Sammy's 40B Build

[Smity]

Awesome tank! Pretty close to what im running except for skimmer difference and led's. I was looking into the red sea program once I get SPS corals in the tank. So keep us updated on how well its working.

 

With my bare bottom I looked into starboard but heard some stories of it trapping stuff in the corners and under it so I decided to paint the bottom white.

 

Again very clean tank!

 

Oh another question when did you start running the bio-pellets? I ask because I started mine right when the tank was set-up but pulled it offline. Right now I have a huge diatom bloom and I'm going to hold out until its clear. But was wondering when you started yours.

[sammy113]

thanks Smity! I started biopellets along with the tank since day one. I decided to remove them cause my oversized skimmer plus the pellets were sucking up ll the nutrients to a level I couldn't keep up and corals were starving and dying. Two weeks after removal, LPS, Zoas and even the SPS recovered some colors

[d'Espresso]

Sammy, How are you my good friend. Are you still around? Happy Easter! Hope to see a FTS and hope the tank is doing good again. Keep us updated will ya!

[sammy113]

Sammy, How are you my good friend. Are you still around? Happy Easter! Hope to see a FTS and hope the tank is doing good again. Keep us updated will ya!

Hi buddy, Happy Easter! Tank is not doing good I though I won the battle with algae... apparently it died for a few but grew back in the same spots so I'm guessing it had roots deeper in the rocks. I really don't know what else to do to fight bryopsis. I've done lights out followed by peroxide, peroxide followed by lights out. Replaced all my R/O filters including membrane and DI. I've done weekly water changes, feed with caution and even changed several foods. Tested all parameters and seems to be within the accepted range.

 

I'm thinking maybe start all over again? Remove the rock and cook it for a few days or weeks or just get new rocks. I wonder if it has do do anything with the rocks... MarcoI may have someone to take care of the few corals I have.

 

What hurts me most is the zoas cause they have some algae in between polyps and in the rock they're on so I may try to frag them or at least take a few of each to prevent introducing the algae again.

[Zer0]

Hey sammy! The tank is truly looking amazing! I must admit I preferred your awesome cube, but this tank is really incredible. Great work!

 

Sorry about the algae problems though.. :/

[d'Espresso]

Just be very careful when frag some zoas because of toxin. i had one pop a juice pass my arm and landed on the table the other day when i was transferring to the big tank. i got lucky it didn't hit my eye. But also maybe you can cook your rocks up with vinegar like bluebastion did.

 

i had some GHA and i just took it out and use a Metal wire brush and brush the crap off the rocks in the WC water bucket. So far so good, i haven't have any other problem yet.

 

Happy Easter day to you too!

[Builder Anthony]

Well pretty much kicken back letten things run or is it alot of work?A few pages back i laughed with all those people in the room everyone was looking at the tank.How often do people all look at the same thing in one room especially after a few minutes.Its awalys a good conversation peice.I really like the control system you got going especially the swicthes for turning things on and off.Were do they sell that thing at?Intrested in tradeing some zoas to if your intrested.

[d'Espresso]

Well pretty much kicken back letten things run or is it alot of work?A few pages back i laughed with all those people in the room everyone was looking at the tank.How often do people all look at the same thing in one room especially after a few minutes.Its awalys a good conversation peice.I really like the control system you got going especially the swicthes for turning things on and off.Were do they sell that thing at?Intrested in tradeing some zoas to if your intrested.

 

It is called American Dj Power switcher That is the best price i could find on amazon.com!

 

Best regard!

-david

[disaster999]

Hi buddy, Happy Easter! Tank is not doing good I though I won the battle with algae... apparently it died for a few but grew back in the same spots so I'm guessing it had roots deeper in the rocks. I really don't know what else to do to fight bryopsis. I've done lights out followed by peroxide, peroxide followed by lights out. Replaced all my R/O filters including membrane and DI. I've done weekly water changes, feed with caution and even changed several foods. Tested all parameters and seems to be within the accepted range.

 

I'm thinking maybe start all over again? Remove the rock and cook it for a few days or weeks or just get new rocks. I wonder if it has do do anything with the rocks... MarcoI may have someone to take care of the few corals I have.

 

What hurts me most is the zoas cause they have some algae in between polyps and in the rock they're on so I may try to frag them or at least take a few of each to prevent introducing the algae again.

have you tried kent mag treatment? raising your mg level to around 1500-1600ppm and hold it there for a month should help with bryopsis. had that in my tank when i first started and used the same treatment for it and it worked. you will loose some coloration from your zoas but i guess its a lot better than having to wipe out your entire colony to deal with some algae.

 

you can also try getting a hare slug and have it eat it. but that is a temp fix and you will need to trade it back to the lfs. they will eat it faster than the bryopsis can grow and you dont want it to starve in your tank and die.

[got2envy]

Hello Sammy! I hope all is well in PR

I am sure you will get the algae under control..I have faith!!

 

edit- those green palys with the purple centers...you must frag and send to meeeee

[circusordie16]

sammy are you happy with the light spread of your leds? im about to make my own led fixture very similar to yours and im not sure whether to go with a spread out array of 36 leds or 12 clusters of 3 leds. im planning on keep the fixture only about 4 or 5 inches above the tank.

[d'Espresso]

Sammy hope everything is doing good over there. We haven't seen your tank updated in a while. Let us know what's up. have a good evening!

[sammy113]

Hi all! I'm very sorry for the lack of updates and for some reason I never saw the posts so never replied back sooner. Anyways, the tank has been neglected I've been crazy busy with 2 works + college and I have not been able to keep with a decent solution for battling the algae. Thank God I finish my classes this wednesday so I'll have time to deal with this. Right now my better option is to just tear everything apart and start over. I talked to a friend who is gonna take care of my corals while I have everything ready and stable. My goal is to start fresh and install a second reactor for GFO like the original plan but never did. The plumbing was thought for having two reactors (carbon & GFO) this time I'm going without biopellets and probably a fuge with macro algae where I had my frag zone. So right now its going to take at least a month or more before I have something decent to show off

 

circusordie16, I like the spread, even though I have 60 degree optics is good but my lamp is 17" above water. I sugest 80 degree optics for your build and probably either clusters or spread LEDs will work. I'd go with clusters to reduce color not blending well

[disaster999]

good luck with battling algae...im having a similar problem too with brown algae and red slime algae. they just showed up all of a sudden one day and i cant seem to control it.

[turbofreak403]

amazing build. great work.

 

hate to hijack but i noticed your drivers are in cabinet.

what size wire did you run to the fixture?

 

thanks!

[d'Espresso]

i hope you are still around and how is your tank doing sir! we need an UPDATE!!!

[got2envy]

Yes we do!!

[jT415Gz]

ne updates?

[sammy113]

I'm sorry for the lack of updates! College finals, work and everything almost killed me! Anyways, this tank has been taken down unfortunately I lost the battle with algae and I gave up. The remaining corals (zoas most of them and some LPS) are in a friend's tank waiting for me till I start again. I don't know what to blame the algae problem but I'm going to freshly start as soon as I get a new chiller. My old chiller broke and I'm having it repaired but I'm gonna either keep it as a spare or sell it. I'm getting a 1/10hp Arctica. Also I'm gonna run GFO this time like planned in the beginning but never did. The plumbing installation is done for two reactors so One for carbon and one for GFO. I don't have plans to use any kind of probiotic system. Going old school with a nice fuge, chaeto & skimmer. I'm going to be making some slight changes in my lamp as well, going to swap some LEDs and add some.

 

So stay tuned cause I'm working on this as we speak

Cheers

[jT415Gz]

cant wait. staying with starboard or sand? there is also a method of using faux sand bed (fake). It is sand and epoxy/silicone mixed together and applied to the bottom of the tank. looks real too.

um, if you were to go starboard again, then i highly recommend to silicone the edges of the starboard to the glass and leave a 1/2" to 1" spacing around the perimeter of the starboard, so detritus and other floating material gets trapped in that channel to collect for siphoning out easily. just a thought.

[sammy113]

cant wait. staying with starboard or sand? there is also a method of using faux sand bed (fake). It is sand and epoxy/silicone mixed together and applied to the bottom of the tank. looks real too.

um, if you were to go starboard again, then i highly recommend to silicone the edges of the starboard to the glass and leave a 1/2" to 1" spacing around the perimeter of the starboard, so detritus and other floating material gets trapped in that channel to collect for siphoning out easily. just a thought.

Not sure just yet what to do with the bottom. I kinda liked the starboard cause it is cleaner than sand but I really dig the look of sand in aquariums. I've never seen a good looking faux sand bed so I have not considered that one as an option. I did siliconed all the bottom with lots of blobs of silicone to the glass bottom plus the stardboard was cut like 1/4" smaller than the inside perimeter of tank and I filled the gap with silicone all the way to keep a flush surface. Didn't thought a big spacing could be useful as the purpose of going BB is to maintain detritus in the water column with high flow and be skimmed/removed. After all, there's always a spot were the dust and crap likes to collect and its very easy to siphon out

 

Maybe in this round I'm going more towards a mixed reef with fewer SPS (just some ORA and high end pieces), more LPS such as acans, chalices, scolys, euphyllias, lots of zoas and I'd like a few rics. Playing a "easier" to maintain tank this time around

[d'Espresso]

hope you still alive? updates?

[sammy113]

hope you still alive? updates?

alive... if this count as alive lol

at least reef aquarium related stuff, tank is back running. It's been up for about a week. Just tossed some rock in it. Still don't have an aqua escape. Just wanted to at least start cycle cause 75% of the rock is dry. My chiller still needs to be fixed. My dad tried to help and found a gas leak. He repaired it but still not cooling like it should. Now taking it to someone with experience with actual chillers. Got a friend who let me borrow his spare for a while.

 

Still need to add sand (i removed the starboard bottom a while back cause it seem like the silicone didn't hold after a few months) Gonna rinse the sand and set it up so I don't have to wait then for another cycle changes. Gonna take it real easy and slow now. Once I have sand and aqua escape gonna snap some shots

 

BTW, your tank is going strong and very amazing!

[d'Espresso]

alive... if this count as alive lol

at least reef aquarium related stuff, tank is back running. It's been up for about a week. Just tossed some rock in it. Still don't have an aqua escape. Just wanted to at least start cycle cause 75% of the rock is dry. My chiller still needs to be fixed. My dad tried to help and found a gas leak. He repaired it but still not cooling like it should. Now taking it to someone with experience with actual chillers. Got a friend who let me borrow his spare for a while.

 

Still need to add sand (i removed the starboard bottom a while back cause it seem like the silicone didn't hold after a few months) Gonna rinse the sand and set it up so I don't have to wait then for another cycle changes. Gonna take it real easy and slow now. Once I have sand and aqua escape gonna snap some shots

 

BTW, your tank is going strong and very amazing!

So excited to hear from you old friend. i switched to T5 and some Blue Leds. because i can't build one like yours. lol

 

Thats suk about the rocks and sand plus chiller. Hope you get everything into place asap! Yea i use to have a starboard bottom too and it did not work out so well for me. So i removed mine also when i had the 34g Solana tank.

 

What type of sand are you about to add in? Thanks for the kind words for my tank but you missed out. I cracked 2 weeks ago, was so devastated but now it is back.

[sammy113]

So excited to hear from you old friend. i switched to T5 and some Blue Leds. because i can't build one like yours. lol

 

Thats suk about the rocks and sand plus chiller. Hope you get everything into place asap! Yea i use to have a starboard bottom too and it did not work out so well for me. So i removed mine also when i had the 34g Solana tank.

 

What type of sand are you about to add in? Thanks for the kind words for my tank but you missed out. I cracked 2 weeks ago, was so devastated but now it is back.

 

I kinda liked how clean it is with the starboard but at the same time I hated the fake look. At the end it turns totally purple so... also missed to have some sand for fishes like wrasses and gobies.

 

The sand I have is caribbsea fiji pink. Had it in the last months before tearing down.

 

I just checked your thread! OMG I know how it feels. I'd be scared to death! I mean, I broke my 40b side glass but at least mine was empty. Then I had time to remove the top rim and replace the glass but God, what a nightmare. At least you were able to solve promptly