My custom 40 breeder side by side

[ParsedOut]

Just a quick background on me. I've always been a DIYer, if I can do it or learn how to do it then I'm not going to pay someone else. That goes for car mechanics, computers, and building pretty much anything. I started in the aquaria hobby about 3 years ago with a 75 gallon planted tank. Decided about 2 years ago that I wanted to get into the salty side, so I built a 20 gallon peninsula nano to test the waters (pun intended). That little tank was a good success and decided to scale up the salt and scale back the freshwater. I still have a great love of freshwater, so why not feature them both? Then came the idea to do a side by side build, but since this was going in our kitchen, it HAD to complement the space and not fight it. Stocking is still very thin as the tank is quite "new" and I'm letting it settle before adding much more, most of it came from my 20 gallon.

I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story as they are chronological. This started in May of 2019 and was technically finished just a few weeks ago.

 

[Saltyreef]

LOVE IT!!!

 

[Yates273]

Very nice!!

 

[SDK]

Really well done and thanks for sharing!

 

[PR_nano]

Perfectly executed!

 

[14 foot reef]

i love this !!!!

 

[ParsedOut]

Thanks! It was fun to work in a little carpentry to the reefing hobby.

 

[Malifry97]

First of all, AWESOME! Second, you should get your build thread badge! Click Account. Then Account details. Then down to R2R Tank Thread Link. Paste the link to this thread and...BOOM! you have your first badge

 

[ParsedOut]

First of all, AWESOME! Second, you should get your build thread badge! Click Account. Then Account details. Then down to R2R Tank Thread Link. Paste the link to this thread and...BOOM! you have your first badge

Oh, cool! Thanks for the heads up and kind words.

 

[Malifry97]

Oh, cool! Thanks for the heads up and kind words.

No Problem!

 

[Cdipasquale]

That came out awesome looking. They work together perfectly....love it!

 

[ParsedOut]

Quick update.

Took the refugium offline, the chaeto went nuts for about 2 weeks then started to die off. My nitrate and phosphate were at undetectable levels. I think my current bioload with the skimmer can't support a refugium yet. I've slightly increased my feedings and checking levels weekly hoping to get a slight increase in nutrients. So far no cyano as a result, so that's good.

The temp probe on the Inkbird creeped lower and lower, just like the old probe did. Causing me to be at about 75 degrees when it read almost 79. The old probe wasn't coated so I thought the salt water seeped in and messed it up, so the new probe was covered in a layer of silicone thinking that would solve it. Nope, same failure method. I ordered their black plastic "water safe" probe as a 3rd strike for this thing, I also set up another thermometer as a backup so I can keep an eye on any further deviations.

My clowns are finally showing interest in the RBTA, however I think it's irritating him and causing him to move all over the rock and close up randomly. Keeping a close eye on that situation. My frogspawn frag is opening back up again, did a 45 minute soak in a heavy dilution of Reef Dip, almost killed it but within a few days he was looking better than ever.

 

[508_nanoreef]

Wow that came out freaking awesome. Great job
LOVE IT

 

[Reefer40b]

Nice, perfect when you want to dabble in both worlds! I started out with a 40b and still love em!

 

[ParsedOut]

Wow that came out freaking awesome. Great job
LOVE IT

Nice, perfect when you want to dabble in both worlds! I started out with a 40b and still love em!

Thanks! The great thing about two side by side 40b, I could switch out to a 125 without having to change the stand or the canopy. So we'll see...

 

[Reefer40b]

Thanks! The great thing about two side by side 40b, I could switch out to a 125 without having to change the stand or the canopy. So we'll see...

HA I love it already prepped for upgrade!

 

[Hemmdog]

Very cool