40 gallon aio build

reefing4days · Jun 11, 2019

I've been lurking around on this forum for quite a while and now that I will be setting up another tank, I figured its time to make an account and a post on my build. I will soon be moving to a new appartment and decided this would be the best time to upgrade to a 40 gallon breeder since I love the dimentions of the tank.

Im hoping to catch a petco dollar per gallon sale soon to get the 40 gallon tank. I will be using the aquatic fundamentals stand for 65 gallon from petco. Since I live in an appartment right now, aio systems seem to work best for me so i will also be ordering a fiji cube aio kit for 40 gallon.

My lighting will be an ai hydra 26. Depending on how that does, I may stick with one or add another hydra. I am looking to keep a mixed reef in this tank. I also have a jbj ato system and tunze 9004 skimmer.

For rock, I will be using establised rock from my current system as well as established rock from a person who was taking down their reef locally. In total, I will have around 50 lbs of rock. The rock that i got locally is waiting in a tub with a heater and circulation pump.

For livestock, my plan is:
Clownfish (currently have)
Longnose hawkfish
Orchid dottyback
Hopefully a mandarin goby
Variety of snails and hermits
Tuxedo urchin

For the mandarin, I plan to only get one if I truely think i am able and ready to keep it healthy. I already hatch baby brine so plan to set up a mandarin diner. Since i will not have a fuge on this tank, i already have multiple tisbe and tigger copepod cultures going that add up to around 14.5 gallons of culture. I also culture white worms for my fresh and saltwater fish so can see if a mandarin would be willing to take those.

Any recommendations or comments on this build are always welcome. Thanks for reading

Peach02 · Jun 11, 2019

reefing4days said:
I've been lurking around on this forum for quite a while and now that I will be setting up another tank, I figured its time to make an account and a post on my build. I will soon be moving to a new appartment and decided this would be the best time to upgrade to a 40 gallon breeder since I love the dimentions of the tank.

Im hoping to catch a petco dollar per gallon sale soon to get the 40 gallon tank. I will be using the aquatic fundamentals stand for 65 gallon from petco. Since I live in an appartment right now, aio systems seem to work best for me so i will also be ordering a fiji cube aio kit for 40 gallon.

My lighting will be an ai hydra 26. Depending on how that does, I may stick with one or add another hydra. I am looking to keep a mixed reef in this tank. I also have a jbj ato system and tunze 9004 skimmer.

For rock, I will be using establised rock from my current system as well as established rock from a person who was taking down their reef locally. In total, I will have around 50 lbs of rock. The rock that i got locally is waiting in a tub with a heater and circulation pump.

For livestock, my plan is:
Clownfish (currently have)
Longnose hawkfish
Orchid dottyback
Hopefully a mandarin goby
Variety of snails and hermits
Tuxedo urchin

For the mandarin, I plan to only get one if I truely think i am able and ready to keep it healthy. I already hatch baby brine so plan to set up a mandarin diner. Since i will not have a fuge on this tank, i already have multiple tisbe and tigger copepod cultures going that add up to around 14.5 gallons of culture. I also culture white worms for my fresh and saltwater fish so can see if a mandarin would be willing to take those.

Any recommendations or comments on this build are always welcome. Thanks for reading

sounds great, I've got a AI prime for my 33g and its great so one hydra should be sufficient unless you want even more control.

Not sure if you will be able to fit 50 pounds of rock in a 50gallon tank I've got about 30 in my 33gallon and its almost too much rock.

For keeping mandarin fish what I found is they won't eat for the first day or so and initially frozen copepods worked for me but they are most likely to eat if you turn off all water flow for 10 min while they eat and initially I tried spot feeding it with a syringe but it more often than not scared it off. I also recommend finding one that is already chubby before buying it e.g. with mine they both where fat when I bought them and that I think helped them adjusting (they are still fat and happy). check out my build thread if you want any ideas

reefing4days · Jun 11, 2019

Peach02 said:
sounds great, I've got a AI prime for my 33g and its great so one hydra should be sufficient unless you want even more control.

Not sure if you will be able to fit 50 pounds of rock in a 50gallon tank I've got about 30 in my 33gallon and its almost too much rock.

For keeping mandarin fish what I found is they won't eat for the first day or so and initially frozen copepods worked for me but they are most likely to eat if you turn off all water flow for 10 min while they eat and initially I tried spot feeding it with a syringe but it more often than not scared it off. I also recommend finding one that is already chubby before buying it e.g. with mine they both where fat when I bought them and that I think helped them adjusting (they are still fat and happy). check out my build thread if you want any ideas

Thank you! I really doubt I will use all of the rock but i got the new rock for so cheap i figured I would get more than i need and so that I can play with the aquascaping more

Peach02 · Jun 11, 2019

reefing4days said:
Thank you! I really doubt I will use all of the rock but i got the new rock for so cheap i figured I would get more than i need and so that I can play with the aquascaping more

fair enough goodluck

Richard Ivory · Jun 12, 2019

all sounds good ,good luck with the build

reefing4days · Jul 11, 2019

Finally moved into the new appartment! Unfortunately the dollar per gallon sale started after the move so I couldnt just make it one transfer. But this just allows me more time to make sure everything is right before I move livestock. Had some minor issues with equipment while setting up but it eventually all worked out. I thought my ato was broken since my pump wasnt turning on but it turns out I was sold some bad pumps. Luckily, I had my own pumps laying around and after some tinkering around got the ato working. This isnt the final look since i still am going to add rock from my old system before i play around with rock scapes. Overall, im a fan of heavier rock scapes since they look more natural to me rather than arches (although i can still appreciate a nice arch). Ive had this rock cycling for over a month now in a tub so im going to keep an eye on water chemistry but I should hopefully be able to move livestock this weekend

reefing4days · Jul 11, 2019

Another problem I ran into was with my Fiji cube all in one insert. I love the look of the insert but the moment I turned on the pump it sucked the chamber dry. I saw the pump had a control for flow but even on the lowest setting it was too strong. I ended up putting a wad of filter floss in the tube of the pump to slow the flow. It worked for now but I might see if i can find a valve I can put on so i have more control of flow.

reefing4days · Jul 14, 2019

Not the best pic since the blues are on for the night but today I got everything moved into the new tank

count krunk · Jul 14, 2019

could you expand on how you transformed this into an AIO?

reefing4days · Jul 16, 2019

count krunk said:
could you expand on how you transformed this into an AIO?

I used the fiji cube all in one insert. It fits nicely inside the tank and comes with some magnets and brackets that hold it in place. The magnets honestly dont do much and the brackets broke while i was filling up the tank because the insert started to float. The rockwork holds it in place just fine though. The insert came with a pump and a media basket and my skimmer fits perfectly in the center chamber

reefing4days · Jul 16, 2019

A lot of my zoas are still not very happy after the move but so far everything still looks healthy and some corals are starting to perk up again

reefing4days · Aug 18, 2019

Tank update: Since setting up my upgrade tank, i have added a long nose hawkfish. He seems to be settled in well and gets along with everything else in the tank. The major issue i am having is algae. I never really had algae issues before so this is my first real battle with it. The copepods are loving it though. I am trying to narrow down what the cause is and so far I have come up with 2 options. Right before the algae started, I changed my lighting from stock lighting to my hydra 26 so it is possible this is due to too much light. I have since reduced my light settings and the growth seems to have slowed but is still going strong. The other change I made around the same time was my salt. I was using Fluval sea salt and had great success with it but had to buy instant ocean when i was unable to get my hands on my other salt. I am going to look for my other salt so I can switch back and see if that makes a difference. Typically I dont have a problem with algae as long as its under control but this stuff is trying to take over. Ive had quite a few of my zoas snuffed out by it already even when i blow it off every day. Luckily my zoas seem to be the only ones killed by it so far but my other corals are unhappy about me having to blow the algae off so often. I have also added some phosguard to my filtration to see if that would help at all

Peach02 · Aug 18, 2019

reefing4days said:
Tank update: Since setting up my upgrade tank, i have added a long nose hawkfish. He seems to be settled in well and gets along with everything else in the tank. The major issue i am having is algae. I never really had algae issues before so this is my first real battle with it. The copepods are loving it though. I am trying to narrow down what the cause is and so far I have come up with 2 options. Right before the algae started, I changed my lighting from stock lighting to my hydra 26 so it is possible this is due to too much light. I have since reduced my light settings and the growth seems to have slowed but is still going strong. The other change I made around the same time was my salt. I was using Fluval sea salt and had great success with it but had to buy instant ocean when i was unable to get my hands on my other salt. I am going to look for my other salt so I can switch back and see if that makes a difference. Typically I dont have a problem with algae as long as its under control but this stuff is trying to take over. Ive had quite a few of my zoas snuffed out by it already even when i blow it off every day. Luckily my zoas seem to be the only ones killed by it so far but my other corals are unhappy about me having to blow the algae off so often. I have also added some phosguard to my filtration to see if that would help at all

The algae might be due to the improved spectrum of the hydra. If you get some chaeto for the sumo and a good refugium light it should outcompete the algae in the DT

reefing4days · Sep 8, 2019

So i went on vacation for a week and had someone doing the bare minimum care while I was gone. I came back to a huge GHA outbreak. Some of my zoas got so covered that they melted away. Others I think i may have gotten to in time. They still havent opened but they arent melted and the polyps still look fat and healthy. This was about 2 weeks ago. When I got home I went on a scrubbing spree to remove as much as possible followed by a water change. Then I reduced my lighting even more. Since reducing the light, the GHA has not really grown back and the small patches that were left were easy to scrub away. I am also happy to see that coralline algae is filling spaces in the rock and growing on the back wall, also preventing the gha from growing. There are still small areas of gha but I dont mind having some in there as long as its not taking over. If everything keeps going well, I should be able to add some more soft coral this month. Im probably going to add some xenia. Its always been my favorite. I had it about a year ago but ended up taking it out since so many people say they regret it. Unfortunantly I just cant resist it and have decided to add it to my "invasive rock" that holds all of the corals people suggest against but I think look cool. Right now I'm just happy i worked through the gha and once again have a tank im pretty proud of

reefing4days · May 12, 2020

Its been a long battle with algae and im still dealing with it but it is at least a little under control now. Ive added a new skimmer that works much better. I tried a refugium and it failed. Also tried a diy cheato reactor and it also eventually failed though it worked for a while. I think cheato is just not a method that works for me. I started dosing nopox and that has definitely been why my algae is getting under control. Ever since starting nopox my algae doesnt grow nearly as much and falls off the rock. I can now get back to working on getting my corals healthy and colorful again. After algae choking my corals out, many are colorless or dull and only a few have grown much at all.