40 Gallon Breeder reef tank build...

[mmittlesteadt]

I cry every time I see your product of hard work and planning. Definitely will be a model of what I should do (planning wise) with my next tank. Kudos!

Thanks. You'll notice I still do not have sand in it. I have four large rock structures, and there are 4 "loose" rocks that are simply placed on those structures. After looking at it last night, I will be moving some of those loose rocks to create more ledges and overhangs in the front, and not go as high in the back. The main structures will still remain in place however.

I normally am not a patient person, but I am taking my time with this and do it up right. I'm kind of enjoying the process of it all. It will get filled and stocked when it is ready to be. Hard to hold off though!!!

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Good start so far... 40 gallon breeder is a very good tank for a reef.

Thanks.

I agree. With the space in our living room we were limited to a 3 ft. long tank. I HATE tall tanks, and much prefer wide tanks for landscaping. The 40 gallon breeder seems to be the perfect compromise...not too large, not too small and wide enough front to back to do some decent aquascaping.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Alright! Changed some rocks around and got back to my original aquascaping idea with kind of a "spiral staircase" effect with multiple ledges, caves, overhangs and plenty of open space in and around the entire rock structure.

Lots of places for coral. Lots of hiding places for creatures (that are all still in view by me at various angles). Lots of flow throughout the entire tank.

From the left (overflow side, overflow weir at the top left...not seen here)...

Front view...

From the right (return side)...

And a shot from the top (partial, as taken through the front glass only)...

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Close to being done with my display tank. Just need to make an easy to remove cover for my overflow.

Also need to find the best GPH circulating pumps for it.

On to finishing up my sump! I'm getting so close to filling with water I can almost taste the saltwater.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

In my research I came across a very interesting article (among many)...

"Water Flow is More Important for Corals Than Light"

Now I am rethinking the whole circulation thing.

I am going to leave my return in the top right of my tank shoot straight out to the front right corner. There I have a 1000GPH Maxi-Jet Pro 900 pointing across my rock down to the left, where i will have a smaller 256GPH pump point across (and a little up) the back of my tank behind my rockwork. There will then be another smaller 256GPH pump on the right bottom pointing to the front wall (in the same manner as the left one does along the back wall).

This will create a huge gyre in my tank sweeping in a circular fashion all around my rockwork.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Whoo-hoo! My 1/4" thick glass came in today. I run the frame shop at Ace Hardware (where we also have a pet department so I can get things at cost) so I can cut my own glass to fit.

I can now work on my sump today and get the baffles siliconed on place! After that I just need to finish up my ghetto gravity fed ATO, get my skimmer put in place at the right height (need to make a stand for it to raise it up) and of course I have to get my RO/DI unit mounted above my utility sink first, but I'm getting real close to filling my display and sump with actual WATER. Been a long (but very worthwhile) wait.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I am now baffled. The sump has the baffles siliconed in place and is curing. The display tank is ready to rock'n'roll. Just about everything is in place.

Just need to figure out my ghetto gravity fed ATO, somewhat automatic water change system, and get my RO/DI unit installed above my utility sink.

Almost there! Now I am starting to lose a little of my patience. Been about a year since I first contemplated doing a reef tank and a good six months of heavy research, and about three months planning out and building my entire system.

Sitting on the launch pad awaiting final checks...

 

[ZeeSparrow]

3....2....1.... blast off!

I just started my build thread this morning. I've been keeping pace with you for the most part, though not quite doing things in the same order. I'm hoping I get some feedback on my plumbing so far, so I can cement the pipe and fitting with a little more confidence in the next day or so. I also need to figure out my aquascaping as I haven't looked at my rock in anything but a bucket for the past month. My husband has been teasing me that at the rate I'm going, it will be next year before I put water into the tank! HA!

Hopefully he's wrong............

 

[mmittlesteadt]

3....2....1.... blast off!

I just started my build thread this morning. I've been keeping pace with you for the most part, though not quite doing things in the same order. I'm hoping I get some feedback on my plumbing so far, so I can cement the pipe and fitting with a little more confidence in the next day or so. I also need to figure out my aquascaping as I haven't looked at my rock in anything but a bucket for the past month. My husband has been teasing me that at the rate I'm going, it will be next year before I put water into the tank! HA!

Hopefully he's wrong............

I have been getting the same response from my wife...only she calls it my "fish tank", which has seemingly taken forever. I'm almost there.

Sorry if my pics aren't showing. I just switched webhosters and the nameservers haven't updated yet. They'll be back up shortly.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Display tank and sump are completed.

I just order an Eshopps Float Valve for my ATO.

I will be setting up a gravity fed ATO using a 5 gallon covered pail, and the float valve. I've been reading all kinds of failsafe methods for ATO's but really mine will be so easy and foolproof even a caveman could do it!

My ATO bucket rests on a platform right next to my 65 gallon sump with the bottom of the bucket being about an inch above the tank rim. This will be connected to a small ball valve and then onto the Float Valve in my return chamber. I will use the ball valve to only allow a trickle of RO/DI water for top off so should the float stick open it will take some time to fill the return chamber.

My return chamber holds 7.7 gallons of water and my pump will still operate in about 1.5 gallons.

I'm going to set it up so that the return chamber runs with about 5 gallons at water level. This will give me 2.7 gallons left should my float stick open, meaning if the entire 5 gallon RO/DI bucket empties into the 70 gallons total (sump and display) over a period of days, I will only be diluting my salt mix by roughly 4 gallons of fresh water.

If my float sticks closed, I still have 3.5 gallons of evaporation time before my pump runs dry. It is unknown at this time what my evaporation rate will be, but it will not drop the water level at a faster rate than I can catch unless on vacation...but my sump is in my basement and I'm coming up on humid season so it will not evaporate as fast as it will next winter, so I can address it at that time.

Worst case scenario is nothing will flood and salinity will fluctuate a bit and even at that, only if I am gone for an extended period and unable to check it. Even then I have a friend who can check on things and knows what to do.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Finally got sumpin' done.

The sump is done. I'm just waiting on my float for my ATO so I can hook that all up. I also need to buy some more aragonite and rock for my refugium.

You'll see in the pic where my refugium is, I have two raised baffles that are bubble traps but also to direct water flow down through the bottom of my refugium. I also have two small 2" high baffles on the bottom (can barely be seen) directly under the raised baffles. That is to keep my sand contained within the refugium and also you can see egg crate light diffuser that will rest against those upper and lower baffles of the fuge to prevent chaeto from getting into my return area. I will have a small power head in my refugium to keep circulation going separate from the regular sump flow. Water flow is indicated by yellow lines. The Yellow circle arrows show where my powerhead will circulate my refugium and keep my chaeto tumbled.

My HOB HOT Magnum canister filter will only be used for carbon or GFO if needed. I need to extend the inlet and outlet of it to reach into the water of the return section. On the right is my ATO Reservoir bucket above my 5 gallon salt mix water change bucket. I will have an RO/DI line running into my ATO or Salt Mix W.C. buckets (whichever needs manual filling at any given time) and I will have a Python running from my utility sink (not pictured...behind wall to the right) to the return chamber and a pump in the Salt Mix bucket to facilitate manual water changes more easily. Everything was designed with failsafes in mind.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Managed to figure out a mini bulkhead using some stock 1/2" plumbing along with some nylon and rubber washers. Just need to reduce it down to the ATO float tubing size.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I have my dry rock and sand in my refugium. The refugium is 27 gallons. This will give me room for chaeto, some small pots for mangroves, and supplementing the existing dry rock with live rock for culturing copepods. Water flows over the drain/skimmer baffle and under the second (raised) baffle on the left, through the egg crate diffuser and rock over to the right side (set up similarly) under the first baffle on the right and then back up over the return baffle. The egg crate diffuser is to prevent chaeto from getting into the return chamber. I will have a very small powerhead for circulation and tumbling the chaeto in the refugium. You can see my ATO float valve in the upper right behind the return section baffles.

You can just barely see the skimmer on the far left, and the return pump on the far right.

And I have my Eshopps ATO float valve in place. You can see my shut off/flow valve that will be connected to my ATO reservoir (5 gallon pail) and the float valve. I just need to figure out the best way to connect the 1/2" PVC to the 1/4" tubing on the float valve.

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I figured out how to connect my 1/4" float valve inlet to my ATO reservoir 1/2" valve outlet.

The float itself is pretty good. The acrylic mounting bracket is great. From the reviews some have said it is flimsy and leaks and I can only assume they didn't hook it up right (or maybe theirs actually was faulty).

One thing I did not like about it was the supplied 1/4" tubing which is very stiff and fits into a very wiggly connector. But that really wasn't an issue for me anyway as I needed a different connection to my ATO reservoir's 1/2" outlet.

So, resourceful person that I am, I found a mod for it. The top part of the float's connection screws into the float. The hole for the supplied tubing is 1/4" but the outside of the connector is 1/2" and perfectly round and about 3/8" long. So rather than put tubing inside the connector (as it is supposed to be), I found some 1/2" (I.D.) very flexible tubing that I put over this connector. You can see it in the photo below.

1. The water inlet connector that gets screwed into the float valve base.
2. The new soft flexible 1/2" (I.D.) tubing over the connector.
3. A nylon squeeze clamp over the tubing to secure it.

Then with just a little pipe tape over the connector threads, the connector is then screwed back into the float valve base and can now easily be connected to 1/2" PVC pipe (or larger with an appropriate fitting).

I tested it and it performs flawlessly. No leaks and the float works as intended in a test outside of my sump.

Which will be hooked up to my ATO reservoir's valve outlet pipe...

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Since I'm not going to be filling my tank until the weekend, I thought I'd do a little more tweaking of things.

I want to use my hinged glass top, but I don't want condensation and I want to minimize salt creep on it. I also don't want to just use egg crate diffuser for a top as I want to put my LED light strips directly on the glass, and I don't want an open top. I want the power cords for my circulation pumps to come straight up out the top to minimize their submersion and the amount of salt creep on them as well.

So...I'm using both...egg crate diffuser and my glass top. I cut a piece of the diffuser to fit the rim of my tank and then cut out an opening for easy access for things like feeding, scraping the front glass, etc. The glass sits on top of the diffuser. There is plenty of ventilation and with my sump in my much cooler basement I'm not too concerned about overheating of the display tank and my sump will act as a built in chiller.

The top of the water level will be a good 3/4" below the egg crate sitting on the lip of the frame. The glass will be sitting about 1 1/4" above the water line this way, with ventilation all around the glass. The cords to my pumps come straight up yet under the glass. None of the water flow will be directed up to create a lot of turbulence. I have an 11" long, straight glass (no teeth) weir to my overflow and my sump is open and I have a skimmer to all help with gas exchange.

Egg crate diffuser cut to fit...

The hinged glass on top with my three light strips (one daylight, two actinic)...The blue tape blocks off stray light where I don't want it in back on top. Not sure if I want or need to cut out the egg crate where the lights sit. May not be an issue.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

Nice! I'm still trying to decide if I want to do egg crate top or get the mesh from BRS and make a screen for it. Not sure the egg crate is sufficient to protect jumpers... As I don't have the glass to help.

Soon...........

 

[mmittlesteadt]

Thanks. Yeah, I really had been thinking for a long time on what the best approach would be for the top. That's why I hadn't done anything with it yet. I read, read and read some more. I considered the pros and cons of all the different tops.

So I figured I'd go with both and maximize the benefits of each. The glass is totally safe (for the fish and my lights). The egg crate offsets the issues with the glass causing condensation and salt creep (to a point...there is ALWAYS some salt creep). The open sump and skimmer eliminates the need for gas exchange in the display itself (although it still will be taking place there too).

Like everything else with my build...every single component of my entire system has been given the utmost scrutiny. This has been the most amount of patience I have ever had in any endeavor. If I've done anything wrong or haven't found a better way to do it, it's not for a lack of trying.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

I hear you. It's getting quite difficult for me to continue to be patient with the setup aspect, particularly equipment now. I'm so close to having everything I planned, the last few items are nagging! I did order the lights today. I chose to go with the Reef Breeders Photon 48. Kessil are supposed to be incredible but I just couldn't justify the added expense, especially as I would also "need" a controller for them. But now I have to figure out the top!

Does it ever end?!! LOL

 

[mmittlesteadt]

I hear you. It's getting quite difficult for me to continue to be patient with the setup aspect, particularly equipment now. I'm so close to having everything I planned, the last few items are nagging! I did order the lights today. I chose to go with the Reef Breeders Photon 48. Kessil are supposed to be incredible but I just couldn't justify the added expense, especially as I would also "need" a controller for them. But now I have to figure out the top!

Does it ever end?!! LOL

My friend's Kessil came with it's own dimmer and settings switches right on the fixture. You don't need a controller. And you can still plug them into a timer.

The color, intensity and shimmer is just gorgeous. When I upgrade I am going with Kessils.

Apparently it does NOT ever end. LOL.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

But aren't they manual switches? So you set the intensity at a particular level and that's how it runs whenever it is turned on by the timer. I like the idea of being able to adjust the intensity throughout the day automatically, to simulate sunrise/sunset and all that fun stuff. To do that, I would "need" a controller for the Kessils... "need" truly being more of a "want" in this case.

I also haven't seen the Kessils in person and after discussing with my husband, chose the less expensive option that I think will do what I need AND what I want. Besides, since I haven't seen them in person, I am not sure I would like the shimmer. (I realize this may make me sound delusional. I'm okay with that. I have to justify this decision somehow. LOL) It also gives me another $500-800 that I'm not spending on lights/controller for inhabitants. This is a VERY GOOD thing. :lol2: