed a 20L above the DT to gravity drain. Going to pull a LR from my mixed reef to seed the cycle.
 
Thedg

Thedg

Member
Just the 20l, 125, sump, and there's an oh $#|+ 20gallon acrylic for power outage back siphon.
 
Thedg

Thedg

Member

Finally ready for some additions. I had a small bryopsis flare up. So I moved the few pieces of coral I had in the tank, back into my 45mixed reef and ran with my lunar lights for about 10 days. Parameters are all inline and the chromis are ready for company.

My sump, refugium and top off tank.
 
DD

DD

"Rambo"
Nice Dave! I really like the in-wall aquarium. My favorite look!

I'm looking forward to seeing this bad boy get filled with corals!
 
MMreef

MMreef

Active member
Great set up, I can't believe that I did not see this thread before. Subscribed, want to see more.
 
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