kzens' great wave 40 Breeder :)

kristofferzen · Nov 8, 2013

I am sorta new on this site I have been in saltwater about 3 years now. I just started up a 40 breeder over the summer. Some of the rocks and marinelife were transferred over from my 8 gallon ADA rimless project. I previously owned a ADA 18 gallon which I used for about a year. It was a mixed tank which I eventually hooked up to a 20 gallon sump. I moved then downsized to an 8 gallon ADA. I drilled it and put a sump on it as well. I love having a sump on a tank. It makes life easier. This tank I have now was originally all HOB. I used a Reef Octopus BH90 and AC 70 with intank Media basket but got tired of seeing equipment hanging off the back. So I recently upgraded to an overflow system again. I plan on having the tank be a mixed life tank. I probably wont go to crazy with SPS but one or two might pop up. Mainly a softy/LPS for now.
Here is my 40 breeder

Here is was as a HOB without the top.

Another HOB pre sump shot.....

Here is a quick low down on the tank....

Brand: Deep Blue 40 Breeder

Stand: DIY with brown paint. I used Rocket Engineers blueprints and overbuilt it ...child locks included Plus DIY Canopy.

Lighting: Razor 160Watt

Main Pump: MP10 non wireless (for time being)

ATO: Tunze

Skimmer (just got it in the mail!!!): Bubble Magus Curve 5.

Sump: Eshopps 70

Overflow (shoulda drilled it!! but didnt ....Life Reef Overflow with Silencer...works very well

Return Pump: Sicce 2.0-very quiet pump. I have only used eheim in the past. I like this one just as well as eheim now!

Plumbing: Clear/Black Vinyl from home depot/marine depot.

Substrate: Mix of Carib Sea Alive and Reeflakes about 50-60 lbs from LFS/premium aquatics.

Rock: Mixed BRS rocks with a Eco-Ceramic Rock on the left side of picture. Also used mortar to make the structure on the right.

BRS 4 stage 90g/p/d RODI with 25 gallon RO/DI water reserve container (potable water container on DIY shelf)

Fauna/Flora:
2 black/mixed clowns (I got as tiny tiny babies)
1 Dwarf Flame Angel
1 Black cap basslet
1 blue spot jawfish (I made a DIY condo with PVC/Sand/Rock, he is now living in it!!)
Blue Sympodium
6-7 Zoa Frags
1 Pink Bubble anemone
1 red chalice
Various mushrooms
Maxi Mini Anemones
Few macro algae
1 Sexy Shrimp
1 Cleaner shrimp
1 Hammer LPS

Here are some more recent pictures. I add some pics of my sump and my DIY jawfish house later... I really wish I would have planned my stand better, it would have allowed me to put a larger sump in! Right now it's housing 2 neo therm heaters, a curve 5 skimmer about 7 lbs or more of live rock and that's about it. I also added an overflow. I got the much hyped lifereef slimline. I really like it! I have eshopps overflows in the past and the design is similar. This lifereef is very sturdy and well built. I got the silencer and now it is fairly quiet.
I could have DIYd it but just chose to pony up a few extra bucks and relax

It has a flow up to 600 gph (I think) but I have my sicce pump
turned pretty low (I like a slower flow in the sump and it's not as loud with my setup).
Here is the lifereef with plumbing attached...so easy a caveman could do it

leak testing

a pic of the silencer...it's pretty big! but works!

closeup shot

my approval.....

pgravis · Nov 8, 2013

The aquascaping looks great with the painting. I like it a lot!

kristofferzen · Nov 8, 2013

Thanks! I guess the structure on the left suits it well! It's an eco ceramic piece. Like it alot it's a bonsai piece.

inurocker · Nov 8, 2013

Cool rock work. Looking great. Im working on a 40B build myself hope mine comes out as good as yours.

kristofferzen · Nov 10, 2013

Great Wave - New Pics

Ok more pictures

Here is my Magus Curve 5. So far I would rate it as a 5/5. It is relatively quiet and produces good nasty skimmate. I have read that
the pump could be improved on but it is fine for me right now. There is a wine carafe appearance or bottle neck which is a little different
than my previous skimmers. I had previously had a reef octopus BH90 with my brief HOB setup and got tired of overflowing the collection cup
and making a mess, so having this in the sump is sweet! It has a small footprint. My sump is <20INches wide and <10 inches wide, and this easily fits.

I really like the quick release system that is has, it makes it VERY easy to dissasemble and clean

another shot of skimmer pre-use, very well made piece of equipment.

Here it is in my eshopps RS 75 sump

YIKES here is my Tunze ATO and the sicce 2.0 pump to the far bottom left corner.

kristofferzen · Nov 10, 2013

DIY Blue Spot Jawfish Condo

:smile: Soooo... I googled jawfish condo and saw some cool diy products using PVC. Went to HD and got 1 inch PVC with (3) 1 inch
45 degree PVC bends. Also got lots of loctite gel. Got home cracked some pieces of live rock and glued them and sand to the PVC (
I did need to sand the PVC to get the sand to stick). Then had a nice piece of live rock that I used to put a sympodium frag to, over
the entire structure. It's not perfect. I read that some people did different tricks to get their jawfish to go into the structure. Mine
went inside overnight. It is now using all 3 entrances to the "condo" after about one week! It is a joy to watch and now sometimes swims
in the open too! It is fun watching it go into one entrance and then pop out the side! I made the structure in the shape of a roughly made
T so it has some different ways to get in and out of pretty quickly.