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Elsefailed's 40g Breeder


elsefailed

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Ok after months of research and saving I am finally done with this project.

I first started out with a 45 gal northlake tank that i drilled and one week later it got a hairline crack in the back pane top to bottom!!!After that i took everything out to bins and transferred over to another tank I had to run and get, an aqueon 40 breeder. After days of tweaking and adjusting i finally got my overflow to drain quietly into the sump and stopped the microbubbles.

 

My current setup is

Aqueon 40 gal breeder

37 in tall black stand

Screen door style tank cover

Custom 29 gal acrylic sump w/ large fuge

Eshopps 1200 dual 1 inch overflow box w aqualift to keep the siphon =)

PVC w/ ball valve to a reverse durso drains, one to fuge, one to skimmer

Urchin skimmer

150w Heater

Current Nova 24in T5 fuge lighting

Live rock, sand bed, and cheato in sump

Ehiem 1260 return

Black 3/4in returns x 4

Lots of live rock

60+ lbs of mixed sand

Vortech MP10

Tek T5 4x39 and R2 moonlights mounted to the lights on tank brackets

Reef keeper lite controlling lights, azoo fan, and r2 extreme moonlights

American DJ 8 port power center

 

Livestock

2 x Clownfish - Marley & Nemo( pronounced NAA MO)

1 x Chromis - John Lennon

1 x Yellow Coris -

1 x Pearly Jawfish -

1 x Mystery Wrasse -Mortimer

1 x Anthias - Corazon

 

Snails, hermits, and porcelain crab

 

Metallic Green frogspsawn

Green/Purple frogspawn

Green torch

Green star polyps

Duncans

Dendros

Red monti cap

Green w/ Purple rim monti cap

Green/purple hammer

Clove polyps

Green polyped leather

Pink Yuma

Green Yuma

Neon candy cane

Pulsing xenia

Yellow polyps

Various mushrooms and zoos

Blasto

Blasto wellsi

Lobo

acan

micro acan

 

The things im most impressed with are

Tekt5 lighting, they are amazing. Also the r2 moonlights are so bright it makes my tank amazing at night!

Reef Keeper lite, an amazing controller it does everything i could ask for!

Eheim pump is very quiet

The mp10 is absolutely everything ive ever wanted in a powerhead!!!

The lagoon mode is perfect for my tank, and even though its 36 inches wide the mp10 can reach the other end even on the lowest mode! I couldnt imagine using the pump any higher than its lowest setting, its so powerful!!! Its small footprint and quiet operation just add to the clean tank look.

Not so impressed with

Overflow box is sketch! So large of a risk for overflowing, even with the aqualift.

Crappy northlake 45 gallon tank!

Urchin doesnt seem to be working at all, it already lost its seams and was spewing micro bubbles. Super glued it and now its working so far, hopefully it will break in and work right!

 

Overall after one of the most frustrating experiences im completely happy for now! Once i can quiet down the overflow box then itll be silent!

As for the pictures ill have to wait til all the sand settles and ill post sometime tonight!

Thanks again to everyone who helped me out with this.

Cheers

 

FTS 7.5.09

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FTS 9.5.09

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FTS 12.9.09

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FTS 12.23.09 SCAPE 2.0

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FTS 3/4/10

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FTS 6/5/10

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FTS 8/20/10

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FTS 12/25/10 (after the crash)

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FTS 1/20/11 (cleaned up a little and dosing kalk)

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HD Video 12.25.10

 

HD Video 12.27.09

 

HD Video 8.23.10

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Mr. Thingdoer

I'm surprised that the mp10 is working out that well for you. I have an mp20 and have it turned all the way up on short pulse mode. I just ordered an mp40 and want to upgrade my existing mp20 to an mp40 as well. I almost feel like 2 mp40s won't be enough.

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thats strange on the mp20

if i turn up the mp10 all the way things go crazy and everything gets stirred up and the corals get blasted!

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just an update

i left my screen door top off one night and found crush ( my blue spotted jawfish) on the floor

needless to say that wont happen again!

anywho heres some update shots

im having some brown diatoms so i reduced the lighting and im lacking in the snail area so ill get more of those

the skimmer seems to have broken in and is now starting to work

before i couldnt even adjust the thing, and now im in the process of adjusting it so it dosent skim so wet

also the eheim 1260 has a pretty good hum to it

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thanks for the comments everyone

does anyone else have experience with the eheim 1260 and its loud ass hum?

Is it because i have it dialed back a bit with a ball valve? Its not loud its just a powerful hum.

Im still working on quieting down the eshopps overflow, i will try something new tonight but im hopeful!

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For bulbs im using 3 ati and one kz

ati blue+

ati aquablue

ati true acintic (i believe)

kz fiji purple

 

To get rid of the microbubbles i did a couple things, i adjusted the plumbing to have a reverse durso, so that stopped the splashing of the water, thus less bubbles

the skimmer broke in and doesnt spew out microbubbles

i tuned down the pump maybe 15% now and it doesnt return bubbles via the returns

i would say the greatest thing i did to stop bubbles was the reverse durso on the drains

so how its plumbing right now is

one inch bulkhead > ball valve > 90 elbow > 1 1/2 to 2 inch convertor to a WYE fitting

One end goes up to 2 in pvc and capped with a hole drilled in it

other end goes down into the water

 

this greatly reduced the splashing and bubbles

ill take a pic when i get home

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does anyone know how much of a weekly water change should be done in a 40 breeder setup?

ive been doing weekly 5 gallon changes

should i be doing 10 gallon changes?

is the 10-15 percent water change from display gallons or system gallons?

 

Cheers

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Fantastic 40b! Makes me want to set mine up again.

 

I used to do 5 gallon WCs on mine. Keep it simple, keep it to one bucket!

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Update

The brown diatom wave seems to have subsided and the addition of 20+ snails pretty much cleaned my glass.

The skimmer is still over skimming so i have to add top off water every other day!

i plan to jump on the jbj ato sale at marine depot and setup that up next week.

one of the remaining chromis departed sometime last week, im guessing due to bullying

i dont plan to add any more chromis due to there aggressive nature

one chromis was always bigger and hes the one that survived

 

the pearly jawfish introduced seems to be fairing pretty well for his small size (1-2 inches)

he is very cool and i hope he makes it

 

my future stocking plans are to add lots of small zoos and mushrooms to the rock work as well as a few nicer corals as well

 

i want to add a yuma or two, more fluorescent corals, a unique frogspawn or torch, a long tentacle plate coral, and maybe a few acans later on!

 

i have uncontrollable purple coralline growth on the rock work! it seems like everyday its taking over the rocks im stoked!

 

also my 3 headed duncan i bought a year ago seems to have well over 20 heads now!

its so large and heavy i dont know where to put him! he takes up so much space

 

everything else seems to be growing very well and im pretty excited to finish the tank off with a few more corals and just sit back and watch it mature

 

PS. heres my second hobby! the love of my life ( besides wife and children, and my departed daytona 675)

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R.I.P

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