Saint's 40 breeder

[stAlphonzo]

Here is how the tank looks today. I rearranged the rocks a little bit. Can't wait to see some coral on them. Heck at this point, I will be glad for a hermit crab or two!

Clearly I need to use the tank as an excuse to get better at photography too ... this is when auto settings just don't work right!

 

[Retro Reefer]

Nice looking breeder.. I like your DIY light hanger

 

[stAlphonzo]

Nice looking breeder.. I like your DIY light hanger

Thanks Retro Reefer! I'm flying by the seat of my pants for sure but yeah, it did come out ok.

 

[Retro Reefer]

I’m working on a breeder myself and had planned on doing a similar hanger but ended up hanging my lights from ceiling, this fits my style of reefing.. cheap and easy

 

[stAlphonzo]

I’m working on a breeder myself and had planned on doing a similar hanger but ended up hanging my lights from ceiling, this fits my style of reefing.. cheap and easy

Nice! I really love the size and layout of the breeder. I think it will keep my satisfied for a while!

My plan was to hang mine from the ceiling too for the same reason as you. At the last minute, I rethought the location of the tank and there is a furnace vent right above it, which is about as wide as the tank :mad:

I was going to suspend the bar from the ceiling, but the spacing didn't really work out.

It's going to be better in the long run though because there is an unfinished section of basement right behind its wall so I am going to plumb a sump back there so I can keep the stand for equipment and things. That is going to be one the next big tasks once I get the gear.

 

[stAlphonzo]

I’m working on a breeder myself

I really like your setup! I didn't realize that I've been following your build too ... but just haven't finished reading it all yet

 

[stAlphonzo]

Well well things are finally moving quickly. I have to say, that Seachem Stability really gets my vote. I am back at 0 Ammonia, Nitrites fell to about 0.25 ppm and Nitrates actually fell to about 20 ppm. The bottle does say that it breaks down Nitrate, but I figured that was a load of bull!

I added another 2 ppm Ammonium Chloride just to measure the rate it drops to 0 again, per Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride instructions. It's starting to look like I might grab a small CUC this weekend and maybe a fish to go into QT.

Still no real diatoms to speak of though there is a rusty color forming on the one piece of live rock I bought.

 

[stAlphonzo]

I will probably do a larger search and/or post to the wider forum, but for the sake of completeness, do people QT their CUC? I have heard people say absolutely because of eggs that may come in on the shells but not really sure if that's true.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I will probably do a larger search and/or post to the wider forum, but for the sake of completeness, do people QT their CUC? I have heard people say absolutely because of eggs that may come in on the shells but not really sure if that's true.

Theoretically they can probably carry ich and velvet as well. That said, I do not and I bet few do.

 

[stAlphonzo]

Thanks, that is encouraging. I wasn't really planning on it until I heard someone speak about it today. There really is information overload sometimes

I guess if it was just ick and velvet and I was going to QT my first fish for 6 weeks, it should really be safe either way ...

 

[NY_Caveman]

I hear you on information overload. In the 90s I just threw tanks together and read Martin A. Moe’s books. LFS helped, but it was mostly just figure it out along the way. Those tanks were pretty successful. Now I have more information than I need and that actually makes it more challenging. I think about things I never considered in the past and found myself overthinking the beginning. Now I am just stepping back and letting the tank figure things out while I keep my hands out. Less fiddling is good!

 

[sergebmw2]

Looking great. Love the rock scape and how the lights looks. Following along.

 

[stAlphonzo]

I hear you on information overload. In the 90s I just threw tanks together and read Martin A. Moe’s books. LFS helped, but it was mostly just figure it out along the way. Those tanks were pretty successful. Now I have more information than I need and that actually makes it more challenging. I think about things I never considered in the past and found myself overthinking the beginning. Now I am just stepping back and letting the tank figure things out while I keep my hands out. Less fiddling is good!

That's really great advice. I've been trying hard to keep the 'less fiddling' and infrequent, small changes thing in mind. Hopefully that sticks now that things are picking up a bit. The tank will tell you what it needs for sure!

I do love Moe's books too. I recently finished the updated Marine Aquarium Handbook and have started digging into the Marine Aquarium Reference while picking at some older Theil books. Some of the equipment choices are pretty out of date, but really good information on water chemistry in there. Probably a lot more too, but that's as far as I've gotten

 

[stAlphonzo]

Looking great. Love the rock scape and how the lights looks. Following along.

Thanks for stopping by sergebmw2. I appreciate your kind words and encouragement. It's a slow hobby for sure, but I'm amazed at how much enjoyment I've already gotten by just flicking on the lights and looking at the rockwork. I can only imagine when I get some critters in there

 

[stAlphonzo]

Good times! Came home from work today and my rock and sandbed are starting to look like they have brown freckles. Looks like the diatoms are starting.

 

[stAlphonzo]

.... and even 'uglier' on the piece of live rock.

 

[stAlphonzo]

Ammonia dropped from the 2ppm I added yesterday to about 0.5 so I think I'm getting close to having a productive colony.

I'm getting the lifereef HOB overflow this week sometime and the Jabeo 6500 return pump to go in the 20 Long I just bought at the $1 per gallon sale at Petco ... I love that sale

Also on order is the inkbird temp controller. I need to get another Eheim Jager to match but I have enough wattage to keep temps stable in the meantime.

Now it's time to break out my spare HOB filters and get them seeded and get a QT tank set up. Happy times!

 

[stAlphonzo]

Well, I guess it's been a bit longer that I'd expected since the last update. Life is hectic as usual and the bulk of my 'tank time' has been taken up with actually caring for the tank ...

Things are cooking now though. The diatoms are really blooming and I have a little green algae on the piece of live rock which I guess means the system is stabilizing My nutrients are processing quickly now and I am consistently sitting at around 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite. The Nitrates are still a bit high, around 15, but I think that's ok.

I added a small CUC to take care of the algae that's forming and to keep have some life to stare at. I ordered a small CUC package from Reef Cleaners, which included 3 Antillean Nerites, 4 Florida Ceriths, 2 Nassarius vibex and 5 Dwarf Ceriths. In reality I got dozens of dwarf ceriths which are really cool, but 3 of the Florida ceriths didn't make the trip. Jeff from Reef Cleaners is really great to work with though. I added 5 hermits and a ball of Chaeto since I will have a sump soon.

This brown is pretty much what all of the rocks look like...

 

[stAlphonzo]

I'm amazed at how efficient the hermits are. That live rock was pretty covered with diatoms about a week ago and they have largely stripped it clean.

It's hard to see, but there is some red macro algae of some sort growing out of the front of that rock. I am curious to see what it will become.

 

[stAlphonzo]

These dwarf ceriths are really cool, the crawl in every nook and hole in this rock. Reef Cleaners provides really great products. I can't say enough good things about them.