The Legal B(REEF): Office 40 Breeder

[NCsalt]

This 40 breeder is being set up in my personal office; right behind my desk where I have consults with clients everyday.

Haven’t had a reef tank since my first and only 20H Nano reef. (2007-2010). Very excited about having more than double the water volume this go around.

Tank Placement:
The tank will sit directly behind my office chair on a built in book case and desk from the 1960s.

BEFORE:

I wanted some structural support added and cabinet doors made to hide wiring and ATO reservoir. I had the carpenter doing some repairs on my house add it to the bill. He also moved the tank out from the wall for me so i had room for wiring and ATO hose.

AFTER:

I did the staining and polyurethane application myself over the last two weekends. I also painted a black background onto the 40B.

The light has arrived first so I decided to get it setup before the other equipment arrived and get a feel for how the tank would look after the remodel.

SPECS:


Lighting: Maxspect Razor X 150 watt
Filtration: Sicce Shark Pro 900
Skimmer: Tunze 9004 DC
ATO: XP aqua Duetto 2
ATO Reservoir: 10 gallon Aqueon tank
Powerhead: Sicce XStream SDC Wifi
Heater: ? I have an unopened Fluval 100 watt just laying around since forever. Considering IM Helio dual element 200 watt in future.
RO/DI: BRS Value 75 ghp 4 Stage

Yesterdays arrival

LIVESTOCK:

My initial goals were to get this size tank so I could have a decent amount of nano type fish. My old tank had me restricted to just two or three small fish and of course I wanted more. Always right?

But with with more space there are a few more species with more size that might work with fewer inhabitants…so TBD.

As far as corals maybe go easy with softies and LPS. Maybe a true mixed reef. Time will tell.

Very excited about this build! Welcome to all who want to follow on the journey!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Congrats on the new tank!!! looking forward to seeing progress of it

 

[kevgib67]

It seems you have it well thought out. I look forward to following your build.

 

[Soren]

Very nice start and welcome to R2R, @NCsalt !
40g Breeders are a great size for a lot of flexibility in choices of what to put in while remaining manageable in size.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with your system.

Not as neat and tidy as yours but still functional and fun (I need to get a few shelves for organizing and finish the clean-up after recently upgrading this tank from a 30g Breeder), here's the righthand view from my office desk at work (40B with 30g sump):

 

[NCsalt]

So a few updates.
The RODI unit arrived yesterday and today I got some fresh 5 gallon buckets and a 22 gallon can.

The wiring for the ATO, power head, light, and their controllers were run down into the cabinet. ATO hose was also run from tank down to where reservoir will be. The skimmer controller is not gonna fit through my wiring cut out so it will stay next to the tank instead of below in the cabinet with its power source.

Tomorrow I plan on doing some wire management and get the ATO and pump controller mounted. Gonna get the ATO reservoir in place, and get the pump, valve, and hose prepped for water.

I picked up a donut and cave Liferock piece. i set them in the tank dry to see them under the light.

Looking good I think. The cave would really look good with a blackcap basslet living in it.
Check out that walmart yoga/leveling mat floorground! Lol

I also purchased two coraline encrusted “fiji“ live rock pieces that had been in an established tank for 8+ years. The two pieces weigh 22 pounds total. They are being held for me in a tank at a reef maintenance company.

I’m considering getting another10lbs of life rock to add to the cave, donut, and live rock pieces. Should put me around 40ish pounds of rock. There will be 40 lbs of sand in the tank.

Ill post more pics of the cabinet if I can get it presentable tomorrow.

 

[NCsalt]

Tested and ran the RODI unit in the bathroom I can use in the office. Its my first one. Produced 5 gallons to clear system. Everything was simpler than I was anticipating. Wish I had one back in the day.

Operating:

On Pause

Mounted some controllers and the surge protector outlets. Placed the ATO 10 gallon in cabinet area and made sure there was enough room for a 5 gallon to be used to fill it.

Underneath currently:

Went ahead and picked up 10 more pounds of Liferock. 5 pieces in the box. May use them all whole or bust one or two up for aquascaping. One or two may become zoa islands.

Also took the time to spray down future water containers before taking them to my office.

You just never know what could be in there other than dust.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I have a suggestion for your bottom floor inside the cabinet. I would cover it over somehow. You are going to spill water. It's inevitable. Also, run with two heaters and two Inkbird controllers. The most common failure is a heater. I have been very happy with my 40 breeder.

 

[NCsalt]

I have a suggestion for your bottom floor inside the cabinet. I would cover it over somehow. You are going to spill water. It's inevitable. Also, run with two heaters and two Inkbird controllers. The most common failure is a heater. I have been very happy with my 40 breeder.

@Sebastiancrab
Good points. I had considered using the remainder of the yoga mat that wasn’t used to level the tank. My concern was if some water got past the mat and to the carpet it would take even longer to dry with the mat covering it. Maybe I can get the edges to fold up to capture any spillage.

As far as heater, I share those concerns. One of the reasons I went with the Sicce SDC wavemaker is because it has a built in temperature probe that relays the constant temp to my phone. Should be some additonal security that would allow me to react immediately if a failure occurs.

 

[NCsalt]

I have been working hard on trying to get my scape perfect after picking up the two live pieces of rock. Thats not how life works and a well laid plan can easily fall victim to the reality of one’s own imperfections.

My plan:

However, once I got it in the tank I realized it was too high. Didn’t account for rim and really needed more space on top of that.

Not an easy transition to make when glue and insta set has already been applied.

After lots of turning lifting it all back out and occasionally dipping the live pieces I ended up settling.

Tank before water and sand:

Will get a FTS when water settles tomorrow.

 

[NCsalt]

Water is still settling today.

Both the Sicce Shark Pro, the Sicce SDC, and the Tunze 9004 all run quietly. Just tested the Tunze; as I won’t be needing it yet.

Still need to get ATO up and going. Been on a lid search. Not sure if I want to do a DIY screen or go fancy with something like kraken reef. All the notches a set up like mine will need add up fast.

 

[NCsalt]

ATO is set up and working well.

Been testing parameters.

3 days after setting up Ammonia, Nitrates, and nitrates are at zero.

Yesterday, as I had hoped Nitrates were showing at .05. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0.

The 22 lbs of live rock have done an instant cycle. I added a few big pinches of flake food to the tank and will test again after weekend to make sure we are still just showing nitrates.

Definitely time to start thinking hard about livestock list!

 

[NCsalt]

After multiple ghost feedings the parameters are staying the same.

ammonia: 0
nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5ppm or less

I’ve seen the nitrates oranger on the last two tests.

Ran lights for couple hours today working on settings and checking out presets.

Ready for Cuc crew soon imo. I would like trochus snails but haven’t seen any locally. I had astreas and tonga nassarius previously. The nassarius were one of my favorite parts of my last tank and i can source them local. I had a red scarlet previously. Considering a few blue legs and mexican red leg hermits this go.

Working on fish stocking list. Plan on sharing a few options I’m considering soon. Saw some forbidden tomini fruit in the quarter size this week. Beautiful

 

[NCsalt]

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10

Started seeing a little touch of green in a few spots of the live rock that receive the most amounts of room light. Tank lights have mostly remained off.

Decided to add the start of the cleanup crew.

3 Red Leg Hermits
3 Astrea Snails
2 Tonga Nassarrius Snails.

Working on fish stocking.

The most for sure fish right now is a Blackcap Basslet. Working on getting one through the company that will do most of my quarantining. May also use Dr Reef for a couple of fish.

Going to continue testing and get some pics of CUC.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

ATO is set up and working well.

Been testing parameters.

3 days after setting up Ammonia, Nitrates, and nitrates are at zero.

Yesterday, as I had hoped Nitrates were showing at .05. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0.

The 22 lbs of live rock have done an instant cycle. I added a few big pinches of flake food to the tank and will test again after weekend to make sure we are still just showing nitrates.

Definitely time to start thinking hard about livestock list!

Love the aquascape design!!!

 

[NCsalt]

Love the aquascape design!!!

Thanks!

It really tranforms with every angle. Just the front view is deceiving.

And some livestock.

 

[NCsalt]

Big Day!

Two new fish came home with me today.

Drove to a Reef only shop an hour and 15 minutes away that had rave reciews about the quality of their fish. They were awesome, spent 2 hours with me talking about ultimate stocking goals.

The first fish is a 2 year old Blackcap Basslet that they sold to a customer who had sold all his fish back when he broke down his tank in a move.

Stunner Blackcap

Next is a pretty Possum Wrasse. He had been at the store 11 months.

Also added pods today.
Very excited. Fish look great and I will update with their status throughout the week.

 

[NCsalt]

How about some fish pics.

Standing outside my office door using 10x on my phone to get my first picture of my large Blackcap Basslet.

And then after a couple hours he came out while i was sitting in my office chair.

The Possom wrasse really is an awesome little fish. Mine does as he pleases currently. All over the tank pecking at rock or just easy swimming. He does stayed hidden here and there. But he has remained fairly visible.

The Blackcap is beautiful when seen in full. I like how he can be seen in your peripheral but knows to hide if you direct your focus to him.

 

[NCsalt]

So the Blackcap Basslet began coming out a lot more starting Thursday or Friday. His territory seems to have expanded. It has been giving the Possom wrasse some decent chases. The wrasse does this submit thing kind of like a clownfish. Once the Blackcap turns away the wrasse pops him. Knocked some scales off.

A balance seems to have been reached between the two over the weekend. The Blackcap definitely will pick up a hermit crab and carry it around. I have at least once incident on video. Still haven’t seen it eat mysis or the tiny pellet the wrasse loves.

I thought I’d show what the current underneath the tank looks like.

I did end up using the yoga mat and curling the edges to catch spillage like Sebastioncrab recomended. Glad I did. Sloced some water when filling ATO tank.

I did a 10 percent water change Saturday. Skimmer is running very wet with too much water. The water is visibly dirty though. Only nitrates showing up, with them at least at 10ppm before water change.

Phytoplanton is being added every day, hopefully some pods are evading the wrasse.

 

[NCsalt]

Well some trouble in paradise.

Still have yet to see the Blackcap eat. Noticed very occasionally he would give a headshake after he went back into his cave. I called store and asked what they were feeding him and if there was any chance for flukes and they said they doubted it that he ate mysis and was there for months with no issue.

Stopped coming out of cave for two days and appeared to be floating at the top of the ceiling of it.

The last couple times he was out I noticed some lighter discoloration along his back and sides. Looked like minor scrapes from jetting into rocks. Not ick, not the bacterial pics i’d seen.

I tried to gently move him out of cave with hand as net would not fit. Did not respond to touch. When i eased my hand behind him he attacked my hand significantly. No blood but it surprised me.

Had to pull cave up to get him out dor freshwater dip. Saw some scales after 5 minutes could have been flukes But looked like a scale or two to me.

Still not coming out or eating. Doesn’t look like its wasting away at all so maybe he is grabbing food from other opening I can’t see.

May do Prazipro this week. Did a 10 percent water change this week after dip.
Wrasse is very active and doing his thing. Have seen nothing on it.

 

[NCsalt]

On second week of prazipro. The Blackcap has shown a little more movement. Definitely saw him eat some mysis. Still very lethargic, occasional fast breathing.

Possum wrasse still a very active fat eater. Much more inclined to hang around the blackcaps area as challenges are infrequent now.

Picked up a few hardy coral frags today.

A Duncan, a green Crown Leather, and some Daisy Polyps.

Should be able to get some pics of them tomorrow, hopefully opened up. Looked great at the store.