Oh and I forgot to mention why the sump is in the garage. I built the stand shorter than normal so that the tank would be easy to view while sitting on the couch. Unfortunately that didn't leave enough vertical space to have easy access for a sump.
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Nope totally agree, the garage might pose a problem down the road. The garage is heated in the winter. Nothing crazy but I think the heater should be able to keep up fine. If not I might try bulding an insulated compartment for it. Summer, so far we have hit the high 90s a couple days and it hasn't affected the temperature that I have noticed. The garage doesn't heat up much more than 80. The room I keep the tank in is usually in the low 70s. The plan for the immediate future is to keep an eye on it during extreme heat days either use ice packs or kill the return pump if it starts going to high.
As for stuff getting into the sump. I hadn't given that much thought. The sump is on the ground level shelf of a Costco storage rack. The sump sits back a ways from edges for protection. Next level up is aquarium supplies. above that is food storage. Nothing the would be toxic to the tank. I suppose dust could get in but I do anything dusty dirty outside to avoid the cleanup.
Definitely things that I might need to revisit though. They were originally on my radar but with everything working correctly for the moment I put it out of my mind and moved on. Honestly the whole setup has to much shoe string and bubble gum. I think the next step might be to clean up a few of the more haphazard elements and try to bullet proof a bit better.
Oh and I forgot to mention why the sump is in the garage. I built the stand shorter than normal so that the tank would be easy to view while sitting on the couch. Unfortunately that didn't leave enough vertical space to have easy access for a sump.
+ that skimmer is a best. I had one of there bigger models on a 240 did a good job.
So I've been meaning to get this posted for a while now but life has just been to busy. I've hardly been able to find the time to work on the actual build much less post a build thread. Unfortunately that means that some things I wanted to get everyone's opinion on are now set in stone. But there is still plenty to do so I'm going to get this thing off the ground and see where it goes.
A bit of back story. I've had a 12g cube master AIO set up for about 4 years, I started with that size because I was in an apartment and just forgot to go bigger when I bought my house. It's had it's ups and downs but been a pretty good little FOWLR tank. A few things recently have made me want to go bigger, 1) my 7month old son loves watching the one blue damsel (charlie) and I want to get a few more fish for him, 2)I want to try keeping some coral, I'm thinking softies and LPS. and 3) I was over at Petco for a bag of salt a few months ago and saw the 40b tanks on sale and away we go.
one other note. I'm in Wenatchee WA and all we have is a Petco. For anything saltwater that isn't petco I have to drive over 100 miles one way over a mountain range to get it in Western Washington. Also We have no local reef club and I haven't even found anyone in town who has a tank. I'm on my own.
This is what I'm upgrading from.
It's a Cube Master 12g that I picked up at the thrift store for $10 the light is an ABI 12W tuna blue and I've got a tea jar siphon ATO on the apple box behind the plant. Inside I have about 10-15lb of live rock with a blue damsel fish and 2 hermit crabs.
I picked up the 40b from petco. and I have an old 20 gallon tall that I'm going to use as a sump. THe deal I made with my wife is that I would DIY everything I could to save money and she would get new floors in the house. I'm an electrician and have access to lots of scrap lumber so the first project was building a stand.
the bead board on the front side of the stand is held on with magnets and comes completely off.
On a trip to Boise I stopped at a LFS and picked up a few things off their used shelf. a aquaC protein skimmer and an unnamed overflow/return combo that I've never seen before. 50$ for both which seemed like a no brainer.
I added unistrut to the back of my stand for holding plumbing and mounting any future DIY lighting supports (eg EMT piping)
Next I cut a single gang access through my wall into my garage where the sump will go. the sump will be sitting on the lowest level of a costco storage rack.
I'm going to be temporarily using the 12w light in the beginning while I get the sump up and tuned, tank cycled, and all the other little doo dads that need to be finished.
Sand in and filling with RO water.
I'm going to try something with the sump that I've never seen before so I'd like to here your opinions. I'm going to put he drain line/ filter sock and the return pump on the same side to save space. Because the AquaC is an external skimmer I can use the main chamber as a refugium while also a supply/return chamber for the skimmer.
A funny side note. Check your water pressure before hooking your RO/DI up to the garden hose. I bought an RObuddi and it was working way faster than I thought it should filling my 5gal bucket in about an hour and a half. Then I noticed my hose was about to burst. Turns out the pressure reg on my house was installed after the front hose spigot and I as getting almost 130 PSI, well over the rating for my RObuddi. luckly I don't think It caused any damage and I now have a tune-able setup to hook it up to.
This weekend I got everything moved over and re-homed in the 40. The live rock didn't go as far as I thought it would so I'll have to get more. I sprinkled a cup of the old sand into the new sand to get it seeded and there was a minor issue the sump that I need to sort before I add it into the loop but all in all I'm pretty happy with where it is.
the upcoming to do list.
1) get the sump sumping
2) get protein skimmer skimming
3) monitor cycle (should be a quick mini cycle)
4) add live stock.
I've done all this work and I'm not really sure what I actually want to add for live stock. the wife wants a pair of clowns so that will happen. I've always wanted a dwarf angel which I'm told is probably a bad idea in this size tank. And other that that I'm thinking of getting mostly fish that will do a job. what fish do you guys think is most useful in this size tank? and where is the best place to get a cleanup crew?
and what light would you go with for up to LPS. I've been looking at the aquatic life edge wifi at 56watts but I'm not sure that would be enough juice.