Thinking about upgrading to 125; advice please!

Being that it is open it shouldn't hold water but I know mine has been getting some moisture from the evaporation in the sump (not to sure this is normal its the 1st tank I've built with the sump in a semi closed stand lol). I would imagine it would end up getting wet one way or another and could hold some moisture that way (spills, evap. or like my dumb self did, spill a bottle of bacteria.... which the seal made easy to clean up lol). Just an idea but if possible it wouldn't hurt to have it as an "incase". Even just a layer or two of paint to give you a slight barrier between the water and the wood.

 

Completely understand what you are saying. I have had my 55 setup for over a year the same way, and the inside of the stand has not seen a drop! The wood has already been stained of course, so no painting it. But I will consider looking into another way to do it. Appreciate the advice either way!

 

The inside of the 125's stand is stained?? If thats the case I wouldn't worry about it the stain should give you a little barrier, or atleast buy you a little extra clean up time before any messes have a chance to penetrate the wood I believe.


On a side note, how have you managed to not get a drop in the 55 stand? Seems like every time I do a WC I atleast get a few drops in the stand somewhere. I use my skimmer to remove the water (well I pull 4g from the sump and 4-8 get siphoned from the DT) then return the water to each spot in the amount it was removed using 5g buckets (w/4g of water), but seems to never fail somehow spill a little...

 

Yes it is, so that is why I was thinking it wouldn't be necessary. I think we are both on the same page.

 

I do water changes from the DT. Siphon out water and whatever else I want to clean up. Water goes back into the DT which is when I clean off all the LR.

 

Yeah, I agree shouldn't be an issue... guess I should have said stained as well in that post lol

So since it sounds like you don't pull water out of the sump at all, do you keep a powerhead in the sump to keep detrius from settling/collecting in the sump at all or do you do any other cleaning down there? My sump seems to be the messiest place of the whole system, but I recently added a powerhead to try to keep it cleaner...

 

My cyanno is from sump detritus. Im going to use a MJ 1200 to suck everything out then wipe it down. Ill alternate WC siphoning the sand lightly and the draining the sump to keep down detritus.

My first 125 has no sealant in the stand and I flood it all the time. I sealed the second but honestly its just to look nice and wipe up creep.

 

I don't. My sump inlet/skimmer section keeps fairly clean just from all the water movement. From there it goes to the 'fuge, where my mantis lives, so he keeps everything clean for the most part. And not much ends up in the return section after that. Seems to be working, undetectable nitrates, 0 phophsates (hanna checker).