Brian's 40b blog

[Deftones2015]

Well after 4 years or so away from the hobby, I have decided to come back. I have had my tank running for just over a month now. I have had A LOT of equipment issues already haha. Had my huge msx skimmer die on me. 2 tunze power heads seize up. Jbj ato die on me. All the equipment was a few years old though, and was setting in my basement. Anyway, here is my tank after just a month of running.

<a href="http://s1194.photobucket.com/user/Brian_Crowe/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps0xraw4v1.jpeg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa365/Brian_Crowe/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps0xraw4v1.jpeg" border="0" alt="11-25-15 photo image_zps0xraw4v1.jpeg"/></a>

The glass needs cleaned haha, it will get done eventually.

Equipment:
40breeder drilled
20long sump
ati 4 bulb t5
2 jaebo wp-25 on pulse mode
1 tunze 6015 in back bottom corner
Bubble Magus G5 skimmer
hydor smart level ato
reef keeper lite (want to upgrade to a larger apex eventually)
1 Brs reactor I have been using gfo in. Taking that down for a while though
1 led light 6500k for chaeto growth
eheim 2000 pump for return

Stocking list:
Various Snails
1 small snowflake clown
Peppermint shrimp

Water parameters
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate under 5

I haven't bought tests for calcium and all that yet since I don't plan on buying any corals for 3 or 4 more months.


Phosphate 0 (I'm sure it is bound up in the hair algae though)

I plan on having a pair of clowns (just need one more)
either a fire shrimp or skunk cleaner shrimp
A pair of bangaii cardinals
A few euphyllia, fungia, possibly a trachyphyllia or scolymia and the rest sps (euphyllia etc. 3 months from now, sps around 5-6 months from now if parameters are stable)

Any opinions or advice are definitely welcome!

 

[Tom39]

It looks like you are off to a great start. Good luck and wish you the best.

My $0.02 "“ At one point I too had a 40b. When I first set it up, I rockscaped it similar to what I see in your pics; having a linear rock formation running down the center of the tank. The issue I had was coral placement and lack of sandbed options. I found that since the 40b is a shallow tank, coral height placement within the tank tends not to be an issue when it comes to light. This article helped me make a much better rockscape and IMO greatly improved the look of my tank.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2217633

IMO - You may want to consider creating an opening near the center of the tank and having a separation between the rock formation. I think that if you do you, you will find that you will end up with multiple focal points for coral placement and more options for design.
Again, just my $0.02 but I hope it helps

 

[Deftones2015]

I was actually thinking the same thing this morning. Sitting on the couch, drinking coffee, staring at the tank, thinking, I really liked it better when I had 2 islands...I ended up taking 3 chunks out of the tank. I hate to do it, BUT it looks better to me. Once the tank settles down I'll post some pictures. I ended up raising my light fixture a little as well which seems to disperse the light a little better.

 

[Deftones2015]

That is what I have now. I'm happy with it. iPhone pictures come out way bluer than the tank is in person.

 

[Tom39]

That looks great. Having the separation keeps your eyes from concentrating on the center.
Also, it looks like your eheim heater is a bit to far out of the water.

 

[Deftones2015]

The eheim isn't plugged in lol. I've been lazy and haven't taken it out. It is stuck on and won't shut off even when I turn it to the lowest temp. I'm going to use it for heating saltwater for water changes. I'll end up buying 2 smaller heaters instead of having one larger heater that I'm using now.

 

[Deftones2015]

Well I have made some changes to the tank. I cleaned up the sump and took out some of the rock from there, added some to the tank but most i just put in a tote for a future tank if I do one. I took out the jeabo wp-25's and put the tunze nano's back in. The fish definitely seem happy with the reduced flow. The lfs had a 50% off of all live stock yesterday so I picked up a few things.



First thing is a turbo snail. The store told me I needed more than one, but I refuse to purchase a bunch of snails, knowing they will end up starving eventually. The one snail has already cleaned up a rock that had hair algae on it.



I bought a second osc. clown to go with the snowflake osc. I already have. They fought quite a bit for about 5 minutes but are fine for now. I figure that was one of many skirmishes they will have to establish dominance.



There is the rock work after I added a few hunks of rock. I didn't want to add more BUT it had sponges and feather dusters all over it so I didn't want to let it sit dry.



Lastly a picture of the sump cleaned up. I also cleaned the sponge filter on my return pump and WOW was it filthy. I will definitely have to add that to a biweekly maintenance schedule.

That is the tank as it stands. I have all the livestock I want so now I will wait a few months for the tank to stabilize and algae to go away so I can start adding corals.

 

[Tom39]

So how is your tank coming along?