40 breeder low maintenance

[DOJOLOACH]

Alright! So here is my tank journal...

My goal was to make an easy maintenance reef tank, with a budget friendly equipment list. I decided to purposely go with a light that only can support good growth in a 24" width... thus limiting the money i can spend on corals! Hopefully this holds true ..

Equipment:

 

-Sbreef 165w retrofit kit on a marsaqua blackbox. 

-10 gallon sump

- old heater ( been supporting my 40 breeder fw setups for 30 years!

250gph return pump.

 

For livestock list, in order of purchase:

1. Yellow watchman goby pistol shrimp pair.

2. Clean up crew, including a starfish.

3. ocellaris or percula clownfish pair

4. Flame angel

5. A small group of green chromis or small grouping fish.

Corals: i prefer a few large colonies over " collectoritis" so ill stick with a smaller list ofstrains:

-GSP

-orange zoa

- green zoa

- yellow zoa 

-rainbow acan

-leather finger coral

- couple mushrooms 

-anemone

- and yes i will try1 or 2 sps

 

 

Here are a few pics of my setupand diy work! One is my 2×4 stand, my diy light hanging mount, my messy living room,  and first attempt at an aquascape.

 

My next step is to fine tune my aquascape, i come from planted aquariums... not so good at rock hardscapes only.. definitely looking for inspiration and rock sources! I like a aquascape of dueling islands or maybe one island crescent shape.

 

Bought some ecofriendly caribsea building rock... i may try to buy more if i cant find a better solution

 

 

[Clown79]

Looks good.

 

Caribsea has liferock too which has some really cool shapes for aquascaping.

[Tamberav]

Nice tank! Looks a lot like my 40B budget years ago 🙂

[DOJOLOACH]

Yes thanks. I am still having a hard time figuring out my sump media. I only have a 10g sump and had lots of mechanical filtration sponges. Now though im thinking ill buy a used skimmer SCA-301 to replace those sponges and pads

[DOJOLOACH]

Alright here is the aquascape right now.. id definitely like some criticism so blast away! Its hard to aquascape withthe 1 piece of shelf i bought, i also bought 2 more of the life rock shapes 

.. i didnt think id like them but theyre pretty awesome 

[DOJOLOACH]

I got 2 morelife rocks and made this aquascape... im not sure about it still, what do you guys think?

 

Using the shelf rock is hard, i need some critiquing from experts! 

 

Theres about 4" gap from all side panes of glass

[DOJOLOACH]

Any recommendations on species of coral that would look good on the shelf to the right? Im thinking gsp because its bright,  low profile will help add depth to the rocks behind it too.  But id like some other options!!

[vlangel]

On 2/16/2019 at 9:03 AM, DOJOLOACH said:

I got 2 morelife rocks and made this aquascape... im not sure about it still, what do you guys think?

 

Using the shelf rock is hard, i need some critiquing from experts! 

 

Theres about 4" gap from all side panes of glass

Nice scape and unique!

[DOJOLOACH]

Thanks! I just ordered some epoxy for the rock.  Im going to try and imprpve the rock holdingup the right side of the shelf... too blocky right now

[DOJOLOACH]

After further research into care requirements of a soft corals and LPS I'm going to start out with this maintenance routine. I hope to reduce testing and maybe even Water changes once I know where things have stabilized. Several TOTM winners have similar or even less stringent routines than this for their softy/lps tanks. I figure even if I neglect a thing or two here and there it won't be disaster.

 

Daily:

Check Temperature

Feed Fish

 

2x/Week

Feed Corals Reef Roids

 

Weekly:

Clean Glass

4 gallon water change (Little bit less than 10% of total volume)

Clean Skimmer

Verify ATO is working properly, fill reservoir

Remove Salt Creep

Check Salinity

Turkey Baste Rocks

Clean Skimmer Cup

Test Nitrates, Cal, Mag, Alk, Phosphate, PH

Check for leaks

 

Monthly:

Clean all pumps

Clean detritus

 

On Valentines day there was a weird mishap with my EVO 13.5... tank water got too cloudy and my pistol shrimp was stressed, did a 90% water change, gf bought me a royal gramma (Surprise gift) which got killed by what I believe was the shrimp. The next day the shrimp died by what I believe was too many water changes in a short time. So now I have only my yellow goby... sigh.

 

The 40 gallon is now cycled completely and I have added 3x snails and hermits to keep the bacteria rolling. Next week I will try to add more of a CUC and the yellow goby.

[TatorTaco]

Just stumbled across your build.  Looks exciting!  

 

I'd strongly rethink the sponges in your sump though.  I fear they'll just collect debris and turn into nitrate factories for you. 

[DOJOLOACH]

Yes I second that. 

 

I replaced my sponges/filter pads with a protein skimmer (SCA-301), carbon reactor, gfo reactor, and a media bag of purigen. Right now the tank is finished cycling and has some corals and snails in it!

[burtbollinger]

probably dont need the GFO reactor...long term, anyway.  there was a point early on i used one, but after a while, i dont find necessary

[DOJOLOACH]

Maybe.. Controlling phosphates is new to me. My last tank was at 1-2ppm so I had to do something for safety of that. Right now I'm researching coral foods... I think maybe my reefroids was giving off some phosphate

[DOJOLOACH]

I got a new phone since my screen broke... Better pictures now but the tank looks dark still, I think maybe it is the high iron glass that come with aqueon tanks.

 

New Corals:

 

Green/Orange Zoa

Red/Purple Acan

Purple Hammer

Ricordia Mushroom

 

I added my fluval evo tank inhabitants, GSP, yellow watchman goby

 

Tank is looking good, but how patient should I be with adding new corals? I want to place an order online for a few montiporas and LPS. I was thinking a mystic sunset montipora to mount onto the purple plate rock I have. 

 

What do you guys think? Any other suggestions for an encrusting or carpeting coral that would look good there?