Matt's 40 Gallon Breeder

[matth6761]

October FTS

 

 

 

Tank established September 25th, 2019!

 

It's been a long time coming, but it's finally up and running!

 

 

     

 

Display: Petco 40 gallon breeder drilled with a Eshopps Eclipse L overflow box on a DIY stand

Lighting: Kessil AP700 w/ 24" Aquatic Life Hybrid T5HO 4x24W Fixture

Heater: Aqueon Pro 100w and Eheim Jager 125w

Skimmer: Skimz SN127 Monzter Mini

Sump Refugium: Eshopps R-100 with 24 watt fuge light

Return Pump: Two Sicce Syncra Silent 1.0 pumps

Circulation: Maxspect Gyre XF230 x 2

Controller: Neptune ApexEL

ATO: Tunze Osmolator with 5gal Eshopps Pacific M Reservoir

 

Livestock

 

40lbs of dry rock seeded with ARC Reef Coralline Algae

60lbs of CaribSea Fiji Pink live sand

Frogspawn Coral

Hammer Coral

Acanthastrea echinata

Montipora Digitata

Stylophora

Favia

Zoanthids

This is my first adventure with plumbed aquarium setup, and I must say, I'm glad I'm finished setting it up!

[Reeferadicto13]

Nice!

good job on the stand,what are your plans for livestock?

[matth6761]

17 minutes ago, Reeferadicto13 said:

Nice!

good job on the stand,what are your plans for livestock?

Thanks! I think I want to carry on the mixed reef look of my old tank, but we'll see.  I like variety!

[MrsK]

Yay, another 40 breeder! Looks clean, what are your stocking plans? Following along 👍

[paneubert]

High five for the SCA-301.  I thought that looked familiar.  I am running the previous incarnation, the SC-65.  I think they are literally the same, just different names.

[lpsouth1978]

Welcome to the 40 breeder club!! I can't wait to see it  progress.

[Christopher Marks]

Welcome back @matth6761! 👋

 

Congrats on your new home, kiddo, and now nano reef 😄! How are you liking the Eshopps overflow and sump setup? Did you drill the 40B on your own? This is a good looking setup, did you DIY the stand as well?

[matth6761]

2 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Welcome back @matth6761! 👋

 

Congrats on your new home, kiddo, and now nano reef 😄! How are you liking the Eshopps overflow and sump setup? Did you drill the 40B on your own? This is a good looking setup, did you DIY the stand as well?

Thanks! So excited to dive back into the hobby, especially with new helper!

 

I'm enjoying the overflow so far.  Looks good, lots of flow, and the kit actually includes a hole saw and very nice template.  Drilling the tank made me a little nervous, but I kept the saw wet and went very slow and it went fine.  The sump is nice and compact, yet roomy enough for pumps, heaters and skimmers.  The design of the channels may make it difficult to clean, but we'll see.  Custom built the stand with my dad's help.

 

"Here, lemme fix ur skimmerz"

[matth6761]

This led bulb advertised at 24 watts nearly doubled the size of a wad of chaeto in less than two weeks. The 10 watt ring light provided a laughable amount of light and was removed/repurposed and replaced with the larger bulb. Even though it puts off very little heat, I've found that the larger LED bulb/fixture provides enough light to bleach the chaeto if placed directly above it.  Very impressed with the algae growth when indirectly lit. Not a spec of algae growth in the main display however, despite a 5 hour photo period while cycling with a few purple T5 bulbs (hoping to encourage coraline growth).  So far, I recommend.

 

Been monitoring ammonia, hoping to add first inhabitants soon!

 

[Lula_Mae]

58 minutes ago, matth6761 said:

This led bulb advertised at 24 watts nearly doubled the size of a wad of chaeto in less than two weeks. The 10 watt ring light provided a laughable amount of light and was removed/repurposed and replaced with the larger bulb. Even though it puts off very little heat, I've found that the larger LED bulb/fixture provides enough light to bleach the chaeto if placed directly above it.  Very impressed with the algae growth when indirectly lit. Not a spec of algae growth in the main display however, despite a 5 hour photo period while cycling with a few purple T5 bulbs (hoping to encourage coraline growth).  So far, I recommend.

 

Been monitoring ammonia, hoping to add first inhabitants soon!

 

Yeah, 24w LEDs are surprisingly powerful!  Nice scape, hope the cycle ends soon for you!

[matth6761]

Well we're all cycled, stabilized and ready for critters. Threw in a few cheap frags to see how they do. Did a little custom acrylic work to hold the light fixture. Looks much more elegant than zippies and wooden dowels.

 

 

[matth6761]

Lesson learned; Calibrate your pocket refractometer when you get it.  Should you fail to do so, and trust the factory (un)calibration, you may end up with a severely unhealthy level of salt it the reef, and you'll kill things.  I thought something was a bit off right after I added the first corals. The zoas closed up and quickly died, the montipora bleached and lost tissue and the echinata looked to be doing very poorly as well. Borrowed some calibration fluid and once I got my refractometer dialed in, I found that I had my salinity WAY to high. Did a %100 water change with the proper concentration of salt and things are doing significantly better.  The echinata bounced back and now seems relatively unharmed.  The monti has a couple polyps that didn't die, so i placed it in a high flow area and we'll see how things go.  I'm surprised most of the hermit crabs lived. 

 

Now that everything's corrected and stabilized, I've been hemorrhaging money at my LFS NorCal Corals.

 

BTW, I'm totally loving the blue of the ATI blue+ bulbs

.

[matth6761]

Made some necessary upgrades.

 

[matth6761]

December update.

 

 

Hoping everyone is having a great holiday season.  So far, I'm loving the new equipment. Kessil AP700 is awesome. Ultimately settled on this light because of the pleasing rainbowless shimmer, can't beat it.  The Maxspect Gyres are great.  I've got them set on an anti-synchronized alternating gyre on a 2 minute cycle. I know 2 powerheads may seem like a bit overkill for a 40 gallon, but I purchased them with a future tank upgrade in mind. Besides, only one unit runs at a time and they're only turned up to %20, anything stronger blows sand. The ApexEL is my favorite of the upgrades. It allows me to know every detail about my reef, from a constant pH chart to how much power each light and pump uses. And I can access this information instantly from anywhere in the world. Yeah, it was pricey, but the peace of mind I have now is priceless.

 

The frags I've been introducing have responded well and everything is just plugging along.  The red cap is beginning to encrust on it's rock and I'm seeing some growth on the stylo.  So far so good.

 

 

[matth6761]

January update! Things are coming along nicely in the New Year! I'm very grateful for my local fish store's awesome selection of corals! I've recently added a DaVinci clownfish, and a six-line wrasse and they seem to be getting along well. I've also started adding kalk to my ATO.

 

[matth6761]

February update:

 

 

So, I've decided to remove my sand and go bare-bottom! With each water change over the past month, I've siphoned out a small amount of sand.  I really like the look.  Also, I've discovered that my DSLR sensor hates my LEDs.

 

      

 

      

 

 

[matth6761]

March update:

 

 

So last month, my area of northern California experienced a large unusual snowstorm that knocked out power for a few days. I was home during the outage, so I was able to hook up the powerheads to a battery backup, but by the time I was able to hook the system up to a generator, the tank had been without power for a few hours and the temp dropped to the 60s. Once everything was turned back on, temp came back up and it was business as usual with no noticeable impact to the livestock, with the exception of the monti frags, which have lost a lot of color.

 

I've discovered that banded trochus snails are really good at removing algae in a reef.  Like, really, really good at it!  Better than any other snail I've ever had in my reef.  5 of them are keeping the rocks and glass very clean!

[JaneClifton]

Hi, I’m digging your aquarium! 

 

I’m starting a 29 gallon Aqueon tank that has a similar black boarder at the top. I also have an Eshopps Eclipse S and have that installed just below the lip of boarder. When I water tested my plumbing I noticed the level is about 0.5” or so below that boarder and it bothers me a little. The water also just pours through the box and main drain line into the sump and is rather noisy.

 

How did you control the water level? It looks like you added a ball valve to the main line? My current setup does not have one. Is there anything else that you did?

 

Thanks!

[matth6761]

10 hours ago, JaneClifton said:

Hi, I’m digging your aquarium! 

 

I’m starting a 29 gallon Aqueon tank that has a similar black boarder at the top. I also have an Eshopps Eclipse S and have that installed just below the lip of boarder. When I water tested my plumbing I noticed the level is about 0.5” or so below that boarder and it bothers me a little. The water also just pours through the box and main drain line into the sump and is rather noisy.

 

How did you control the water level? It looks like you added a ball valve to the main line? My current setup does not have one. Is there anything else that you did?

 

Thanks!

Thanks!

 

Glued on a strip of acrylic to raise the water level on the display tank.

 

 

I have it plumbed using the herbie method. I use the ball valve to slow the outflow from the overflow box so it fills up with water, but only to the point where  water just starts to slowly trickle into the white overflow stand pipe. This way the water only falls a very short distance past the weirs into the water in the overflow box. I did switch the ball valve to the distal end of the outflow tube, closest to the sump. This completely eliminated any gurgling in the line.  Super quiet setup.

 

 

[JaneClifton]

7 hours ago, matth6761 said:

Thanks!

 

Glued on a strip of acrylic to raise the water level on the display tank.

 

 

I have it plumbed using the herbie method. I use the ball valve to slow the outflow from the overflow box so it fills up with water, but only to the point where  water just starts to slowly trickle into the white overflow stand pipe. This way the water only falls a very short distance past the weirs into the water in the overflow box. I did switch the ball valve to the distal end of the outflow tube, closest to the sump. This completely eliminated any gurgling in the line.  Super quiet setup.

 

 

This is great! Thank you so much! I was thinking of siliconing a strip to it but I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. I’ll look into installing a ball valve in the line as well.

[matth6761]

Made a quick video of my system to demonstrate the noise level of the pumps and plumbing.

 

 

[JaneClifton]

3 hours ago, matth6761 said:

Made a quick video of my system to demonstrate the noise level of the pumps and plumbing.

 

 

This is fantastic! I really appreciate this video, thank you for taking the time to share it.

 

... is that an SCA-301 protein skimmer I see? That’s the one I chose for my tank.

[JulieReefer]

Impressive! Enjoy seeing your updates. Corals look to be filling in really nicely!!

[matth6761]

On 3/13/2019 at 7:51 PM, JaneClifton said:

This is fantastic! I really appreciate this video, thank you for taking the time to share it.

 

... is that an SCA-301 protein skimmer I see? That’s the one I chose for my tank. 

You've very welcome!  I suggest trying a different skimmer.  I've had nothing but issues with the pump.  I'm replacing the entire skimmer with a different one soon.

[JaneClifton]

1 hour ago, matth6761 said:

You've very welcome!  I suggest trying a different skimmer.  I've had nothing but issues with the pump.  I'm replacing the entire skimmer with a different one soon.

Oh no! I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I’ve had it for a while now so I’m going to give it a shot. Is it something where you could just install a higher quality pump? 🤔