New 40 Gallon Breeder | Community Reef

[instantaquatics]

Hello R2R! This is a new thread about my 40 gallon breeder reef build. I'm transferring everything from my nano 10 gallon over to this tank.

10g thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/540034/
It was quite a cool tank seeing how it ran without chaeto, no skimmer and only on tap water with prime conditioner. It never went through an ugly stage! The clowns will be the first inhabitants of my 40 gallon.

I will be using lighting from VIPARSPECTRA, their 165w reef LED. I am usinf an Aquatop heater and a Finnex hang on the back refugium with a stingray LED. I am using caribsea liferock, some dry some live and 2 pounds of real reef rock. The substrate of choice is a 1.5" layer of special grade reef sand by Caribsea. The back of the aquarium is spray painted black.

I won't be planning any stockings because I will only be buying from my lfs and I can have no guarantees that they will stock a fish I want (don't feel like going through a whole ordering process either).

That's all for now and welcome to my thread!

 

[Peace River]

Congratulations on the new tank! The 40b is a great size that should give you a lot of flexibility!

 

[instantaquatics]

Congratulations on the new tank! The 40b is a great size that should give you a lot of flexibility!

Thanks! I'm very excited to play around with it and check out the possibilities

 

[instantaquatics]

About 2 weeks in and I'm getting diatoms on the sand and a but on the rocks. I never had this problem in my 10 gallon. Possibly something in the substrate? Fiji pink sand and some other I forgot.. something by CaribSea.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm stumped.

 

[Peace River]

About 2 weeks in and I'm getting diatoms on the sand and a but on the rocks. I never had this problem in my 10 gallon. Possibly something in the substrate? Fiji pink sand and some other I forgot.. something by CaribSea.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm stumped.

There are probably silicates somewhere that are being balanced out. It shouldn't be an issue and will likely take care of itself. This is not unusual and is part of what is called the "uglies" stage of a new tank.

 

[instantaquatics]

There are probably silicates somewhere that are being balanced out. It shouldn't be an issue and will likely take care of itself. This is not unusual and is part of what is called the "uglies" stage of a new tank.

Thank you!

 

[instantaquatics]

I have a 40 gallon breeder up and running again, I'll make a post on it pretty soon. For now, here's a video of my lawnmower blenny staring my camera down. He's not happy about it.

 

[Grayskull01]

I have a 40 gallon breeder up and running again, I'll make a post on it pretty soon. For now, here's a video of my lawnmower blenny staring my camera down. He's not happy about it.

Thats funny!!!

 

[instantaquatics]

Took some frags of a shaded part of my green pocillopora in an effort to give them more light and grow more from them (you know what fragging is!). Unfortunately I only had 2 plugs and a small, flat rock that once had a mushroom on it, so there won't be anymore until I go this weekend to get some plugs and snails.

Gee their color is washed out, reminder to change the white balance on my camera next time...

 

[instantaquatics]

Anyone have any stocking recommendations that are mixed-reef safe (LPS, SPS and softies), invert-safe, and non-aggressive? Current stocking includes a bunch of snails, a pair of ocellaris clownfish, and a lawnmower blenny.

Tank is a 40 breeder

 

[instantaquatics]

Is there perhaps a snail that my clownfish will not destroy? Recently, they have been digging in sand near snails (astrea), biting them so they fall off the glass, and harass them every time they try to move. They finally kill them. They are also biting my duncan to host it and it's ticking off the duncan which is ticking me off. I have had these guys 3 years and half of the time they have just been ticking me off..

 

[instantaquatics]

My clown pair laid eggs!