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Coral Vue Hydros

Forum debut! 40 gallon reef build


amboinensis

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I've been registered here for over four years and a regular lurker, so it's about time I started posting!

Anyway, I kept a couple 20 long mixed reefs for the past five or six years. They did well, but I never had the time or money or landlord's permission to go any larger. Then I moved four states away and being out of a cramped NYC apartment means I can finally build this 40 gallon mixed reef.

This was my display tank looked late last year: https://imgur.com/a/8QFR19I

The move did not go smoothly: I lost a little more than a third of my corals in the move, including a 5-year-old acan colony, a 4-headed indo tricolor torch, tons of zoas which I had only recently purchased, and more. Thankfully the rest seem to have stabilized in their impromptu frag tank and some of the pieces that were half dead ended up as a few decent little frags. Lesson learned, hire someone who knows what they're doing if you need to abandon the tank for a bit right after moving it, but that's a story for another time.

 

I think this will be a mixed reef with mostly nicer zoas and LPS. I'm considering a couple of flasher wrasses but am still undecided about the fish list.


LATEST FTS:
September 1, 2019

SPECS: (I'll update this as the tank progresses)
40 Breeder display
20 Long sump, Fiji Cube sump kit
DIY stand/canopy
Four Nanobox pucks and two T5 tubes, currently running ATI Blue+
Maxspect Gyre XF330 and a Koralia 425gph
MJ900 return pump (badly needs upgrading)
Glass Holes 700gph overflow kit
SCA-301 skimmer, which I might not use
30lbs of reef breeders rock + 10lbs of marco shelf rock

LIVESTOCK:
Bottle of bacteria


Here's the build progress so far:

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Did someone say Dollar Per Gallon Sale??

 

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At the moment, the thing looks like this. I still need to paint and mount the doors, finish the canopy, and refrain from buying all the corals.
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The lighting is interesting. I was using a 30" 4-puck nanobox fixture on the old tank, so I built a frame to hold that and a dual T5 retrofit kit. It's in a canopy that has hidden removable sides/top, a Noctua cooling fan on the heatsink and two 120mm Noctua fans on the back of the canopy. Runs bright and cold and silent!

 

The last picture here shows it over the frag tank, but unfortunately that was while I was still trying to stop the coral losses so not everything in there is still with us today.


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Still finishing up the doors and canopy. I'm hoping to start painting those within the next couple days.

First life is in! The cycle seems done (I used bottled bacteria) so I moved over a few things from the remains of the old tank: A plain blue caulastrea frag, a head of frogspawn, and a nerite snail. I also cut some fresh zoa frags and took the opportunity to check out the local LFS for the first time and ended up with a couple nice things, but they're in the frag tank. If this new tank seems stable enough, we'll have the first splash of color sometime this week!

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Wow, sorry about the losses after moving, but a fresh start is always exciting nontheless! And it certainly seems like you have a handle on things - I'm excited to see what you do with more reefing room - the old setup looked quite full, and healthy  =D  Also, great work with the light hood!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Life has been beyond hectic these past few days and this poor tank got put on the back burner, but I'm now back at it!

I visited my new local LFS to get more salt and accidentally adopted some new zoas, a monti cap, a really cool blue favia, and completely forgot to get salt. Looks like I have an excuse to go back tomorrow.

The test frags are doing fine so I added some of my old zoas plus one of the new ones, plus the clown and YWG. The clown loves having all the extra room and has claimed the entire tank as his own. The YWG has vanished but shows up every time I even think about feeding them. These two fish have been with me for years, ever since my first 6-gallon nano, and I'm really glad they're finally in something that has enough space for them.

 

I actually threw most of my corals yesterday but haven't yet taken pictures of them.

 

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Left to right:
 - LFS said this was Armageddon, I think it's Devil's Armor. The actinic glow is unreal from these!
 - Rainbow Infusion. I thankfully still have a ton of these
 - Super Saiyan. I thought these all died in the move but these showed up on the dead-looking plug?
 - Punk Rocker. These used to have a really long bright red skirt, I'm hoping that comes back


 

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Still need to finish trimming and painting the stand & canopy, but this shows off the sliding side panels. The whole top can also slide backwards and then up, so I have easy access to everything.

 

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The guts of the system. I know, I really need to do some cable management before this catches on fire. That shelf holding the dosing pump was put up about five minutes ago. I think for now I'm going with chaeto for nutrient export, since the tank doesn't have enough fish poop in it yet for the skimmer to be useful. I still need to find my ATO and figure out a nicer way to hide a 5 gallon top-off bucket near the tank, so for now top-offs are done the old fashioned way with a red solo cup.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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