I inherited this 40 gallon tank, protein skimmer, and sump from a retiring reefer, so I thought I'd upgrade my 32 gallon biocube to the 40 gallon + ~30 gallon sump! After a full day of work transferring rock and livestock, I finally arrived at the following results:
Here's the left side of the tank, which is lit by a blackbox LED (Which I plan to be the "higher light" side of my tank, though right now it's turned down extremely low)
-The right side of the tank, lit by an Orbit Marine IC Loop, which will probably be a "lower light" side of my tank if I can help it)
I couldn't really afford to get matching lights, so I worked with what I have. I'm probably going to have to mount both lights a bit higher off the tank since there is a bit of a dark spot in the middle of the tank, but I thought it's better than nothing.
Using the advice from @brandon429, I rinsed the caribsea ocean direct sand to help with cloudiness, which helped a ton, but I don't think I rinsed enough since I did have a bit of cloudiness when I first put the sand in, but that went away the next morning.
Also, I rinsed the rock out in old saltwater, which I can only offer visual results for at the moment. Nothing was knocked up when I placed the rock in the tank, which is always good to see. I'll be testing for ammonia every day for the next few days and I'll post the results here.
Brandon also mentioned that I could add livestock immediately, and since it was easier to transfer my rock and livestock all in one swoop, that's what I did. I used all new saltwater for the tank, but still took time to acclimate everything before putting it all in.
So far, everything looks good! All my corals (even my acros!) opened up again that night, and nothing looks like it's doing poorly as of this morning. I fed my dendro some masstick, which it took just as it normally would! Same with my acanthophyllia, which is sometimes pretty weird about the food it eats.
The only issue I can see is a minor dino patch on the right side of the tank, but all my levels are within an acceptable range so I'm sure it'll subside in the next few days.
Now onto the sump:
I have 2 ~200W heaters, a Jebao 4000 DCP return pump, some scattered marine pure balls, and the Current Fission skimmer I inherited (of course, it won't be of much use yet because the fish have literally JUST been added to the tank.
I also put some chaeto that I got as a hitchhiker that's been growing slowly and steadily for a few months, along with a rock full of xenia and cluster dusters in the refugium, which is lit by a PAR38 bulb courtesy of @SMSREEF . Because I only have 2 fish in the tank, I doubt I need any more chaeto, and I can just let it grow out for a while from that small chunk.
The aquascape is the next thing I'll be working on, since I have a little foundation rock I'd like to add in, and I'd like to add some layers and dimension to the aquascape (I know I'm supposed to do that first and all, but it wasn't possible because of how my transfer was working out.
That's all the news for this tank as of now, but I'll certainly update you guys as the tank progresses
Here's the left side of the tank, which is lit by a blackbox LED (Which I plan to be the "higher light" side of my tank, though right now it's turned down extremely low)
-The right side of the tank, lit by an Orbit Marine IC Loop, which will probably be a "lower light" side of my tank if I can help it)
I couldn't really afford to get matching lights, so I worked with what I have. I'm probably going to have to mount both lights a bit higher off the tank since there is a bit of a dark spot in the middle of the tank, but I thought it's better than nothing.
Using the advice from @brandon429, I rinsed the caribsea ocean direct sand to help with cloudiness, which helped a ton, but I don't think I rinsed enough since I did have a bit of cloudiness when I first put the sand in, but that went away the next morning.
Also, I rinsed the rock out in old saltwater, which I can only offer visual results for at the moment. Nothing was knocked up when I placed the rock in the tank, which is always good to see. I'll be testing for ammonia every day for the next few days and I'll post the results here.
Brandon also mentioned that I could add livestock immediately, and since it was easier to transfer my rock and livestock all in one swoop, that's what I did. I used all new saltwater for the tank, but still took time to acclimate everything before putting it all in.
So far, everything looks good! All my corals (even my acros!) opened up again that night, and nothing looks like it's doing poorly as of this morning. I fed my dendro some masstick, which it took just as it normally would! Same with my acanthophyllia, which is sometimes pretty weird about the food it eats.
The only issue I can see is a minor dino patch on the right side of the tank, but all my levels are within an acceptable range so I'm sure it'll subside in the next few days.
Now onto the sump:
I have 2 ~200W heaters, a Jebao 4000 DCP return pump, some scattered marine pure balls, and the Current Fission skimmer I inherited (of course, it won't be of much use yet because the fish have literally JUST been added to the tank.
I also put some chaeto that I got as a hitchhiker that's been growing slowly and steadily for a few months, along with a rock full of xenia and cluster dusters in the refugium, which is lit by a PAR38 bulb courtesy of @SMSREEF . Because I only have 2 fish in the tank, I doubt I need any more chaeto, and I can just let it grow out for a while from that small chunk.
The aquascape is the next thing I'll be working on, since I have a little foundation rock I'd like to add in, and I'd like to add some layers and dimension to the aquascape (I know I'm supposed to do that first and all, but it wasn't possible because of how my transfer was working out.
That's all the news for this tank as of now, but I'll certainly update you guys as the tank progresses