caas1496's 40 Breeder - One Year FTS!

[ef4life]

On 11/27/2019 at 7:28 PM, caas1496 said:

Yeah... Im sure I am just freaking myself out by looking at them all the time. Need to get the tank cycled so I have corals to distract me haha. 

 

I'm not super comfortable with the thin gaps under the plastic tank and sump trim either but on the other hand Ive seen people throw these tanks on top of cinder blocks unsupported in the middle....

 

On a positive note I am happy with how the refugium/frag section on the sump turned out. Really excited to have a spot for frags thats not in the display

 

The little racks are removeable in the 3 different positions. I am tossing around the idea of making a shroom box that could swap in one of the spots as well. 

Very nice idea for the sump. What kind of light are you going to run over it?

[caas1496]

1 hour ago, ef4life said:

Very nice idea for the sump. What kind of light are you going to run over it?

When I transfer the contents of my pico tank into this tank I think I will reuse the Kessik A80 over the frag section.

[caas1496]

The display has stayed pretty cloudy after adding salt to the system a few days ago. The only circulation was coming from the return pump so I threw in the powerhead from my saltwater mixing bucket to try and get everything mixed up. I will also be adding some Seachem matrix that has been in my 20G tank for a couple months to help get the cycle started. 

[caas1496]

You know you are a reefer when you get excited by a box of rocks coming in the mail...

 

Pictures of potential aquascape coming shortly

[Matteo]

5 minutes ago, caas1496 said:

You know you are a reefer when you get excited by a box of rocks coming in the mail...

 

Pictures of potential aquascape coming shortly

So true. I ever wonder if the UPS guy is like "really? Wtf is in here?" 😂

[caas1496]

I used a combination of marco base, shelf, and standard dry rock for the aquascape. Once I am completely happy with it I plan to use E-Marco 400 to secure the structures together.

 

 

 

 

 

[caas1496]

43 minutes ago, Matteo said:

So true. I ever wonder if the UPS guy is like "really? Wtf is in here?" 😂

Haha probably! Luckily my pieces arrived in pretty good shape. 

[Matteo]

Gonna look great! 

[caas1496]

13 hours ago, Matteo said:

Gonna look great! 

Thank you! The E Marco mortar kit is awesome. The texture of it ends up matching the rock very well so I imagine when everything is covered in corraline the seams will be almost invisible. 

[caas1496]

The tank is scaped. Now for some more waiting... 

 

 

[ef4life]

That looks really good.

[caas1496]

2 minutes ago, ef4life said:

That looks really good.

Thank you! Im really excited to start transferring corals from my other tanks into this scape and to finally have room for new corals again! Gonna try to be much more selective with this tank. 

[caas1496]

Well the tank transition has been rough. I transferred the contents of both the 20G and the pico tank over to this one. It seemed to go well at first but there have been some challenges since the transition a few weeks ago. 

 

There has been some annoying cloudiness in the water since the transition that I would have thought would have cleared up by now. My best guess is a bacterial bloom that has been spurred on by some of the other unfortunate events. I am now running a UV sterilizer that I hope will put an end to it. Nitrates have also been a bit high so I am currently doing frequent 5 gallon water changes.

 

There have been a series of unexplained livestock losses as well. First all three of my sexy shrimp slowly dissapeared and tonight one of my two high fin red banded gobies didnt come out to eat. After a thorough search of the tank I think he has passed on 😢. Losing a fish is always so hard.

 

I also lost a rock flower nem. When he was moved to the new tank he wouldnt latch onto anything and kept drifting and getting picked on by the emerald crabs 😑. I think his foot must have been damaged in the transfer. 

 

Tomorrow i will run some more water tests but I am doubtful that they will reveal anything too surprising. The corals seem to be thriving and Im not seeing signs of stress in the other fish. 

 

If you are still reading thanks for tagging along for the ride. Hopefully soon I can get some pictures without cloudy water in the way. 

[caas1496]

The UV sterilizer made quick work of the cloudiness and the water is now nice and clear. Debating whether it is worth it to leave it running on the tank. 

 

I got a little set of lenses for the camera on my phone for christmas and played around with them a bit yesterday to get some coral pics. I will try to get a FTS posted soon. 

 

[Ratvan]

7 minutes ago, caas1496 said:

The UV sterilizer made quick work of the cloudiness and the water is now nice and clear. Debating whether it is worth it to leave it running on the tank. 

 

I got a little set of lenses for the camera on my phone for christmas and played around with them a bit yesterday to get some coral pics. I will try to get a FTS posted soon. 

 

Gorgeous shots, especially that bottom one. 😍

[caas1496]

3 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Gorgeous shots, especially that bottom one. 😍

Thanks! The addition of T5s is making it much easier to take decent photos

[caas1496]

So it turns out my peppermint shrimp is a killer! I caught him trying to rip a rock flower nem apart this morning and suspect that he is the reason for the one that I lost as well. 😡  Needless to say he will be dropped off at the LFS. 

[caas1496]

FTS 1/19/20:

 

And some other random pics for fun.

 

 

[caas1496]

I have neglected to update the thread for a while but things are going well with the tank. A while back all the euphyllia took a turn for the worse for some unknown reason and I lost the green frogspawn, but since then the rest have all recovered and now are looking great. I just picked up some great pieces at Frag Farmers Market so Ill have to post some close ups of the new corals soon. For now here are some new full tank shots.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm also in the midst of a battle with Bryopsis but I have some Reef Flux on the way and have read that it is very effective.

 

 

[caas1496]

There have also been a couple of DIY add ons to the tank recently. The first project was a second attempt at a building a lid for the tank. It turned out much better than the first and I was able to incorporate feeding doors and mounting for my auto feeder.

The second project is a small shelf to use during tank maintenance and feeding to hold food, tools, super glue, etc.

 

[MysticReef]

Oh this build is beautiful and exactly how I plan to do a 40 gallon breeder in the future. I absolutely love the plumbing and sump! Your scape looks great too and has a lot of surface area for those frags to grow out. 🙂

[caas1496]

Just now, MysticReef said:

Oh this build is beautiful and exactly how I plan to do a 40 gallon breeder in the future. I absolutely love the plumbing and sump! Your scape looks great too and has a lot of surface area for those frags to grow out. 🙂

Thank you! I learned a lot of aquascaping lessons the hard way on my first 20G tank so I spent many hours getting the scape in this tank the way I wanted it. I think 40 Breeders have an awesome footprint. I look forward to seeing your build!

[MysticReef]

Just now, caas1496 said:

Thank you! I learned a lot of aquascaping lessons the hard way on my first 20G tank so I spent many hours getting the scape in this tank the way I wanted it. I think 40 Breeders have an awesome footprint. I look forward to seeing your build!

You are welcome! This build certainly deserves praise! I started the hobby about 10 years ago with a 5.5 gallon pico. I took a break for 5 years and I'm excited to get back into it. I will probably spend alot of time on the sump and plumping since I literally know nothing on that topic 😅

[caas1496]

Just now, MysticReef said:

You are welcome! This build certainly deserves praise! I started the hobby about 10 years ago with a 5.5 gallon pico. I took a break for 5 years and I'm excited to get back into it. I will probably spend alot of time on the sump and plumping since I literally know nothing on that topic 😅

Haha it took a lot of research for me too. It definitely requires more work and planning than an AIO to get it up and running but I think its worth it. I also like a good DIY project so that was appealing to me. There are tons of good resources on the forums and youtube for plumbing setups that were really helpful. 

[caas1496]

As promised here are some of the pieces I picked up at FFM. I had to replace a couple of my favorite zoas that fell victim to a rogue emerald crab before I could remove him.