125 Gal Vivarium build (Pic Hvy)

[mcnertney]

I recently acquired a 125 gallon acrylic tank. It has a few small scratches on the front but i think it will do just fine.

Here are some pics. IM going to do a false bottom style. I also want to drill the bottom and make a sump with plumbing underneath the tank.

Any ideas questions or concerns would be appreciated.

More pix coming today

[Frogman8]

That piece of drift wood is perfect for the viv. I would do a Foam (gs) backing, few larger pieces of ghost wood attached to back,some brooms & airplants , a sweet waterfall and your all set.What species do you plan on having in there?

[mcnertney]

Thanks,
GS BG is for sure. Here is the layout so far.

You can see the big cut i had to make in the top to fit that piece in there.

I was going to make the entire thing an overflow system. Just like an aquarium. water will be pumped in through the water feature on one side and flow down into a 10 gallon sump on the other. all the pumps, filter, and heater (if needed but i doubt it for san diego) will be in the sump. this way i can change out pumps if they fail. Any thoughts on that?

Im going to silicone everything in place and play around with some foam tonight.

[pet-teez]

Personally I think a sump would be a great idea... also, that giant piece of wood is epic! What kind is it?

[Frogman8]

Very nice layout soo far, keep us posted on new pics and the finished product.good luck

[mcnertney]

Thanks... The wood is just driftwood that sat in the sun for 6 months on the side of my house. from an old aquarium.

I think im going to put a bunch of firbelly toads in here cause they swim around cherp. I would do PDF but i wanted a lot of water.
any other ideas for inhabitants?

I did the plumbing layout last night. I drilled two 1' holes and ran some schedule 40 pvc underneath the tank. Im going to use pvc glue on everything except the connectors so ill be able to detach from the bottom stand to move the tank.

The ginormous pump I got handles the load pretty well. just enough water comes out the top instead of a geyser like my last one.

Any ideas on quieting a pump? I noticed the higher the water the Lauder the pump gets.

I think ill add another pump and line to the back for some drip irrigation or something.

Here are some pix. the bottom of the tank had a paper film on it for so long its stuck there. That's why it looks so nasty. All the fittings you see are in the pvc section at home depot.

[mcnertney]

I got a little more done. Ive been trying to decide what I'm going to do with all the free space between the log and the back of the tank. Ive added a second line and pump just for drip spots throughout the tank. i put a 6 head drip irrigation head on the new line. I'm going to cover the head in a box of crate to hide it and cut a hole in the back of the tank for access to it. there are knobs that control water flow on each. i also started playing around with Rafs idea here Pics my new constructed vivarium

[AaronAcker]

Thats going to be EPIC!

[mcnertney]

Got foam happy today. All my pieces are in place. Kinda messed up on the log but im just going to work with it. I recycled a few silicone tubes into some plant pots. you can get 2 per tube.

[fishman72]

That is going to be nice. I have a 220 acrylic reef tank which I am plannning to convert. I will be keeping track