Gravity’s 40G

[Gravity]

10/2020

5/2023

Setup
- Tank: Tetra 40 Gallon Breeder
- Stand: DIY Rocket Engineer
- Overflow: Eshopps Eclipse S
- Sump: Aqueon 20 Gallon High w/ Fiji Cube DIY Sump Kit
- Return: 2x 1/2” VCA Random Flow Generator
- Water: BRS 6 Stage RODI System
- Salt: Brightwell Neomarine
- Dosing:
5mL/Day BRS NaHCO3 (bicarbonate

Equipment
- Biological: 2 qt MarinePure Spheres
- Lighting: Kessil A160WE Tuna Blue w/ Mounting Arm
Run: 40% Intensity 55% Color
Mount: 8”
- Filtration: 1x 200um 4”x8” Felt Filter Sock
- Heater: 200w BRS Titanium Heater w/ Controller
- Skimmer: Eshopps S-120 (Old Model)
- Return Pump: Tunze 1073.050 (790 GPH)
Run: 50%
- ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155

Testing:
- Refractometer
- Nyos Nitrate
- HI736 Ultra Low Phosphorus
- HI775 Alkalinity
- RedSea Calcium
- Salifert Magnesium

Fish:
- ORA Gladiator Clownfish “Pennywise”
(LA 4/18/2019)
- Randalli Prawn Goby “Timon”(AA 6/8/2019)
- Khole Tang (4/18/2020)

Invertebrates:
- Thin Strip Hermit
- Few Bumblebee Snails

Corals:
Soft
- Grube's gorgonian (Pinnigorgia flava) (4/18/2020)
- Long Polyp Toadstool (BLC 6/18/2019)

LPS
- Green/Yellow Hammer (FB 6/6/2023)
- Purple Tip Frogspawn (FB 6/6/2023)

 

[Gravity]

I have been a long time lurker on the forum but just decided to get active here. I have a small biocube that’s 1.5 years old. Recently received a 20 gal tank from someone leaving the hobby, about 6 months ago. However, I was never able to get the plumbing back in operation without shutting it down. So I decided to setup this frag tank to keep the live stock and reduce the required maintenance needed to keep things happy.

 

[Gravity]

The original plan was to drill three holes in the tank but my first attempt failed with the glass cracking. On my second attempt I used painters tape on the inside of the glass to reduce the stress on the glass and decided to plumb the returns over the tank.

Attempt 1 - Failed 7/17/2020

Attempt 2 - Success 8/??/2020

 

[Gravity]

I used the glossy rustolium black paint on the back and bottom of the tank to provide good contrast to the corals and hide the plumbing. It took three coats to get the glass fully covered. Then built my stand using 2x4s following the rocket engineer guidelines. I made the stand a tad wide to provide some working room and used 3/4” plywood to provide additional support. Took me a few cuts on the legs to get everything leveled right. Didn’t help that I built it in the not level basement.

8/22/2020

DIY Stands Template and Calculator - Reef Central Online Community

DIY Stands Template and Calculator Do It Yourself

reefcentral.com

 

[Gravity]

Built the sump with an Aqueon 20 gal High and Fiji Cube DIY Sump Kit. Left out the middle baffle since I’m not planning on a refugium. This allowed for a wider pump area so I can have multiple pumps in the future. It turned out pretty good just the adjustable baffle piece is a bit tilted.

9/11/2020

 

[Gravity]

Plumbing was the next task. For the drain lines it was 1” pipe with unions at the top of the stand for maintenance, two 45deg elbows for minimum water flow restrictions and a gate valve on the main drain for silencing the overflow. On the return line I started with 3/4” silicone to pvc then added two tees for future add ons with a union at the top of the stand. Then the line tees into two 1/2” pipes with ball valves and a two elbows to make a U into the tank. This ends in threads for a lockline adaptor with vivid creations aquatic random flow generators. I like this setup as the locklines will let me at just the return height as needed.

The ball valves were installed to give me some flexibility on flow if I need to increase or decrease it one one side. And provide some back flow control to stop the syphon that starts when the return pump is off. Fortunately the 20gal high holds enough volume for the tank to completely syphon to the return lines. I plan on rebuilding the bottom portion in the future as the line is slightly tilted and will add in a check valve when I do.

9/13/2020

 

[Gravity]

Next, I crossed my fingers and filled up the tank with RODI, hoping there weren’t any leaks. Tightened up a few loose unions, added a power head then started mixing in the LiveAquarium salt. Later on I discovered a leak between the tank and overflow box. So I ordered another gasket which seemed to fix the problem. Once salinity was reached, I added Fritz Turbo Start and some Microbactor 7. Shortly after the fish and coral were moved over from the 20 gal. Not ideal but it gets the job done.

9/14/2020

 

[Gravity]

The mounting arm originally had the white spacers installed to fit on the rimless 20 gal tank. But I was unable to remove them for the 40 gal because the screws were stripped. I tried using a glove and rubber band to help grip the screw but was still unable to get it out. So temporarily I used a 32 gal Biocube hood I had to light the tank.

9/16/2020

After a few weeks I purchased a rotary tool to cut a slit in the screw to remove it with a flat head screw driver, worked great! Then replaced the M4 8mm long screws.

10/1/2020

 

[Gravity]

The marine pure spheres seemed to be chipping off as the fish and hermit moved them around and some started growing algae. So today I built an egg crate basket and moved them to the sump.

While working in the tank, I also got around to finishing the sides on my frag racks. Starting out I knew the my fish had a habit of pecking at the bottom of the frags and knocking them loose. So I initially started with one side wall on each frag rack then placed the other side against the glass or another frag rack. However, the fish still managed to slip under the frag racks and would knock them over. So I added front and back walls to the racks to stop this and all though it helped the fish still managed to knock over the racks, just less frequent. Now the frag racks have a complete wall around the bottom to stop the fish from getting under them but still lets the snails and hermits get through for cleanup. Hoping this stops them from getting tipped over all together.

I was also able to finally get the skimmer cup on without overflowing. Up until now I just ran it without the cup to break it in, otherwise the cup would fill in minutes at the lowest setting.

 

[Gravity]

The big goniopora is my current favorite coral, especially under the blue lights at night. Here is a photo from yesterday after I was done messing with the tank.

 

[BaysEndReef]

Looks great. Following along.

 

[Gravity]

Over the weekend I tossed the sps, Monti and birdsnest, from the tank. They were already browned out from the high nutrient system I shutdown then the move finished the job. They also had some vermetid snails so it was time to go. Everything else is doing good, besides some zoa that keep falling off the frag plugs.

 

[Gravity]

Here are some closeups on the fish.

 

[Gravity]

This tank has gone through some neglect. The goniopora has died back and I lost most of my acans. The Ricordia florida were hit and miss with the orange ones disappearing but the purple and green ones doing fine. The rhodactus mushrooms don’t look very happy either. The last two months of regular maintenance seem to show some improvement on the goniopora.

Recently my biocube blue bulb had burnt out and I have not been able to locate a new one. So I have decided to move everything over the my frag tank, slowly. The current hold off is to the need to rehome the maroon to safely move over my Ocellaris clownfish.

A few weeks ago I moved my first coral over, a Ricordia yuma. It began stretching as the toadstool covered it. So to prevent it from detaching and roaming around I moved it to the 40gal where it has been doing great.

 

[Gravity]

Picked up a few new corals from the last WWC live sale.

2x Cyphastrea coralsBizarro and Jason Fox Alien Pox

Radioactive Hammer and Lavender Duncan

 

[Gravity]

Sold the lightening maroon clown back on 6/12/2021, received 4/18/202.

The Cyphastrea didn’t seem to be doing well. So I moved them to a lower light area.

I also moved over the orange yuma from my other tank.

 

[Gravity]

Picked up some more euphillia yesterday (6/27/2021) from the LFS. A green and purple frogspawn and a gold hammer.

 

[Gravity]

Well (sigh) looks like life got the best of me and the tank has suffered. Based on what I had kept track of my last water change was 10/31/2021 (1 year 6 months ago) and last tested 12/26/2021 (1 year 4 months ago).

Over the last year and a half I still managed to keep things running. My maintenance was just necessities including daily feeding, manual water top off, small daily (5mL) BRS sodium bicarbonate, weekly glass scraping, 1-4 week filter sock replacement, empty skimmer cup every few weeks when full. I even managed to scrap the back glass twice and citric soak/clean my skimmer and return pump once.

In this time I have managed to loose most of my coral except for the toadstool and gorgonian (though not in great shape). I would occasionally encounter a floating mushroom that I would collect and place on the rock just to disappear again. My three fish “Pennywise” (ocellaris clownfish), Khole Tang and “Timon” (randalli goby) still appear to be doing good. The thin stripped hermit is still roaming around but the randalli pistol shrimp (“Pumbaa”) seems to be missing.

Sometime around December 2021 I had added rock and sand to half the tank to provide shelter for the pistol shrimp and goby pair before condensing tanks. I now plan to add rock and sand to the other half of the tank to make it a display.

On 4/15/2023, I did my first tests in over a year which wasn’t too bad. At least nothing a few water changes couldn’t fix.

Alkalinity - 7.62 dkh
Calcium - 390 ppm
Magnesium - 1215 ppm
Nitrate - N/A need to order
Phosphate - 0.00 ppm

Today, I completed the critical task of cleaning my heater. This had not been touched in a long time and had a thick calcium buildup. Took a hour soak in citric acid and scrapped it clean with my old tank glass cleaner and now it looks to be in working order.

 

[Gravity]

Last week I had noticed my salinity was looking a bit low at 1.024 SG. So I began topping off with saltwater to slowly bring it back up. I scrapped off the back and bottom glass. Then did my first water change in the last 1.5 years. It was just a 4 gallon change since I don’t have the means to do much bigger.

I also picked up some new corals over the weekend. Got a good deal on a jawbreaker mushroom, yellow hammer and purple tip frogspawn. Guess I’m picking up where things left off before the hiatus. The mushroom was slightly damaged from a sting prior to purchase but the coloration is nice and appears to be healing well.

On Tuesday, I installed a mini dual BRS media reactor I had on the shelf. Added 2 TBS BRS ROX 0.8 (about 40% recommended) to start removing the toadstool toxins probably built up over the last year and a half.

 

[Gravity]

Things are still moving along. After two water changes the tank now has the following parameters.

Alkalinity - 7.95 dkh
Calcium - 350 ppm
Magnesium - 1350 ppm
Nitrate - 30 ppm
Phosphate - 0.015 ppm

The phosphate is starting to increase with more frequent frozen food and reef roids, previously I was only feeding pellets. The nitrate test came back high but could have been worse. Will just keep an eye on it for now to see if it starts to decrease.

Decided to pull my Tunze ATO out of storage and connected it to the tank. Still need to work on some cord management but at least it’s installed.

Found a great deal on some used reef rock over the weekend. Picked up about 60lbs for $20. Just need to get it cured now.