regisshan
New Member
Hi all!
Another 40 breeder setup! Wow!
I'm defending my PhD this week and my birthday was last week, so my super cool husband has agreed that I deserve to spend some $$ on myself! We're broke academics, so everything is always a super tight budget, but he's been getting into weight lifting and all the equipment involved in that is also not very cheap... so I've been encouraging him to go crazy on THAT so it doesn't seem so crazy that I'm dropping a few dollars on fish tank stuff here and there...
Anywho...
I got into keeping saltwater tanks because I fell in love with a green spotted puffer fish at the fish store (heh) and went through the whole process of transitioning from fresh water to brackish, couldn't find plants or anything really that thrived in brackish, so decided to go all in on the reef tank.
I had a 36 gallon bowfront tank that I was happy with, but was just too tall, and a cheap LED light from Amazon that barely had enough power to get GSP to open up. I managed to get my green spotted puffer to lose interest in the coral I bought -- I started with the easiest corals I could find, a duncan, a candy cane, and some green star polyp. He took a chunk out of the duncan when I first put it in but must have not liked the taste and hasn't bothered it since. I know I'm playing with fire but So far, the candy cane has done exactly nothing. The GSP opens up, and seems to have spread a bit on the frag plug. The duncan went crazy and added 5 new heads in the 3 months I've had it. The most recent additions to the tank were two clownfish and a teeny green bubble tip anemone. I was worried about having enough light for the anemone, since the lights I had on the tank were super cheap, so like any responsible graduate student I started surfing craigslist for any good aquarium deals.
Cut to a craigslist ad for a 40 gallon breeder setup with live rock, lights, sump, stand etc. for $200! A lot of the equipment is outdated and needs to be cleaned up, but I needed a distraction from the stress of prepping for my defense, and I love tinkering and refurbishing things.
Stand and the 29g sump. Oliver approves. I don't plan on using the sump, since my canister filter seems to be keeping up just fine with the 36 bow front. This is a 29 gallon tank and I feel like it's a bit over sized for what I'm interested in right now. I also have nightmares about overflowing the display tank because the overflow gets clogged or something. I probably won't go with a sump until I'm able to move out of this apartment and have more space to play.
Tank is up with water, rocks and critters in it. It took me a while to figure out how to hang my lights because the wall and ceiling are made of concrete. The door hinges were problematic and wouldn't open all the way so I replaced them with cheap hinges from HD.
I rigged up a light stand/shelf combo with two shelves from Ikea ($15 each!) and some pipe from home depot. It's extremely sturdy and I trust it more than putting holes in the ceiling or wall to hang.
I've transferred all the critters from my 36 gallon over to the 40 breeder over the course of about a week and everyone is loving it. The live rock was covered (like, plague numbers) in amphipods and my green spotted puffer spent 2 days hunting them all down. Might need to add more.
Here's my teeny nem enjoying the extra light!
My duncan waiting to be glued to the rock
Full-ish tank shot.. Still working on my photo skills.
Hope you enjoy my tank! I'll keep updating as I change things!
Another 40 breeder setup! Wow!
I'm defending my PhD this week and my birthday was last week, so my super cool husband has agreed that I deserve to spend some $$ on myself! We're broke academics, so everything is always a super tight budget, but he's been getting into weight lifting and all the equipment involved in that is also not very cheap... so I've been encouraging him to go crazy on THAT so it doesn't seem so crazy that I'm dropping a few dollars on fish tank stuff here and there...
Anywho...
I got into keeping saltwater tanks because I fell in love with a green spotted puffer fish at the fish store (heh) and went through the whole process of transitioning from fresh water to brackish, couldn't find plants or anything really that thrived in brackish, so decided to go all in on the reef tank.
I had a 36 gallon bowfront tank that I was happy with, but was just too tall, and a cheap LED light from Amazon that barely had enough power to get GSP to open up. I managed to get my green spotted puffer to lose interest in the coral I bought -- I started with the easiest corals I could find, a duncan, a candy cane, and some green star polyp. He took a chunk out of the duncan when I first put it in but must have not liked the taste and hasn't bothered it since. I know I'm playing with fire but So far, the candy cane has done exactly nothing. The GSP opens up, and seems to have spread a bit on the frag plug. The duncan went crazy and added 5 new heads in the 3 months I've had it. The most recent additions to the tank were two clownfish and a teeny green bubble tip anemone. I was worried about having enough light for the anemone, since the lights I had on the tank were super cheap, so like any responsible graduate student I started surfing craigslist for any good aquarium deals.
Cut to a craigslist ad for a 40 gallon breeder setup with live rock, lights, sump, stand etc. for $200! A lot of the equipment is outdated and needs to be cleaned up, but I needed a distraction from the stress of prepping for my defense, and I love tinkering and refurbishing things.
Stand and the 29g sump. Oliver approves. I don't plan on using the sump, since my canister filter seems to be keeping up just fine with the 36 bow front. This is a 29 gallon tank and I feel like it's a bit over sized for what I'm interested in right now. I also have nightmares about overflowing the display tank because the overflow gets clogged or something. I probably won't go with a sump until I'm able to move out of this apartment and have more space to play.
Tank is up with water, rocks and critters in it. It took me a while to figure out how to hang my lights because the wall and ceiling are made of concrete. The door hinges were problematic and wouldn't open all the way so I replaced them with cheap hinges from HD.
I rigged up a light stand/shelf combo with two shelves from Ikea ($15 each!) and some pipe from home depot. It's extremely sturdy and I trust it more than putting holes in the ceiling or wall to hang.
I've transferred all the critters from my 36 gallon over to the 40 breeder over the course of about a week and everyone is loving it. The live rock was covered (like, plague numbers) in amphipods and my green spotted puffer spent 2 days hunting them all down. Might need to add more.
Here's my teeny nem enjoying the extra light!
My duncan waiting to be glued to the rock
Full-ish tank shot.. Still working on my photo skills.
Hope you enjoy my tank! I'll keep updating as I change things!
