jsammon96
New Member
I got my first freshwater tank from a friend who was moving and couldn't take it with them, and it wasn't long before I realized freshwater wouldn't be as satisfying as building and maintaining a reef aquarium. Being on a graduate student budget, I knew my best shot at getting into a reef tank would be perusing facebook marketplace for used gear. After a few weeks of checking marketplace on study breaks I found it. 40 gallon breeder, stand, and sump for $40. Once again the seller was moving and couldn't take it with them, besides they had found MUCH nicer gear overtime and just didn't have use for it anymore.
I set it up quickly, excited to try my hand in saltwater aquarium keeping. I got it plumbed and cycling in no time.
Over the coming months, I slowly added live rock as I could afford it, and got some damsels to begin gauging the readiness of my biological filter, and things were going really well considering the budget limitations. I was doing the reading and taking my time as I went.
The damsels were doing fine, so then I added some chromis and set up my refugium and added my first, beginner corals. Obviously I had read terrible things about pulsing xenia but my girlfriend wouldn't take no for an answer so it was xenia and gsp to start.
Things were going well, and a small CUC was added, as well as an oscellaris, a frostbite clown, and skunk cleaner shrimp. Tank was stable and coral was growing. And then, I had to move.
I was only a year in at this point, and was gathering buckets, bubblers, and spent a day packing/catching livestock as quickly as possible. Was able to get everything back up and running without any casualties (or so I thought).
There turned out to be a single, crucial casualty The back panel of my display tank had cracked, and salt was seeping out extremely slowly from damage, likely occurring during transit (had to pack and move the tank solo and the hard pvc may have snagged something or jarred on the road). Petco was running the 50% off sale on 40b aquariums, a quick internet search revealed reasonably priced corner overflows, and I had the tools from a dual 20 gallon freshwater setup I had done as a side project. I was going to try and rebuild the tank before the back panel blew out altogether.
I decided during the rebuild, I would improve upon some of the things I didn't like about my original, used tank. I thought the center overflow was more prone to peeling at the seams, and decided a corner overflow would provide me with more complete display turnover without needing to plump dual returns. Furthermore, instead of using two 3/4" bulkheads to form an herbie overflow, I would upgrade to two 1" bulkheads in a corner overflow. I would also upsize my return from 1/2" to 1" because of the theoretical gains in flow volume (and ended up being SHOCKED by the difference in pump performance). I also needed to upgrade my RO/DI system, as our well water is hardly (if at all) fit for human consumption, let alone aquarium water.
BRS 6 Stage on DIY Rack (Needed to be Moveable)
Holes Drilled (Carefully) on new Aqueon 40b. Had to triple check it was not tempered before feeling confident enough to drill.
Holes drilled, time for the overflow to be siliconed in. After a great deal of research I decided to go with the first "aquarium safe" silicone available as to avoid further delay considering my cracked tank could give any day. a bead around the edge and pressed into place, then another layer to give it a finished and watertight appearance.
Time to Paint. Made some mistakes with initial coat (evident in the photos) but easy to fix with a scraper and repaint on just the affected areas. I believe my issue was a combination of extremely high florida humidity (literally rained like everyday during this) and a slightly too thick first coat, but again easy enough fix with a scraper on the affected areas.
Then a day to really make sure the tank was ready to be handled, and it was time to ONCE AGAIN drain my display tank, capture livestock, and slide the aquarium to the other side of the room, replace the display tank, and (this time) hard plumb in the new upgraded 1" drains and return lines. This ended up taking a lot more time than I thought. Really though, I had managed to move from Gainesville to Tampa a week or two prior, so a move across the kitchen really felt pretty painless. Reassembly was sweaty and there were some connections I needed to revise as I was extremely cautious not to apply torque to the new bulkheads, since that was the whole reason I was in this situation. After everything was water tight, I refilled and turned on the pumps.
Extremely satisfied with the upgraded pipe diameter. I had not realized just how choked my flow had been through the 1/2" flex hose. My hygger DC pump was rated at 1300 and there is no way I was even touching 800gph at full blast through that thin pipe. The first time I tested the 1 inch pipe was actually before I transferred to the new tank, and I almost flooded the house when the pump came on at 50% through the same drain settings I was running the 1/2" pipe on 100%. Wish I had a great before and after on the flow, but again it was really a shock the first time I ran the same pump through pipe that was 2x the ID of the prior hose diameter.
The upgrade/replacement wasn't without its stressors. I had decided to start with a clean slate and clean all my reef rock after the move because I had some questionable growths (although no true obvious hitchhikers) and because after the move I had gotten a pistol shrimp/goby pair that I knew would pose issues if I didn't glue the rocks together properly before putting them back in. I think this led to a mini cycle and algae grew and my GSP and xenia were NOT happy about it. minimal pulsing, and my once long, flowing and full GSP had retreated into its mat for days before it began peaking out again.
Further, I had actually lost the shrimp during the move, never saw it come out of the tank, couldn't find it in the sand I removed from the old tank, and couldn't find him in any of the shells/rocks. Thought for sure he was a gonner until almost a week later when my goby found him and they reunited. 2 moves, 2 different display tanks, and all new plumbing. 1 chromis lost to infection that was likely a result of stressors during this time. I made it through a move and a display tank rebuild/upgrade after cracking my original, but after all of that I knew it was time to finally create my build thread. It felt as though I'd sort of earned the Tank Build Badge after all of it, and I'm more into the hobby than ever (despite the budget limitations).
Display - 40b with internal corner overflow box (herbie) and 1" drilled return
Lighting - Viparspectra 165W LED + OR3 Blue+ + OR3 Day Reef
Sump - 29g with single bubble trap
Skimmer - 2nd hand reef octopus 150int
Refugium - chaeto and recycled black substrate in large, porous filter bag (growing crazy amount of amphipods and copepods)
Marine Pure Bio Balls
Media Reactor with minimal charcoal and GFO (mini cycle buffering given all the craziness recently)
Livestock (with fins)
1 Oscellaris Clownfish (Penny), 1 Snowflake Clownfish (Snoopy), Copper Banded Butterfly (Cooper), Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Winston), Yellow Rose Goby and Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp (Bonnie & Clyde), 2 peppermint shrimp, 3 chromis, assorted CUC
Coral (the fin-less)
GSP, Pulsing Xenia
Less sure about the following (so if you see it or want to offer ID) I believe I recently got a Favia, Acan, and Mushroom (6 dollars each and the day was kind of a blur bc I also got the shrimp and goby so I forgot the coral names just went with the recommended picks from my LFS that day).
Happy Reefing Everybody!
If you made it this far thanks for the read.
I set it up quickly, excited to try my hand in saltwater aquarium keeping. I got it plumbed and cycling in no time.
Over the coming months, I slowly added live rock as I could afford it, and got some damsels to begin gauging the readiness of my biological filter, and things were going really well considering the budget limitations. I was doing the reading and taking my time as I went.
The damsels were doing fine, so then I added some chromis and set up my refugium and added my first, beginner corals. Obviously I had read terrible things about pulsing xenia but my girlfriend wouldn't take no for an answer so it was xenia and gsp to start.
Things were going well, and a small CUC was added, as well as an oscellaris, a frostbite clown, and skunk cleaner shrimp. Tank was stable and coral was growing. And then, I had to move.
I was only a year in at this point, and was gathering buckets, bubblers, and spent a day packing/catching livestock as quickly as possible. Was able to get everything back up and running without any casualties (or so I thought).
There turned out to be a single, crucial casualty The back panel of my display tank had cracked, and salt was seeping out extremely slowly from damage, likely occurring during transit (had to pack and move the tank solo and the hard pvc may have snagged something or jarred on the road). Petco was running the 50% off sale on 40b aquariums, a quick internet search revealed reasonably priced corner overflows, and I had the tools from a dual 20 gallon freshwater setup I had done as a side project. I was going to try and rebuild the tank before the back panel blew out altogether.
I decided during the rebuild, I would improve upon some of the things I didn't like about my original, used tank. I thought the center overflow was more prone to peeling at the seams, and decided a corner overflow would provide me with more complete display turnover without needing to plump dual returns. Furthermore, instead of using two 3/4" bulkheads to form an herbie overflow, I would upgrade to two 1" bulkheads in a corner overflow. I would also upsize my return from 1/2" to 1" because of the theoretical gains in flow volume (and ended up being SHOCKED by the difference in pump performance). I also needed to upgrade my RO/DI system, as our well water is hardly (if at all) fit for human consumption, let alone aquarium water.
BRS 6 Stage on DIY Rack (Needed to be Moveable)
Holes Drilled (Carefully) on new Aqueon 40b. Had to triple check it was not tempered before feeling confident enough to drill.
Holes drilled, time for the overflow to be siliconed in. After a great deal of research I decided to go with the first "aquarium safe" silicone available as to avoid further delay considering my cracked tank could give any day. a bead around the edge and pressed into place, then another layer to give it a finished and watertight appearance.
Time to Paint. Made some mistakes with initial coat (evident in the photos) but easy to fix with a scraper and repaint on just the affected areas. I believe my issue was a combination of extremely high florida humidity (literally rained like everyday during this) and a slightly too thick first coat, but again easy enough fix with a scraper on the affected areas.
Then a day to really make sure the tank was ready to be handled, and it was time to ONCE AGAIN drain my display tank, capture livestock, and slide the aquarium to the other side of the room, replace the display tank, and (this time) hard plumb in the new upgraded 1" drains and return lines. This ended up taking a lot more time than I thought. Really though, I had managed to move from Gainesville to Tampa a week or two prior, so a move across the kitchen really felt pretty painless. Reassembly was sweaty and there were some connections I needed to revise as I was extremely cautious not to apply torque to the new bulkheads, since that was the whole reason I was in this situation. After everything was water tight, I refilled and turned on the pumps.
Extremely satisfied with the upgraded pipe diameter. I had not realized just how choked my flow had been through the 1/2" flex hose. My hygger DC pump was rated at 1300 and there is no way I was even touching 800gph at full blast through that thin pipe. The first time I tested the 1 inch pipe was actually before I transferred to the new tank, and I almost flooded the house when the pump came on at 50% through the same drain settings I was running the 1/2" pipe on 100%. Wish I had a great before and after on the flow, but again it was really a shock the first time I ran the same pump through pipe that was 2x the ID of the prior hose diameter.
The upgrade/replacement wasn't without its stressors. I had decided to start with a clean slate and clean all my reef rock after the move because I had some questionable growths (although no true obvious hitchhikers) and because after the move I had gotten a pistol shrimp/goby pair that I knew would pose issues if I didn't glue the rocks together properly before putting them back in. I think this led to a mini cycle and algae grew and my GSP and xenia were NOT happy about it. minimal pulsing, and my once long, flowing and full GSP had retreated into its mat for days before it began peaking out again.
Further, I had actually lost the shrimp during the move, never saw it come out of the tank, couldn't find it in the sand I removed from the old tank, and couldn't find him in any of the shells/rocks. Thought for sure he was a gonner until almost a week later when my goby found him and they reunited. 2 moves, 2 different display tanks, and all new plumbing. 1 chromis lost to infection that was likely a result of stressors during this time. I made it through a move and a display tank rebuild/upgrade after cracking my original, but after all of that I knew it was time to finally create my build thread. It felt as though I'd sort of earned the Tank Build Badge after all of it, and I'm more into the hobby than ever (despite the budget limitations).
Display - 40b with internal corner overflow box (herbie) and 1" drilled return
Lighting - Viparspectra 165W LED + OR3 Blue+ + OR3 Day Reef
Sump - 29g with single bubble trap
Skimmer - 2nd hand reef octopus 150int
Refugium - chaeto and recycled black substrate in large, porous filter bag (growing crazy amount of amphipods and copepods)
Marine Pure Bio Balls
Media Reactor with minimal charcoal and GFO (mini cycle buffering given all the craziness recently)
Livestock (with fins)
1 Oscellaris Clownfish (Penny), 1 Snowflake Clownfish (Snoopy), Copper Banded Butterfly (Cooper), Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Winston), Yellow Rose Goby and Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp (Bonnie & Clyde), 2 peppermint shrimp, 3 chromis, assorted CUC
Coral (the fin-less)
GSP, Pulsing Xenia
Less sure about the following (so if you see it or want to offer ID) I believe I recently got a Favia, Acan, and Mushroom (6 dollars each and the day was kind of a blur bc I also got the shrimp and goby so I forgot the coral names just went with the recommended picks from my LFS that day).
Happy Reefing Everybody!
If you made it this far thanks for the read.
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