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- Apr 14, 2019
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Hey all you cool Fish and Fry, so this build is actually a couple of weeks in already and I am just now getting around to posting. So after getting rid of my reefer and moving down to an IM 25 Lagoon I was left with the urge of needing a little more room.
Ideally I want something larger than 100 gallons but the apartment complex I am in doesn't allow for tanks larger than 30 gallons without permission. Sadly the largest I was able to convince management to let me have was a 40 Gallon tank. Since I already had a 40B just sitting in storage I decided to put it together.
First off is the equipment.
Tank: Aqueon 40 Breeder
Stand: Imagitarium Brooklynn style stand
Sump: Trigger Systems Sapphire 26
Salt: Tropic Marin Pro @ 35ppt
Lighting: Ecotech Radion XR30 G4 Pro
Overflow: Eshopps Eclipse M
Return Pump: Ecotech Vectra S1
Skimmer: NYOS Quantum 120
Reactor: Dual Aquamaxx FR-SE
Power Head: 3 Ecotech MP10s
Controller: inkbird temp controller
Doser: Kamoer X1
Other: CO2 Scrubber
Desired Parameters:
Ca: 440
Alk: 8.5
Mag: 1450
Nitrate: ≤ 1ppm
Phospahte: .01ppm to .05ppm
For plumbing I went with a 3/4" dual return Teed off to either side of the tank with two @Vivid Creative Aquatics RFG nozzles. To get the plumbing put in place I reached out to my reefing mentor @Sisterlimonpot who came over and pretty much did everything for me while I acted helpful. I am absolutely terrible at this whole measure twice cut once thing so I am glad he helped me out.
Once it was all said and done this is what it looked like.
Next came the fun part, the aquascape! So I knew I wanted to go with an SPS dominant tank so I planned to not go past the half way mark on the tank. With this in mind I decided to go with Dry rock and my choice of rock was Marco Rock.
I went with Marco rock because it offered the most variety with types of rock to allow me to build the scape I wanted. I ordered 60 pounds of rock mixed between flat and cut base rock.
To hold everything together I used E-Marco 400 which is essentially just branded Hydraulic Cement. It was easy to use and dried fast while making a rather strong bond.
Coming into this I knew I didn't want any sand so I made sure to paint the bottom black.
I am currently waiting on my XR15 G5 Blues so until then I am running a single XR30 G4 Pro centered as much as possible.
Lastly here is a picture of my Saltwater mixing/Storage container.
It is a 34Gallon Brute on wheels that I placed a float valve at 25gallons. I have a @Sicceus19 Syncra Silent 5.0 turning the water around. I used two separate ball valves to either recirculate the water for mixing or to pump water out to fill up the tanks after water changes.
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