My first saltwater tank ever. 125 gallon tank just started!

So, after lots of help and information from this forum, I finally ordered the right equipment for my tank, got the ball rolling, and started installing what I received last night. I'm planning on doing a FOWLR tank, the rock supposed to come in tomorrow night sometime, so I'm super excited about that!

For my 125 gallon tank, this is what I have thus far/going to get:
Eshopps PF-1000 - overflow box
Eshopps RS-200 - sump
Mag-Drive 9.5 - return pump
Hydor Koralia x2 - powerheads (on order)
170~ lbs live rock - marcorocks.com key largo (on order)
160~ lbs live rock - marcorocks.com (on order)
Octopus NW200 - skimmer (coming soon)

I installed the overflow box, sump, and return pump last night and used PVC pipe to connect everything. I did an overflow test with just regular tap water to see if everything fit properly and if the power went out, would it overflow or not, and it went great. No leaks, no overflows, just perfectness!

Now some pics of what I have now!

The tank and stand!


The top of the tank where the return pipe and overflow box are


The back of the tank where pipes go down to sump/back up for water to return into the tank.




Overflow box to sump connections


My empty skimmer section ;p


Side view of my sump


Return section/pump




Tank with cabinets open showing the sump


Blurry pic of the sump ;p


And thats all I have for now! Rock comes in tomorrow then I can add more pics!!

For now, I drained all that tap water out and I'm starting to fill the tank about half way full of RODI water so I can put the rock in nice water when it comes. After I put the rock in(majority of it is dead right now, I'm going to be placing in real live rock from LFS after it's all settled) I'll add my salt mix in so I can get this all started for real

Let me know what you guys think! Thanks for any tips and comments!!

 

Thanks for the pics. This is going to be a nice build. That key largo you ordered is going to look sweet!

 

Thanks! I love the look of the key largo, I'm can't wait!!

 

looks great....

 

Excellent work so far! Everything is looking good. Looking forward to seeing more

 

Looks good so far. I was curious as to why you didn't get a drilled tank?

 

Way too afraid to ruin the tank, lol. I'm terrible when it comes with power tools, lol. And I didn't want anyone else to try cuz I didn't want them to screw it up either, haha.

 

might be just the angle but ur water leavel in the tank looks a little high...esp once you get some powerheads going to move that surface water for Oxygen transfer...

 

Don't feel bad LOL I'm to chicken to try it as well even though I have no problems cutting the stuff. I'd screw up a tank ONLY because it costs way more than a sheet of glass.

 

I'm happy for you. I did the same thing when I got my tank, felt like a kid on chrismas with a brand new toy. Congrats and I will be following you tank build.