40 gallon build

[mjw011689]

Well here’s my attempt at a build thread. This is actually a tank for someone else in my family, but as I’m the one putting it together and maintaining it, I’ll take the credit!

40 gallon with center overflow, 2 holes drilled for durso drain. I went with the 40 pound pack of caribsea south seas base rock and glued the pieces using using glue masters CA and baking soda. Seemed to be very strong. Sump is a standard 20, went with basic baffles, but I may change this later on.

Here’s the tank when I bought it (used).

Prepping the back for paint

water test after paint

 

[mjw011689]

Finished A basic 20g sump. Mostly just wanted a place to hide the heater

One of the dogs wanted to help with the rock and sand

and here’s the 40 pound box of south seas base rock. I am very impressed with it. Seems to be basically the same as Marco rocks from what I’ve seen, but quite a bit cheaper

 

[mjw011689]

Went with a 7 gallon ato reservoir that barely Fit next to the sump. Went with the Neptune Atk auto top off. I’m actually very disappointed in the manufacturing quality of this. It seems to work just fine, so functionality is really the only thing I care about. But the module was very sloppily put together. The cutouts for the black trim for all the usb and other ports Are not lined up properly. I couldn’t even plug in any of the wires or cables. I had to take a small screwdriver and pry the black trim into a position that worked. The usbs are not usable. The ports are basically squished together and a cable no longer fits them. BUT after prying into place, I got everything connected and it DOES work as designed.

aaaaaand the final product. Just started cycle with Dr. Tim’s. The light will be a viparspectra (currently on a 29g biocube that is being upgraded to this).

 

[fishface NJ]

So how is it going?