A 40b upgrade project

[Jimmeh lee]

Leak test is under way! So far so good, no dripping bulkheads!

I didn’t realize that the 10 increments for my simplicity 1600 were ~2.5% and not 10% steps down to a 10% minimum. So it’s minimum is really just a bit over 1100gph. Thank Poseidon for 90* elbows and head pressure I suppose lol. I have it set to 1/10, and the surface movement with the rfg is super nice. I dropped a square of egg crate into the overflow box and that solved the air vortex.

I think I’ve got the rockscape figured out. The right structure I’m really into. The left is replaceable with the rock from the 14. I’m off center with the dimensional cutout, and the right structure may be rotated clockwise slightly. There’s a nice cave in the big structure, as well as space for my little acro rock to settle into.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

I picked up a 10g column kit from petsmart as my ato reservoir. $70 vs $150-200, it will do!

Leak test is still going well. Probably going to drain the tank tomorrow. Might be time to get the rock in after that.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Tank is full with rodi, rock and sand! Raising the temp, then I’m going to add some salt. One of the reef breeders rp-m is on the way. One more of those and a photon v2+ and I think it’s all set.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Impatiently waiting for things to ship.

I took a bit of the biomedia from the 14 and dropped it into the sump, and went fishing. My clowns are now in the 40 along with the media and some microbacter7

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Got a reef breeders rp-m in the mail today! This thing can move some water. It’s a little bigger than I thought it would be, but that’s fine. It’s also making a nasty squealing sound at higher speeds. Goes away when I take it apart and reassemble it, then comes back. The manual says they’re prone to noisiness for the first week or so, so I’m not too worried.
Light gets here Friday. Really contemplating doing the move this weekend.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

It’s heeeeere!
Also check out that surface agitation! Rpm is on reef mode 50%

 

[Jimmeh lee]

I seriously can’t wait to get home from work and get this thing mounted and play with it. Probably going to rent a par meter locally over the weekend.
Like the rp-m, this fixture has heft. It looks and feels very well put together. The power brick is massive though, didn’t expect it to be so big lol.

 

[Amstar]

I picked up a 10g column kit from petsmart as my ato reservoir. $70 vs $150-200, it will do!

Leak test is still going well. Probably going to drain the tank tomorrow. Might be time to get the rock in after that.

Looking good so far. Do you have a link on this ATO reservoir? Nice pick up. Interested to see how you end up liking you flow in the tank

 

[fishface NJ]

Just came across your 40B build. Looks fantastic! Love your corals. Much luck with it all. I just finished building my 40B DIY and a DIY 40B sump using the FijiCube kit. I didn't think to paint the back of my sump....like the way yours looks painted.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Just came across your 40B build. Looks fantastic! Love your corals. Much luck with it all. I just finished building my 40B DIY and a DIY 40B sump using the FijiCube kit. I didn't think to paint the back of my sump....like the way yours looks painted.

Ohhh gonna check it out! Thank you

Looking good so far. Do you have a link on this ATO reservoir? Nice pick up. Interested to see how you end up liking you flow in the tank

Thank you! It was this tank kit, still on sale. It I had a 12x12 piece of black acrylic that I’m using as the lid instead.

Top Fin® Fascinate Column Starter Kit | fish Starter Kits | PetSmart

Top Fin® Fascinate Column Starter Kit at PetSmart. Shop all fish starter kits online

www.petsmart.com

 

[Jimmeh lee]

I did it! The Photon is hung as of this morning. Right now it’s 15-16” off the water, I may raise it up just a little further. This thing is melt your face off bright. I turned it on full power last night when I was goofing around, turned into daylight around me lol.

I’m excited to get it dialed in. I wanted to rent a par meter locally, but the shop that...used... to do rentals had theirs broken. Rentee dropped it right into their tank.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Today was the day! I set up the photon. 11-12 sunrise, 10/10/75/10/75/75 12-7, down to 0/0/30/0/30/30 7-8, sunset 8-9, 10-11 off. The 16hd over the fuge is running brs ab+ 12-8.

Took a few hours to get everything moved and situated. It’s like a half instant reef lol. In hindsight maybe I should have been letting the skimmer break in. It’s going absolutely bonkers. Ah well. Nothing currently seems very upset about being moved, and I only made one accidental frag! Fishwise is the two clowns and a wheeler’s goby. I think I’d really like to add a mccosker or carpenter flasher wrasse, don’t know what else really. Probably going to need to re-up my cuc.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Made a quick little skimmer stand, raising it 2 inches. Now it’s ~6 inches deep and seemingly done misbehaving. Also much quieter.
It’s interesting to me that once all the old rock went in, all three fishes gravitated right to it.
Nothing to complain about at the moment. Not complaining . Enjoy some cruddy pics around the tank. How do y’all take pictures with the weird pmw(that the right acronym?) flicker?

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Ah, skimmer stand. Just some black egg crate and zip ties

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Here’s what the k1-100 has pulled in less than a day since adding the stand with less than two days total run time. I’m actually pretty surprised since there’s not a whole lot of bioload on the tank.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

I hid a frag rack behind my rocks, for stuff that needs a little bit of flow. I just didn’t feel like dropping a powerhead into my sump at the moment.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Brought home a carpenter wrasse today! I did not realize these guys could bite down and get stuck in nets. They netted him in the store just fine. I also panicked and when he wouldn’t come loose and cut the net. So now he’s swimming around and playing dead with a piece of net hanging out of his mouth. Google tells me it should fall off in time.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Well, I couldn’t help myself. This morning I found out that catching wrasses isn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. Held him in my hand and used a pair of fine tweezers. Figured out where the net was stuck, a little tug in the right direction and it came right off. He’s super stressed over it, I’ll leave him alone.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Got my brs screen kit put together! No jumping wrasses allowed. He’s calmed down and eating now.

 

[Jimmeh lee]

Picked up a forest fire digi today as well as some more snails. I’d love to find some black footed trochus snails locally but no luck. Dunno where I’m gonna put the digi, it’s in the frag-fuge for now, dropped a jebao slw-10 in there. I need to frag up my fireworks cloves.