WaReefer458
New member
I guess I should start by saying I am not new to this hobby by any means. I had a 75 gallon reef tank for years but after moving it multiple times I finally broke it down 3 years ago. So.. After getting the itch but not wanting to revamp the 75 as we are preparing to buy a house and settle down for a while, I decided to build a 40 gal. It is currently having a stand built that is 40" tall to accommodate my sump and viewing pleasure. The tank will be drilled for a drain and return so nothing will be going over the edge of the tank ( I have a 10mo old daughter that loves grabbing cables and stuff ). This will be an sps dominant tank as of now. Some must haves will include an APEX gold controller, Kessil a360we light on a goose neck, mp40 power head, and possibly adding my old calcium reactor later if needed. I was reluctive about using my old skimmer as it is way overkill for the tank but it should support a heavy bio load. It's a reef octopus sro3000int. I was told to either leave it running and the skimmate will be super dry or to have it on a timer but I'm hesitant about the timer because I really don't want it to kick on and boil over while I'm not home. Return pump will be a mag drive 9.5. My biggest demise of my old tank was water changes were a total pain so I'm going to plumb in a gate valve off the return facing out of the stand with a fitting so I can just screw on a hose and do a 5 gallon water change while the tank is running. The plumbing will all be pvc because I hate flex hose, I've had problems with kinked hoses that burned up a pump. The top off is gravity fed and there will be a shelf in the stand to hold a 3 gallon jug of water with a filler neck so I can just use a small submersible pump in a 5 gallon bucket to fill it. I'm probably forgetting a few things but I'll update as it progresses.
