First Reef Tank - 40 Gallon Breeder

[waterboys]

Hi everyone - jumped on one of the Petco deals for a 40 gallon breeder and decided to build a reef tank. I knew absolutely nothing about reef tanks or saltwater tanks in general before deciding to go on this journey but I am very excited to begin.

I still know basically nothing about reef tanks but have spent dozens of hours the past month or so learning as much as I could to get started. I’m sure the equipment I chose isn’t the best, but I wasn’t ready to do a sump so I went with what I knew I would be more comfortable with. I don’t have any livestock yet and am already thinking about a bigger tank. I can already tell this is going to be a dangerous hobby for me.

I was planning on getting my clownfish today, but my water parameters weren’t quite right so I’m going to give it a couple more days.

40 gallon breeder
AquaClear 70 power filter
Cobalt neotherm pro heater
Viparspectra light (I know I probably need a second one but it will be a couple months before I get any coral)
Macro Aqua M-50 mini hang-on protein skimmer (a lot of micro bubbles)
Tunze 6025
Tunze 6045
Polycarbonate lid
25 pounds of rock (know I need more but am considering buying rock from a local LFS that has coral on it already)
Ocean Direct live sand

Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Tank looks like it's off to a great start. One thing I've seen with the black lights is to make sure it's crazy high up. I had to raise mine like 20 inches off the water to cut down the hot spotting.

 

[waterboys]

Thanks for the advice. This is an example of me not really knowing much yet. When you say “black lights” is that just a part of my normal viparspectra light? I don’t have any black lights set up. I just wasn’t sure how people normally take pictures of their tank. Lights are currently only set at 3% for both the blue and white channel. While it doesn’t look very blue when you’re looking at it a normal picture makes it look very blue. The other picture I took through a pair of Kraken reef coral viewing glasses to cut out the blue. Current lights are about 13 inches off the water.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

My bad, black lights is describing the fixture. Regardless of the brand we just call those "black box" lights. I think those light levels are pretty good, those bad boys pack an insane punch that they can cook everything if you have it too high.

 

[waterboys]

My bad, black lights is describing the fixture. Regardless of the brand we just call those "black box" lights. I think those light levels are pretty good, those bad boys pack an insane punch that they can cook everything if you have it too high.

That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation and advice.

 

[waterboys]

Got my first two fish in today. Is there any general recommendation on what should be added and when? Should all fish be added before coral or does it not matter as long as you don’t add to much to fast?

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Fish probably for a few weeks to make sure everything is ok. Also make sure to throw a cleanup crew in there. One other thing that might help is that BRS is rolling out a new series on how to help with early tank syndrome, I'd definitely recommend watching it. Interesting stuff so far

 

[waterboys]

It could just be that my fish are settling in to their new tank, but they appear to be spending most of their time toward the top and sides of the tank where I am assuming is less flow. They appear healthy and it’s only been a few days so I’m not to concerned, more just curious.

I have a Tunze 6025 on the left and a Tunze 6045 on the right side of my 40g breeder. The 6045 is manually adjusted at the about halfway mark.

The 6025 is on from midnight to 4pm and the 6045 is in from 8am to midnight. So both are only on at the same time for a total of 8 hours but I do have at least one powerhead on at all times. But it looks like they stay toward the top and sides even at night when only one powerhead is on.

Should I mess with my flow schedule or is it likely that the fish are just adjusting?

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Is it just the clowns? If so they're going to find a spot in your tank that they like and live there forever.

 

[tbrown]

So I would say that typically we call them "black box" lights except it seems that Viparspectra seem to be the exception. They tend to stand out above the majority of the Chinese Black Box lights or at least they're more popular than the others.

 

[SrDudley]

Any updates on your tank? I will be setting up a 40 breeder in the near future and planning to use viparspectra led units as well. Looks good!

 

[JFinlay]

Any updates?!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Curious about updates too!! The tank looked great!!

 

[waterboys]

Apologies for the lack of response. Things are moving along. Hard to get some decent pictures right now but here’s what it currently looks like. Cloves growing pretty fast and covered the small rock in no time. Some of the zoas are doing very well too. Hard to tell if the torch is doing well but no apparent problems. current setup hasn’t really changed much since end of November.

Currently has:

2 clowns
Twin spot goby
blue chromis
Flame angel
Yellow wrasse

Everything appears happy and healthy

 

[tbrown]

Apologies for the lack of response. Things are moving along. Hard to get some decent pictures right now but here’s what it currently looks like. Cloves growing pretty fast and covered the small rock in no time. Some of the zoas are doing very well too. Hard to tell if the torch is doing well but no apparent problems. current setup hasn’t really changed much since end of November.

Currently has:

2 clowns
Twin spot goby
blue chromis
Flame angel
Yellow wrasse

Everything appears happy and healthy

I love how bright that RFA glows!

 

[waterboys]

I love how bright that RFA glows!

Yea that’s my favorite one. Unfortunately one chose the corner of the tank and the other stays pretty closed up all the time at the bottom of a rock.

 

[tbrown]

Yea that’s my favorite one. Unfortunately one chose the corner of the tank and the other stays pretty closed up all the time at the bottom of a rock.

Mine likes the back of rocks.

 

[JFinlay]

Apologies for the lack of response. Things are moving along. Hard to get some decent pictures right now but here’s what it currently looks like. Cloves growing pretty fast and covered the small rock in no time. Some of the zoas are doing very well too. Hard to tell if the torch is doing well but no apparent problems. current setup hasn’t really changed much since end of November.

Currently has:

2 clowns
Twin spot goby
blue chromis
Flame angel
Yellow wrasse

Everything appears happy and healthy

This looks amazing! Your setup is super similar to mine so that’s why I was interested, does 1 ViparSpectra seem to do the job? Or did you get a second, also if you don’t mind what do you run your blue/whites at?

 

[waterboys]

This looks amazing! Your setup is super similar to mine so that’s why I was interested, does 1 ViparSpectra seem to do the job? Or did you get a second, also if you don’t mind what do you run your blue/whites at?

It looks like it does the job but I’ve never tested par. Just one light about 12 inches above my polycarbonate lid (drilled holes in it to allow air to pass through). Blue set at 35 for 12 hours a day. I had white set at 1 for 10 hours but for the past few weeks I’ve been running only blue. Feel like it has helped deal with some algae blooms.

 

[JFinlay]

It looks like it does the job but I’ve never tested par. Just one light about 12 inches above my polycarbonate lid (drilled holes in it to allow air to pass through). Blue set at 35 for 12 hours a day. I had white set at 1 for 10 hours but for the past few weeks I’ve been running only blue. Feel like it has helped deal with some algae blooms.

Awesome, hope all is going good the tank looks like it’s doing great! What did you use to mount it to the ceiling? I’m about to mount mine today, was thinking just hooks and a toggle anchor