40g Coffee Table Tank

[MattFrancis]

Hey everyone,

I've had this guy set up since the beginning of the year. It's a 40 gallon breeder that I converted into a coffee table! There are filters in each corner with 280gph pumps in each "overflow". The flow is fast enough to keep debris from collecting, yet slow enough to have a glassy surface for top-down viewing. There are about 55 pounds of live rock and 60 pounds of oolite sand.

I have since taken out the butterfly and the blue hippo since they got ich and I felt bad about keeping a tang in a 40 gallon. Currently there are 8 mexican turbos, a bunch of hermits, and a snowflake eel. I also put in some GSP and a small toad stool to see how they do under the truelumen lights. The gps is doing okay, but I might move the toad stool back to my reef.

FTS

Another Angle

From the Top

Top Down

Easily see Fish from Above

These two before they got ich

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

Thanks for looking,
Matt

 

[Jade5051]

Cool setup! How do you maintain the water quality? Where is the skimmer? Where is the carbon/gfo? Where is the refugium?

 

[MattFrancis]

Cool setup! How do you maintain the water quality? Where is the skimmer? Where is the carbon/gfo? Where is the refugium?

I just do a water change every two weeks. I have two carbon bags in two of the corners. No fuge, but I might add some macro algae. The snails keep it pretty clean.

 

[kenneth wolfe]

very cool!!!

 

[timmydatoolman]

Very cool, looks great! I will be interested to see what the long term effect is oh only using carbon as the filtration.

 

[MattFrancis]

Very cool, looks great! I will be interested to see what the long term effect is oh only using carbon as the filtration.

I think it'll be similar to a nano without a skimmer. The bio load isn't very heavy, plus I've been keeping up water changes, which in my opinion cures a lot of problems in this hobby.

Thanks,
Matt