40 Gallon Mixed Reef - First time Reefer

[pluikens]

Hello all-

I'm putting together my first saltwater tank and I'll be documenting my progress here. Any and all feedback is appreciated! I'll be asking for suggestions on specific equipment but also looking for general thoughts on the setup. I have the benefit of being a 20 minute drive from Bulk Reef Supply and they have been a huge help through this. I'm about three weeks into the project so the first posts will be catching up to where I'm currently at.

40 Gallon breeder tank on homemade 2x4 stand. In the process of skinning the cabinet and adding doors.

 

[pluikens]

I will be using a 20 gallon long tank for my sump. I got the tank measured and had 1/4 inch glass cut at a local shop. My first time siliconing went as well as I could have expected. I went with an under-over-under style baffle because I read that they were easier to clean and get stuff unstuck that may wind up there. Until I get my protein skimmer, I will be using the middle chamber for a refugium with some Chaetomorpha under an LED grow light. The protein skimmer will have to go into the middle chamber with the refugium first due to the footprint of the skimmer and the room I allowed in the sump.

 

[pluikens]

The stand now has doors and the whole stand is stained a very dark brown (almost black) to match the other trim in the house. The doors attach with magnets so I can remove them completely when working under the tank. I have an LED light off of one of my freshwater tanks currently set up. The light is only on for maybe an hour a day while curing. I plan to start with one AI Prime HD and get a second one once I have a few corals. I'm currently curing 40 pounds of Pukani dry live rock in the tank with saltwater at 80 degrees. I drilled three 1 inch holes in the tank and added a CPR retrofuit overflow box with herbie style overflow plumbing. The next update will be plumbing the tank and getting water running through the sump.

 

[KJ]

Nice looking tank

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

I have the benefit of being a 20 minute drive from Bulk Reef Supply

I hate your guts. So jealous! You seem like you're well on your way. Interested to follow along.

 

[pluikens]

Any thoughts on the aquascape? The large rock on the bottom left and the two rocks on the bottom right come to about 6 inches from the front glass. The front middle will be about 8 inches of sand in front of the rock.

 

[pluikens]

Not only does my fiancee put up with my incessant reef talk but she also gets me useful gifts for my birthday. My birthday was last week and my future wife got me a RO/DI system! Very happy with the system so far and looking forward to getting it plumbed to a water faucet at the kitchen sink and the water/ice in my fridge door.

 

[pluikens]

I now have the sump in the tank, plumbed with water running through for the curing process. Below are pictures of the tank with the refugium light on over the extra Pukani rock I had left over.

 

[pluikens]

A better view of the plumbing job I completed this week. 1 inch orange pipe for the overflow with a spears gate valve into the sump exiting into a CPR 4 inch filter sock holder and 1 inch violet pipe for the return plumbing with a spears swing check valve. The fiancee picked the plumbing colors (one of the few ways I can keep her interested) and I really like how it looks under the lights.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

Looks very nice. My personal preference for a stand is not to have an center brace down the front because I find it gets in the way.
I like your plumbing so far.

 

[pluikens]

Looks very nice. My personal preference for a stand is not to have an center brace down the front because I find it gets in the way.
I like your plumbing so far.

Thanks! If I had to do it again, I wouldn't have the middle brace either. I had to remove the back middle brace to get the sump tank in and noticed it was more than strong enough without it. Knowing that, I would have left out the front brace and had one access door. Thanks again!

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

Well if it ever gets to the point where you're fed up, your reciprocation saw'll be your friend. (I mean with the stand's front center brace) You can give it the o'l chopperoo.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Looks like you are off to a good start! The aquascape looks good, but the top rocks are pretty close to the surface. You might consider bringing the structure down a little bit so you have more room for corals to grow...those top shelves will be primo real estate

Otherwise, looks really nice!

 

[alex.mccann99]

20 min from BRS? Very jealous...

 

[alex.mccann99]

Looks like you are off to a good start! The aquascape looks good, but the top rocks are pretty close to the surface. You might consider bringing the structure down a little bit so you have more room for corals to grow...those top shelves will be primo real estate

Otherwise, looks really nice!

That's a really good point there, you don't realize how different things look once you've had coral growing and start running out of room.

 

[Hamm Corals]

Looking good[emoji106][emoji108].
I basically have the same set up, let me know if you have any questions

 

[pluikens]

Thanks for the suggestions on lowering the rock. I think I'll be much happier with more room for corals. 40 pounds of Fiji Pink live sand was added this weekend as well a piece of live rock from my LFS. I'm picking up some glue from BRS this afternoon to lock down the aquascape.

I also got a QT set up on Saturday and picked out a pair of percula clownfish from my LFS to reside there for about a month. They seem to be doing well, eating flake food at the shop as well as after I got them in the QT. I also have some frozen mysis shrimp that I'm feeding once a day.

QT Setup:
10 gallon tank
100 watt heater
Aquaclear 30 HOB filter
PVC pipe for structure
Seachem Ammonia Alert
158 GPH powerhead
Started QT with BIO-Spira before adding fish

As always thanks for the feedback and keep it coming!

 

[pluikens]

I started the fishless cycling of the tank yesterday and I’ll be posting my readings to record the progress. Yesterday I added 4 oz of Dr. Tim's One & Only Live Nitrifying Bacteria and 240 drops (yes, I counted) of Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride. I removed the filter sock from the sump before adding these and I have all pumps running as usual.

- Day 1 Results -
Ammonia: 1.8 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm

 

[pluikens]

- Day 2 Results -
Ammonia: 2+ ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm

The Red Sea Marine Care multi test kit only measures up to 2 pm for total ammonia so I won't guess a reading higher than that. I kind of wish I had bought a Seneye Reef Monitor before starting the cycle. If I’m ever going to buy one, it would have been nice to have it to monitor my cycle progress. The tank is still looking a little cloudy from the nitrifying bacteria. I'm anxious to start seeing the ammonia come down over the next few days!

 

[pluikens]

- Day 3 Results -
Ammonia: 1.5 ppm
Nitrite: .2 ppm
Nitrate: 2 ppm

Glad to see nitrite and nitrate showing in the tests so things are headed in the right direction. I'm not yet convinced the ammonia is going down already, it may have been the test (or tester) so I'll have to wait to see what future tests show.

Now with graphs!