sumpless 40B.

How often do you guys with 40 breeders perform water changes and how much water is changed each time?

I do a 5 gallon bucket once a week.

Everyone's tank looks awesome! Quick question. I'm currently setting up my 40g breeder and it's in the process of cycling. I have ~45 lbs of cured rock from Premium Aquatics that was air shipped via Southwest airlines. Total time out of water was probably max 10 hrs. I'm 5 days in and the Ammon peaked at .5 and is now 0. Nitrite is .5 currently and I suspect it will be to 0 in a few days given the relatively small peak in Ammon.

I have about 12 lbs of LR, Clown, sand sifting goby, and firefish, a couple of hermits, few nass, and 5 astreas in AP12. I'm going to rescape with my better pieces from nano, perhaps removing some that is in now cycling.

Question is when, and in what order, and how long for transition...I sure some or most of you have gone through transitioning tanks, so your thoughts would be very much appreciated.

Very nice tank shortie! I want to post my 40 breeder once I get some new lights and more corals. Do you guys think a 4x 39w t-5 fixture would be fine for softies and maybe some frogspawn and blastos? I currently have a 192w CF but like the variety you can have with the t-5.

That should definitely be enough light for those corals depending on what bulbs you use.

Do you have t-5s? If so, are there any specific bulbs you would reccomend?

I have 2 T5's that supplement my Halide. I'm currently running a Blue+ and a Aquablue which both have very high par numbers. Both of those bulbs paired with daylight bulb or two should be nice. You should check with TJ Burton. He's running JUST T5's on his 40. He's running 6 bulbs, but he's also keeping SPS.

I'm in the planing stages of setting up my 40 breeder, and I have recently discovered google scetchup. It seems some others on here are already using it,but if not, I'd check it out. It's basically a 3d modeling program for those of us who can't work autocad (or afford it!). Anyways, i just got done modeling an AGA 40breeder and thought I'd post a link to it in case anyone else wants to download it to plan their tank out.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/det...95d3dd9a9ff70e6

A very cool program for sure. Makes me look like i know what I'm doing!

Put a bunch of holes in it and it will look just like my tank.

Oh we're getting there... I just wanted to post the model online that didn't have any holes so that people could put them wherever they wanted when they download the model. I'll post up a pic of my finished model including stand and canopy when i get done with it. I'm thinking I'm going to end up with at least 5 holes right now, all in the back panel! We'll see how that goes.

Here's the stand framing, not quite finished.

Are you going to use pocket screws to join that? I ended up going with screw boards on the inside.

I have a huge fuge! more then half of my sump is fuge lol... I also have a big skimmer

Unfortunately due to a lack of fancy equipment I'm probably going to end up putting screw-boards inside too... My one thought though is that I'm going to be skinning this thing entirely in 1/4" or 1/2" hardwood ply... if i glue and screw that on all sides do I really need the internal braces? I'll have to think about that one. This is getting a little off topic anyhow, maybe I'll just go start my build thread...

And i did...
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=165911

Bump for new 40s.

Add an updated FTS in your original post or add one if you haven't already.

EDIT: and why the hell is this in the large reef forum?

Because, you cracker, this site is called "Nano-Reef.com". In the world of "Nanos" 40's are large! SHEESH! Some people these days...

I submit that in the world of regular reef tanks "nanos" are considered 40g and under...........and I'm not a cracker..........I am a redneck........


EDIT: and another thing, why are there 232 40breeders in the members tank forum instead of the large tank forum. You want to internetfight boy?

Cracker a$$ cracker!




BTW... I'm a redneck too! Represent!

Less blah, blah, more pics.

I got out the camera to snap a few of my 40 gallon breeder, and then all of the sudden my arms were in the tank and I was rearranging the rock! I got a few ideas after reading this thread so it's going to be a few days...

I hope you put the camera down first..........

Post whore!

ill take a pic of the eheim 1260 when it gets here nanoty! would you like a pic of that?

Hi Pot, meet Kettle.

LOL.

Haven't had a chance to grab any recent pics of the set-up, this pic is from, I believe, May.

not the most recent but



but, i am sorry to say i will no longer be a 40B member......i have a oceanic 70 that i plan on filling this week!

This is my before pic from the end of August. I had two big pieces of bowl rock at the very bottom of the pile that always have bugged me, and I wanted them out. Also they were becoming covered in green clove polyps, which I found out that I hate and wanted out of my tank. Also I am moving away from lps, and I don't want any soft coral or mushrooms besides the few cool species I have left, and I will be getting more sps frags, so I reworked the rock to accommodate sps better. (Also my pink birds nest died in transit moving my tank last month, so I threw the skeleton in the fuge. That's why there is a dead skeleton in the pic...)



It looks a little bare now, but after I get another Koralia today, there will be great flow and a lot of room to start adding bigger sps colonies. Also, as always, I'm sure I'm not done moving things around yet...

Looks great Tumbleweed.....just swithed lighting on my all monticap 40 breeder , went with the 36" Sundial T5HO , will try to get pictures up sometime this week .

it will be interesting to see how your monti caps color up with the t5ho verses my 150x2 halides. i still cant decide what i like more, t5ho or halides for sps. thanks btw.

CHICO-O!!!!!!!!

My wife and are are both CSUC Alum! We miss that place (Bear Hole, The Bear, 5th Street Steakhouse, SIERRA NEVADA, Tres Hombres I could go on forever...).

I like your tank tumbleweed, but I must say I kinda like the aquascaping better with the big cave!

i know i was waiting for someone to say that. i liked it too but i had to get those green clove polyps out of the tank, and of course they were on the bottom of the pile, so it had to go. dont worry in six months you wont notice the lack of rock when there are a bunch of awesome sps colonies reaching up.

yeah chico is pretty great. all we need is a quality reef shop to compliment the 100 something bars we have.

When I was in Chico there were 2 pretty good shops for fish. I wasn't really into reefing then so I don't recall thier coral stock. Fish etc? Across from Whitmeir and the one off of East Ave.

Ben

Here are some quick shots.........to be honest there is very little change from the 36" inch Corallife Aqualght PC fixture ( 2x96 watts ) but I'll be playing with different bulbs down the road . Also if anyone is interested my PC fixture is for sale for $100 the bulbs are brand new .

Those are some great looking montis sea slug. Do you run a Ca reactor?

want your montis

Thanks.......No I don't run a reactor , I'm a firm believer in doing weekly water changes instead of monthly . In all for of my reef tanks I always tested all params for a few months after cycling , the monti tank is not that old but my other tanks are 11 years+ , I never test anymore , all params stay in check for me with 10% weekly water changes , and after a while it became a waste of money to by test kits over and over . I do once in a while test ph with a meter just for assurence . Do I go through alot of salt ? ........YES , but IMO it's a lot easier & cheaper than constant dosing and testing .

yeah there are still two shops in town but they really are not that good. one shop has no interest in getting coral or fish in stock more often than four times a year for whatever reason, and the other shop is okay some of the time. i did get a tear drop maxima yesterday from the one good shop, but thats the last piece i bought in town in a long time. neither of those shops has any interest in getting sps, and when they do they are crappy little frags for $50. ive been going to sacramento to buy larger pieces. also the one store across from whitmier has been gone for a long time, but i think fish etc was in that spot for awhile, but they have moved down the road a bit. reef connections is the garbage shop.

Amazing looking tank Sea Slug! I trust you will be moving the Blue Tang sooner or later?

Yeah..... He will be moving to a 150 then to a 210 to live out the rest of his days .My buddy's 210 has some pretty dominent tangs in it and he would get his butt kicked being as small as he is right now .
I had to move my Desjardini Red Sea Tang to his 210 when he got to big for my 70 gallon . Always nice to pick up a new fish though , when they out grow there home .

Really nice. I have 2 nova extreme T5 and a coralife aqualight T5 (6 bulb total) pushing into my tank. I don't get nearly as nice color in montis as you. I may need to change out my bulbs for some better quality.

wow.......No reactor, or dosing!!! The growth you're getting out of those montis clearly states that all is well in your tank. I don't get it, I freakin' monitor the hell out of my tank, dose accordingly, and you just do wc's WTF!!!!!!!!


I hate reefing .

As Long as your into testing ( and I assume you have up to date testing kits ) Try the weekly water change thing for 6 months . On a forty breeder start with a 4 gallon water change once a week , if your levels don't hold go 5 ect ect , remember it is VERY IMPORTANT to be consistent , pick a day when you are sure nothing can stop you from performing the water change , you can be off by one day , but if you really want consistant levels do it at the same time same day every week . I've been running all my tanks this way for over 12 years now , nothing fancy , Skimmer , lots of live rock ,power heads ( lots of flow ) & weekly water changes . It's all old school ways and some may find it boring or not up to todays standards ( High Tech ) , but it works for me so I don't change .

I don't know man, my tank drops 1 dkh daily. It also consumes 20ppm of Ca. If I were to quit supplementing for both I think I would be in big trouble within just a few days.

Maybe you can get away with this because you just have "easier to keep" SPS. Have you ever used your method while keeping acros and other more delicate SPS?

I'm very interested, I might even give it a shot. i'll just keep a close eye on things to make sure I don't have problems.

Screw you X..................... ................

I change about 8-10g weekly, I wonder if I could get away without dosing.

Glennr , You are correct , monti's are way easier than acro's ect ect , and no I have not used my method on more difficult SPS . The butterfly tank is full of Monti's because as we all know Butterfly's are not reef safe and I've tried everything in that tank , SPS Monti cap is the only coral they leave alone for the most part , they pick here and there but cause no real damage . My method works for Softy's & LPS & Monti cap SPS . But if your droping 1 dkh & 20ppm of CA. daily , you have to dose ! I don't see anyway around it . I believe most reefers could get away from dosing if they did weekly water changes rather than monthly . I always tell fellow reefers that come to my house and see my tanks that if what there doing is working DON'T CHANGE IT . If your not getting good results , try my way . It's why I don't belong to RC......there are clicks there that swear there is only one way to have success in this hobby and I disagree , there are many ways ( High Tech & Low Tech ) to keep reef tanks , over the years I've seen many different proven successful methods .

I like your method Sea Slug. What salt do you use?

Well I finally downgraded my 75 to my new 40 Breeder. I still need to arrange the coral and add another piece of rock or two. but here are a few pics: