My Big Beautiful Budget Breeder Build

[Retro Reefer]

After having the mighty jet 538 for awhile now, what is your opinion of it? I’m planning a 40 breeder and I think I’m leaning towards that pump.

It's been fantastic! I would buy another in a heartbeat, basically running two years now and has only been thoroughly cleaned one time (completely disassembled) I love the flexibility and features of the DC pump such as the feed mode and run dry shut off feature. Don't think I will never buy another AC return pump.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Picked up a floating pouch for my iphone, Not sure what the clarity of pictures will be but should make taking TDS a little less nerve racking ;Hilarious

 

[...]

Phone Cases are nice, I have a 40 and I want to have a 40 Gallon Budget... Just got another 92 pages to go...

 

[Retro Reefer]

Phone Cases are nice, I have a 40 and I want to have a 40 Gallon Budget... Just got another 92 pages to go...

Welcome to my build thread! lots of pictures so that makes the pages go by faster

 

[najer]

Oops!

 

[Retro Reefer]

Oops!

Looks like a party going on in there

 

[...]

Welcome to my build thread! lots of pictures so that makes the pages go by faster

 

[Crabby48]

Oh man I want shrimp so bad in my tank!! I just can't stand how they pick at my corals.. may try a fire shrimp at some point but they are like $50 now.. lol. I remember getting them in the 80's for $6.99! I would occasionally buy them for my octopus as a treat

My fire shrimp stays hidden. It may come out grab food and run back in the dark area. It was easier to spend $50 before I had fish in the tank or I would have a few more. My cleaner is out a lot and leaves the coral alone most of the time.

Tank is filling up with coral nicely.

 

[Cbones1979]

Black Silicon to seal seams on stand after assembly and also a few welds that are not completely solid, I don’t want saltwater to get inside the stand.. also picked up black paint for the Aquariums back

guessing that paint is waterproof

 

[Cbones1979]

Just got back from picking up my substrate, hope it’s enough I only want to just cover the glass I may need to pick up a extra 5 LB bag before it’s over.. I’m sticking with what has worked for me CaribSea Aragonite.

what size sand is this? this isn't fiji pink is it?

 

[Cbones1979]

So 10 days in looks like cycle is over.. I’ll be putting more live rock from another tank in next week and keep an eye on parameters until I start stocking.

WOW. I have never slow cycled my tanks so this will be the first time I will. That live rock really sped the process up

 

[Retro Reefer]

guessing that paint is waterproof

its acrylic paint used on the "outside" of tank

what size sand is this? this isn't fiji pink is it?

it's aragonite, coarser than sand so it won't blow around as much but things like gobi's that burrow probably won't like it.

 

[Cbones1979]

its acrylic paint used on the "outside" of tank



it's aragonite, coarser than sand so it won't blow around as much but things like gobi's that burrow probably won't like it.

O yeah I know it’s on outside. My wife was like “when water gets on it from over the sides will it chip/wear down.

 

[Retro Reefer]

O yeah I know it’s on outside. My wife was like “when water gets on it from over the sides will it chip/wear down.

it's waterproof.. you will need to use turpentine or mineral spirits to clean brushes and things, water and soap won't touch it. I just bought a cheap mini roller set and tossed everything when I was finished.

 

[count krunk]

I use the cheapest spray paint on my tanks to black out the back and never ran into any issues.

If you're getting enough water to mess up the paint, well you have much larger issues!

Looking good per usual

 

[Cbones1979]

Cleaning and pre break in of my CoralBox skimmer... this thing is dead silent, you can hear the water fizzing if the collection cup lid is removed that’s it!

What did you do here? Nothing in the instructions I got said to soak in anything.

 

[Retro Reefer]

What did you do here? Nothing in the instructions I got said to soak in anything.

Just a personal choice, new skimmers often have "release" agents on the plastics from the molding process and a pre run with water and a cup or two of white vinegar will help clean it and IMO helps speed up the break-in process.
*(it's not unusual for new skimmers to not function properly until they break-in)

 

[Retro Reefer]

Celebrating tanks 2 year anniversary..

Today...

 

[Cbones1979]

Celebrating tanks 2 year anniversary..

Today...

If I can get mine looking half as good I’ll be happy

 

[Crabby48]

Happy 2 year birthday! Did the tank get pampered for its birthday