Please allow myself to introduce... Myself

[BeachBum2012]

Hi folks. I'm Brian. I've been researching and collecting equipment for my first reef tank for about 2 years now after 30ish years of freshwater and freshwater planted aquariums.

I'm looking at setting up a 40-gallon breeder with the thought of upgrading to a 4-foot 120 in the future when we get around to a new house. I'm trying my best to do everything right, while leaving plenty of room for future expansion.

I'm fairly certain that I'm only a stand and hood away from being to get up and running, but it'll still be a while until I can build it.

My biggest quandary currently is which automation system I should go with. I'm leaning heavily towards the Profilux, but Apex could still be an option.

So, here is a few photos of my two small planted tanks, and some of the fun things I have for my reef build.

Look forward to getting to know you all on my adventure into the ocean.

 

[dbl]

Welcome to R2R.

 

[Dsnakes]

Welcome to R2R, and as a partner member as well! I saw your first post on the member drive forum. I used to keep planted tanks as well, they can be just as diverse as a reef

 

[Idoc]

Welcome!

 

[BeachBum2012]

Welcome to R2R, and as a partner member as well! I saw your first post on the member drive forum. I used to keep planted tanks as well, they can be just as diverse as a reef

I've loved them for years now. Was planning a 180 planted Discus tank when my daughter decided she really would like a Nemo. Well, the reef planning started then. Hoping to be wet by the end of the year.

 

[Salty1962]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Bob3655]

Welcome to R2R! Those are some killer planted tanks. Personally I really like breeder sized footprint tanks. You get a decent space to play around without having to perform 30+ gallon water changes, and needing thousands and thousands of dollars worth of lighting.

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[kschweer]

Welcome!!!

 

[Grey Guy]

Welcome!

 

[BeachBum2012]

So, I'd just like to add a little more about what my thoughts and plans are.

Currently I have a pair of 40 gallon breeders sitting in the garage waiting for me, one of which is destined to become my first foray into the world of the ocean. I'm going to go for a mixed reef, but haven't quite decided on fish. I'm leaning towards a dwarf lion fish as a center piece, but who know? The other tank will eventually become a planted tank, but more on that down the road.

What I don't have is a stand so I'm thinking about building one this week. The original plan was to weld a stand that would work well for the 40b, but also be able to hold a 120 down the road. As my welding help(the owner of the welder that I use for this sort of project) has been quite busy as of late, I've sidelined that thought for the time being. Instead I think I'm going to build a plywood stand instead. My thought this go around is to build the stand to fit the 40b, rather than oversize to accommodate the larger tank down the road. I'm thinking 36" x 24" x 42", with the extra 6 inches to take care of the plumbing in the back. Makes for a very tight fit for my 34" sump, with only 1/2" to spare, but I believe I can make it work. If I slide the sump all the way to the back, that leaves just over 7" in front where I can place dosing containers, etc. as needed. All in all, it'll be a tight fit, but I think I can make it work. The height in the stand should also allow me to add an ATO container above the sump. That only leaves me with the problem of where to mount/store the electronics when I get around to them. My thought there is to build a matching stand that can hold a 15g column tank. I can plump it into the sump off of the manifold so the stand would be completely free for an Apex or Profilux setup. I'm thinking I'd like a dedicated tank for a pair of clowns and some anemones and this would kill two birds with one stone.

Down the road, this would free me up to upgrade to any size tank that I want as I won't be attached to a costly built stand. I can use this stand for the other 40b that I referenced earlier for a planted tank, and then weld up a stand for 120 or hopefully 180 after we move.

I still haven't made the decision between Apex and Profilux, but I think I'm going to get moving as is, and add the controller down the line just a bit. Anyhow, thanks for reading the wall-o-text. I'll post some photos next time around. Hopefully I'll have a stand built and the tank drilled and painted by then.

Oh, I'm also going to be setting up a mixing station. That should be fun.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[BeachBum2012]

Welcome to R2R!

Thanks.

So... Did you get the Austin Powers reference?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Thanks.

So... Did you get the Austin Powers reference?

Lol, caught that almost immediately

 

[BeachBum2012]

Lol, caught that almost immediately

Perfect.

Love the avitar. My daughter asked if we could put Tamatoa in out tank when it's ready. Had to point out that he was big enough to eat Maui. Oops.

 

[jsker]

Welcome to R2R Brain.

 

[Whipples]

Welcome to R2R! Start a build log over in the member tanks thread, there are a bunch of us ready to help out!

 

[BeachBum2012]

Welcome to R2R! Start a build log over in the member tanks thread, there are a bunch of us ready to help out!

Thanks.

I plan to get a build thread going as soon as I get my stand built. I'm hoping to at least get it started on Friday. I tend to way over plan things, so I've actually been researching and collecting equipment for more than two years. Time to finally get up and running.

 

[BeachBum2012]

Sneak peek. Hopefully I can get started on the stand Friday.

 

[Whipples]

Looks great! only suggestion I have is to make the returns as even in terms of distance from the pump as you can. If you have differing lengths you will get differing flows from the returns in the tank. Not crucial, but wanted to get that in front of you. I have dual returns just like that and I ran the return plumbing up and out of the sump, centered the T to connect the return lines in the tank to the pump, and connected the pump that centered T to mitigate that issue. Below is a picture of what I mean: