Atlantis Deluxe

[Atlantisdelux]

Well, here it is the 40 gallon breeder build thread Iv been meaning to start.
For those of you who don't know me I'm Josh, I'm from Manchester NH and Iv been out of the salt water hobby for a few years. I finally decided to set up a small frag tank from things I had lying around the house and much like everyone els one thing led to another and here we are.
Its a $40 (ya, you know its a Petco $1 gallon deal tank) 40 breeder on a custom stand. I made the mistake of building to the tank and not to the sump but I'm over it and moving on.
I won't get into the list of ideas yet cause a lot of things are still up in the air.
One question I have is....I'm not sure when I will decide what I want to do about the sump or (with a Disney trip 2 months away) have the funds for a custom sump, is it a bad idea to get the over flow plumbed to the shut off, get my sand, dry rock, water, salt, and power head into it so I can start cycling the tank? I plan on using the BioDigest method and using some pieces from my frag tank to seed.
OK, with that question asked let's see pictures.

You can't see it in the picture but the over flow is an Eshopps eclipse medium. Its extremely slim and I'm really liking it. I can't figure out how to post short videos but if you have Instagram you can see more of my tank fun @JBoisvert85 or just follow this thread and I'll try and get everything moved to here.
I hope you enjoy

 

[Atlantisdelux]

Well, 10 minutes after posting my build thread...........

isnt that exciting.
Anyone have experience with quikrete hydraulic cement? Does it have to be soaked afterward if its going in a new build?
I only plan on using that cause I'm leaning towards a bonsai tree style design.

 

[Ridem32]

Looking good [emoji106]

 

[Atlantisdelux]

So I'm looking for opinions before I stick this together.

And there's room in the back for flow.

The table is the front glass, not the tape. That was just quickly put on to keep somewhat square.
Any thoughts, or something I'm over looking? Tank inhabitants are leaning toward

Along with the regular CUC, shrimp, probably some type of Goby. (The type of clown is not set on that picture.)

 

[eliramos]

Looks great!
As far as fish go,
Make sure you have a top: flasher wrasse are notorious carpet surfers, I've lost two even with a screen top.
Also chromis, don't do very well long term, I'm not sure why but many people report issues with them after a few months. So make sure you quarantine!
The flame angel is 50/50 with corals so be careful with them!
And I believe the yellow fish you posted is a gramma or basselet. Make sure you place him last, they can become very aggressive with new tank mates!
Love the rock work can't wait to see how it all turns out!

 

[Mr.Tang]

Looks good to me. Like the stand

 

[Atlantisdelux]

Anyone ever put one of these on their return line to prevent syphoning during power/pump failure?

I was thinking of emailing the company to see if there is any metal components, just figured I would check here first.
I'm not a big fan of swing/spring checks due to lack of good pressure to hold them closed. They always seem to allow trickle.

 

[Atlantisdelux]

Well, I feel like its taken for ever, but Iv been buying things sporadically. Here's the plumbing

So I walked in to the casino, put all my chips on black, and now I'm hoping everything goes well. I know a lot of people have strong feelings both toward and against Jebao but after doing research Iv decided to put all my eggs in one basket and hope I made the right decision.

So, I have no photos of putting the baffles in the sump but it is finished and I'm hoping to plumb/level test (with tap water) tomorrow night.
So stay tuned, were hoping to have a full salted cycling tank by Sunday.

 

[Atlantisdelux]

So Iv finished the plumbing, added the light rods, and moved everything back to the wall.
I filled with tap water to level/plumb test and things went pretty well. Had to trim some of the back of the stand because it was holding the overflow from tightening true to the back of the tank, and I did have to modify the Eclipse overflow to raise the water line above the trim.
The sump held up great and my pump failure test went without a hitch. Sump held everything with what looks to be about 5 gallons to spare and pump fired back up flawlessly.
I will say using the ball valve opposed to a gate valve WOULD have been a bit more difficult, but having a controllable DC pump and the fuge ball valve helped make it a lot easier to dial in.

After the water test I drained and wiped down the tank, fixed any issues, and put everything in place, power heads, dry rock, and pump controllers.

Now, if only this snowstorm would disappear so I could go grab my water and get this show on the road.

 

[Atlantisdelux]

Well, here it is.

Hoping to clean up the wires and figure out how I'm hanging my light this week.
Put in a bottle of Bio-spira and a large table shrimp. I let it sit in there for a few days until I started seeing nitrates then removed it as I will be bringing my rock from my 10 gallon anyway.
I'm hoping to move everything over by this weekend so that I can't use my ehiem canister as a phosphate reactor if I end up having any issues with this Marco Key largo. Iv read more good reviews than by but I like to have a plan if things should go bad.
As far as my Jebao experience, so far I am extremely satisfied with my decision. One of the pp4's started clicking slightly when I switched from full flow to wave but after about 40 minutes it went silent. The amount of flow from the pp4s is outstanding and the ability to adjust the new DCP5000 has made dueling in the overflow much easier than anticipated.

I'll post more photos when lights are hung, but for now this is it.

The rock from my 10 will most likely end up in my fuge, but I'll have to leave them in the DT for a bit to get my brittle star babies out of them.
Ph-8.0
Ammo-1.0
Trite-2.0
Trate-20ppm
Calcium-420
Need to purchase phosphate, alk test kits this week. Thinking about just spending the money and getting the Henna's, but we'll see. I'm supposed to be saving for the Disney trip.......ya, I'll get around to that.....

 

[Atlantisdelux]

I know its been a while, but here it is.
Finally got the light hung and tank cycled. Hoping tomorrow I can run and grab some more RO water and get a good water change done, that way I can get all my frags moved over.
I'm really going to miss the pistol shrimp and goby, but I just don't think I can handle them moving things around in the 40.
I plan to get another goby, but I don't have the heart to separate friends, so they will go together and hopefully my buddy at my LFS will sell them paired.

 

[Atlantisdelux]

Just figured I would do an update to get it on this great giveaway. Sorry I don't post much, I'm more of a reader.
So far the 40 breeder is coming along great, we've gone through some highs and lows, bought stuff, lost stuff, all the typical.
As of right now things are going really nicely, just added a Current marine LED strip to get a little POP from the coral mainly during Sun rise/set.
As of right now I'm only running it at 15% whites and 50% blues (not full spectrum) and couldn't be happier. I got it strictly for supplemental lighting and for the price I'm completely shocked with the controlability of the fixture.
Having a bit of an issue with 2 toadstools of recently added. They came together, connected by about 1/2 an inch at their base so I separated them with a razor blade. Not sure if it's an infection from that or they just are unhappy but both have what appears to be a decaying foot and white patches along some of the edges of their caps.
Well, I hope you all enjoy my update. Happy reefing