40 B Journey

[Solga]

Ok,  this is going to be the page that I dedicate to getting my saltwater aquarium up and going.   I will warn anyone who is reading that this will be a drawn out process, as my work schedule and the holidays will be dictating how much time I can put into getting everything set up and together.  Not to mention, I like to make sure I have my ducks in a row before I go throwing things together. If you cant tell by the title, I have a 40 breeder aquarium now, (thanks to $ per gallon sale).  The next item up, will be building a stand for it.  The stand will not be anything fancy, just a simple 2x4 stand with some kind of skinning on the outside.

I am leaning towards getting a Fiji cube AIO insert for this tank.  I am just afraid that with a sump, and having occasional power outages,  I really do not want a whole aquarium worth of water all over the floor of my house.

For lighting, I am probably going to go with a LED T5 hybrid of some sorts.  I do not have anything definite planned yet, but I am open to considerations.  Also, I have the $$ to buy the best of the best name brands, but I prefer to buy on a more practical sense.  I don't need wifi, remote access, fingerprint security, Alexa capabilities, the ability to switch to grow the best THC based plants, or even automatic door locks & power windows (errr canopies). lol 

For coral, I am not the type of person to go spend a bunch of money on a name,  so I will probably be shopping for the bargain deals and the "I'm not real sure what this is" sales.  I will have a GSP (cheap) island, cheaper Zoas, clove polyp & softies, a couple rock nem's and maybe a leather or 2.  Don't grill me too much, but I am just not a fan of SPS, so there wont be any of those.

 

As far as fish stocking goes, I think it would be neat to have a goby (singular or pair) dominated tank, with maybe one clown fish.  Although I am still doing research on what all kinds of gobies can be placed together in the same aquarium, I seem to be getting some conflicting information.  Does anyone have actual, first hand experience with this ?

 

I already have about 150 pounds of dry rock, and will do the majority of scaping with it, but I am not wanting to start and cycle this with only dry rock.  Does anyone have an idea on where to buy just one or two (live) rock ?  The closest LFS to me is about 30 minutes away, and I very rarely travel to that city.  The next closest is over an hour away.  I have looked online at the vendors for the cultured live rock, and it seems as if the minimum order is for 25 pounds ... and I don't need 25 more pounds of rock.

 

Enough rambling for now 

,

Adam

[kimdawg]

We seem to have the same ideas about saltwater tanks.  I have a 75 gallon full of GSP, kenya tree, and some waving hand stuff.  My little new contest tank is going to be RFA, riccordea, and some cheap zoas.  Honestly, I couldn't keep a "stick" alive if I tried.  I just switched from a flip phone to an iPhone and would never hook anything up to it.  If you don't know about them check out ReefCleaners and Gulf Coast Ecosystems.  They are both easy to work with and have great stuff.  There are both high tech and no tech people on here and everyone is great about answering questions.  I have never kept gobies so I can't help there but best of luck with your tank and keep posting as you make progress.

[Solga]

Thank you kimdawg ! I will definitely check out those sites you listed ! 

 

Adam

[Solga]

Just a quick update, I have a 75 gpd RODI unit on the way, and I decided to go ahead with the sump, so I also ordered a 800gph overflow kit from modular marine.
Just going to reuse a sump setup that I already have in storage. Gonna start looking for a return pump before too long.

[filefishfinatic]

nice that you got a rodi, where did you get 200 lbs of dry rock btw? personally i would sell it all and buy live rock. salty bottom sells like 40 lbs for 250$. if you want to try something cool with the tank, instead of a clown, get like bangaii cardinals and then a longspine urchin. if i could make my 40b salt, i would get a ton of cool little fish and then get like some wrasse and butterflyfish. i think that some butterflies can live in a 40 gal. foxface are awesome but they will get too big eventually 

[Solga]

9 minutes ago, filefishfinatic said:

nice that you got a rodi, where did you get 200 lbs of dry rock btw? personally i would sell it all and buy live rock. salty bottom sells like 40 lbs for 250$. if you want to try something cool with the tank, instead of a clown, get like bangaii cardinals and then a longspine urchin. if i could make my 40b salt, i would get a ton of cool little fish and then get like some wrasse and butterflyfish. i think that some butterflies can live in a 40 gal. foxface are awesome but they will get too big eventually 

Some of the (dry) live rock that I have came from past aquariums that I have owned, or a couple pieces that I picked up here and there because I thought they looked interesting.  About 100 (or so) # of the rock came from my Dad when he decided to tear down his 225.  He took all of the rock out, put it in a plastic tote and told me if I knew anyone that wanted it, to come get it.  I knew what is was, so I picked it up from him the next time I went to see him.  Then I cleaned it all up, and put it all into brute trash cans, to use at a later time.  

 

I figured when I get the room (after the kids move out, lol) I will probably set up a big tank and use the rock in it.

I also figured that I may be able to use some of the dry rock to trade off for a couple pieces of actual live rock from a (semi) local reefer, if I could ever actually find one.