Wesley's 40 Breeder Sumpless

[Wesley42079]

Hello fellow reefers. I wanted to finally start a thread on my 40 Breeder sumpless tank.

I decided to go sumpless, to see if I can make this little piece of the ocean can sustain.

I am excited to finally setup the tank, since my wife got me the aquarium for my birthday 1 year ago.


EQUIPMENT:

40 AGA glass aquarium (36x18x16)
ATI 6x36w Sunpower
(2) Ecotech Vortech MP10wes
20 lbs of Aragonite #3 grain sand
20 lbs Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Live Aragonite Samoa Pink
30+ lbs Marco rock
10+ lbs misc rock
Egg crate/light difusser (35.6" x 17.5")
Aqua Clear 110 fuge
Reef Octopus bh100f skimmer (pump needed)
Fluval 305


3/25/2012

Here is a picture of the tank with 25 gallons of salt water

2 hours later (2:34am PST) I finally got the rockscape the way I want it. I still need to purchase another 5-10 gallons of salt water.

 

[Manners]

I love the 40B man, one of my favorite sized tanks! Looks to be a good start.

 

[Singlefin]

still waiting to finish my stand so i can get mine wet.

 

[Wesley42079]

I love the 40B man, one of my favorite sized tanks! Looks to be a good start.

Manners, Yes I love the footprint of this tank. I like have 18" front to back to work with.

still waiting to finish my stand so i can get mine wet.

Singlefin, I was thinking of building my own stand, but I am not handy with the tools. I searched Craigslist and even got desperate and checked with PetSmart and Petco. Unfortunately they didn't have any stands that fit the 40 Breeder.

I luckily scored a stand from a lfs, Dolphin Pet Village.

I was so excited to set the tank up last year, but I was undecided as to which light source I would go with (T5 or LED). After 1 year of reading and comparing threads, I finally decided to go with T5's. T5's have been used in the reefing hobby for years, so why wouldn't I go with a fixture that has a good history with reefers. My only problem is bleaching my dominant lps tank.

 

[revsgirl]

Lookin' great!! Can't wait to see its progress!! Good luck! 1smile1

 

[revhtree]

I like it! Is it going to be a mixed reef?

 

[MyReefToYours]

I love the look of a 40 BR.

 

[Built347]

Nice! .. love the vortechs...

 

[sprinklerdudes]

I used to have a 40b they are a nice size, and it seems to make most live rock fit the proper scale in the aquascaping

 

[Singlefin]

In half handy w my hands. I built the frame and my friend got mad cause it wasn't perfect so he's finishing it. Any day now. Might have made it crooked on purpose.


...Layered in salt....

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

Nice start. Love the scalping. Can't wait for more.

 

[Wesley42079]

Lookin' great!! Can't wait to see its progress!! Good luck! 1smile1

Thanks for the comment Revsgirl. I really appreciate it.

I like it! Is it going to be a mixed reef?

Yes Rev, this will be a mixed reef, but primarily LPS. I am afraid of venturing too much to SPS (I might RTN all the sticks on accident).

I would like to thank you for providing us reefers a platform to share our experiences and build threads.

Nice! .. love the vortechs...

I too love the Vortech's. I just have to figure out what setting to place them on. Alot of people life reefcrest, so maybe I'll try that.

I currently have them set to constant (green led) and dialed up half way.

I used to have a 40b they are a nice size, and it seems to make most live rock fit the proper scale in the aquascaping

Yes, that is the reason why I purchased the 40b. It allows me to aquascape and have that natural feel as compared to my 29 Bio Cube.

 

[Wesley42079]

Since I am waiting for the tank to cycle, I figure I would begin with my story on how the 40 Breeder came to be. Please be patient, this will be a very intensive picture post(s).


I wanted to start a 40 Breeder. I've always seen other reefers with this tank and I just love the footprint. Since my wife didn't know what to get me for my birthday (4/20/2011), I asked her if she could purchase the 40 Breeder as my present. Now, I wasn't in any rush to purchase it at retail price. While browsing through the Craigslist website, I luckily found a local reefer who was selling his 40 breeder. I hurridly made the purchase, but shortly after sold the setup. I wasn't too fond of the blue background and didn't want to scrape the blue paint off.

So, I waited for Petco to have their $1 per gallon sale. I called all my local Petco brick and mortar locations and luckily, I got a tip from one of the employees. He stated that their location has ordered multiple pallets full of aquariums (specifically the 40 breeder). He told me to look out within the next 2 weeks for the adds to display the sale. Lo and behold, my wife finally purchased the aquarium around 8/9/2011.

Now, that I have the tank, I began my hunt to look for a stand. I didn't want to build my own, since I am not handy with the tools.

So my search began looking online, Petsmart and Petco. Unfortunately, I was having such a hard time trying to find a stand that matched the measurements of the aquarium (36x18). After checking a few of my lfs, I found one at Dolphin Pet Village.

 

[Wesley42079]

9/18/2011, I began to paind the back wall of the aquarium.

In September, I began my journey to purchase a few Ecotech Vortech MP10's. Luckily I found a local reefer who was selling his (2) MP10w ES for a good price. I've contacted him and we went back and forth for a few weeks. I didn't think the deal was ever going to go through, so I purchased one off of another reefer MP10 es. As luck would have it, the previous selling contacted me a week later and wanted to know if I was interested. I ended up purchasing his (2) MP10w ES. At the time I had (3) MP10's, which I never hooked up on my BC29. I wanted to wait until I had my 40 Breeder ready.

Well, alot of time past before I started to think about my 40 Breeder build. I was torn between going LED's or T5's. I read numerous threads about the pro's and con's of LED's and T5's. I ended up going with T5's, since they are tried and true in this hobby.

Next, I started to scour the threads in figuring out if TEK or ATI's would be the fixture. Tek ELITE's would be nice since they have internal cooling, but nobody on the forums were selling used ones. One day, I stumbled upon a reefer who was selling his ATI 6x39w for a really, really good price. I waited a day or two and decided to pull the trigger and purchase the fixture.

This past month, May 2011 I was

 

[Wesley42079]

Here are a few more pictures I took this evening, 5/28/11.

I am beginning to love my aquascaping. You might not be able to teel with the pictures below, but I have 3 good caves where I can place my chalices.

Well, enjoy the pictures.

 

[Wesley42079]

Here are just (3) more pictures taken today.


This is the right side profile of the aquarium.

View of the 40 Breeder and ATI fixture

 

[jonbar1]

Looking good and I'll definitely be following along!

Did you build or buy the light hanger?

 

[Singlefin]

Looks good. Thanks for the write up.


Part of me is salty...,

 

[Steelerfan747]

very nice, I love the caves in the scape. Good luck with out and be sure to keep posting to let us know how it goes

 

[reefmadness]

Great looking scape. Just as a heads up though, I would consider adding another 20 or so pounds of sand. It will help with biological filtration as you are not running a sump to house extra live rock and macro algae. I too have a 40 breeder and absolutely love it. I personally think it's a great footprint and gives you lots of options as to what you can do with your reef. Good choice on your skimmer as well. I am a firm believer that a good quality skimmer is the key to a successful reef. Good luck and I will be following along. One more question, what type of rock did you use for your scape? I'm setting up my gf with a larger tank and would love to find similar rock as to what you used.