NRnoob Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 After years of wanting and dreaming, I started a salt water tank. I posted in the beginner forum and shared my 10 gallon and my plan. I came to the realization that my little 10g would be far more difficult to care for than I had thought. I was battling with temperatures, salinity, and evaporation. Topping off isn't that difficult, but when life depends on daily top offs, it changes from enjoyable to monotonous. I know that could be rectified with an ATO but I don't have one (at least not yet). My girlfriend surprised me with a larger tank. I took the time and drilled it, added bulk heads, checked for leaks. It was all going great until I tripped and bumped the tank. Glass vs floor... Floor wins :/ (I had drained the tank and was collecting rock and substrate for the larger tank) Luckily, my local pet store was have a tank sale and I secured and 40g breeder for $40. This is where I stand today I'm decent with carpentry so I built a stand. It's about as basic as it gets, and it might be way over engineered, but hey, I'd rather be safe than sorry. I bought 30lbs of base rock from John at Reef Cleaners and bought 30 lbs of CaribSea biome sand (the particles are small, but I like the look and the shells and coral bits make it look a little more natural IMO) I had about 8lbs of rock to seed the base Rock and sand. I did take a scoop of my original sand from my 10 to help it along. This is what I have so far Equipment 40g breeder 10g that i am in the process of making into a sump/refugium. Bio wheel HOB filter until I get the sump built and installed 2 200 watt heaters Jebao rw4 (just shipped!) I would like to get 2 Kessil a160s for lighting 42lbs of rock (I got 34lbs from John. He was very generous) 30lbs biome sand I'm keeping my snails and hermit in a 5g bucket until the 40 is cycled, unless it would be okay to add them to the 40 with my original Rock being present. I'm really excited to get this tank up and going! The best part is, my girlfriend is taking part! What do yall think? Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Looks awesome! Only thing I would suggest is using a 20 for the sump. You'll have much more room for equipment and a Refugium- I have a 10 sump and its REALLY annoying to deal with! Link to comment
NRnoob Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 Good call! The sale is still going I at the pet store, I might be able to snag one Link to comment
NRnoob Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 My wave maker came! What settings does everyone recommend? I'm going LPS and soft coral in my tank. Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 My wave maker came! What settings does everyone recommend? I'm going LPS and soft coral in my tank. Most possible without moving coral too violently Link to comment
NRnoob Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 This little wave maker is crazy! It's not much larger than the hydor nano I got for my 10g and it really moves the water! I don't want to say it is the best, but for $45 I can't complain! The random flow setting is incredible Link to comment
NRnoob Posted August 7, 2015 Author Share Posted August 7, 2015 I am torn with lighting. I feel the kessils will be sufficient for what I want in the tank, but I feel like I should go with something better. I don't have a controller so something that I could manually control would be optimal. I've considered Radions, Razors, Kessil, and even diy. Realistically I would like to buy one fixture for the whole tank. With it being 36", there seems to be few single fixtures that would work. I don't mind saving for a while to get a sweet light. I'm currently lighting it with an old 24" t5 I got off craigslist. So I guess my question would be, what single fixture LED lighting options would be appropriate for this tank? LPS and soft coral for now but I would like the option of SPS once is get onto the swing of things. Link to comment
NRnoob Posted August 7, 2015 Author Share Posted August 7, 2015 I guess I could give a system update I ordered so Dr Tims to help the cycle along, and it seems to be working well. My local grocery store only stocks 5 gallons of distilled water at a time so I have to search far and wide. I entertaining fish stocking options. With it being a 40g I would like 4-5 fish, one being the main attraction. My two year old is absolutely mesmerized by the tank. She loved my 10g and named the snails after her favorite Dr. McStuffins characters. She looks in the bucket the live in for now and commands them to eat the algae! I'm really hoping. To make this tank something that we can do together Link to comment
NRnoob Posted August 9, 2015 Author Share Posted August 9, 2015 Ammonia 0 Nitrates 0 Nitrites 0.25 I'm experiencing the algae bloom everyone talks about. I moved my snails and hermit from their temp home to the display tank and picked up a few Astrea snails to help combat the algae. I think total I would like 4 trochus (I have one already and he is a beast) 10 Astrea (I have five now) 1 turbo if things get out of hand 10 dwarf ceriths 5 hermits (I have one Halloween hermit and extra shells in the tank) 3 nassarius snails 1 cleaner shrimp Does this seem like a good enough clean up crew for the size of my tank? I don't want so any that they starve, or too few that left over food and algae accumulates. Link to comment
NRnoob Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 It's been a bit since I had an update. Everything is coming together nicely! In the market for a protein skimmer. I canned the idea of having a sump mainly because the tank isn't drilled. I have my eyes on a reef octopus classic 1000. I added a tailspot blenny to the tank. He's god quite a bit of personality! I love how is sticks his head out of his home and watches everything I do! I see him nibble on algae, he has yet to eat anything other than the algae. I'm feeding Rods herbivore blend. Still no coral though. I'd like to add two or three more fish eventually. What would be a active showstopper fish that y'all would recommend in a 40B Link to comment
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