Griebs18's 40 Breeder Build

[griebs18]

My first personal saltwater tank. Been reading up for a while and finally decided to tackle it. It's gonna be a 40 breeder DT with a 20L refugium. I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Stock piling the goods for it.

All that stuff needs a stand to support it. (Way over engineered. Haha) Sealed the bottom of the stand just incase overflow of the sump does occur, I have a slight safeguard.

Waited for one more crucial piece of equipment in order to know how big to make the refugium compartments. Skimmer for a 150

Next was making the refugium.

And the water test! Passed with flying colors!

And to conclude this post...plumbing everything!

 

[griebs18]

Also just purchased Koralia 750gph powerhead. That put's me at around 1150gph on the whole tank (with the return flow). I'm not sure if that's sufficient or if I should buy another powerhead (like the Koralia 425 or something) I'd like to have good water movement throughout the whole tank.

Just got my BRS RO/DI unit yesterday. Went to hook it up yesterday so it could fill over night only to find I needed to buy an adapter for my faucet. Figures. So I went to the hardware store today and got the adapter.

Only thing left to get is sand. For salt, I wanted to go with the IO Reef Crystals, but I just ended up just getting the IO salt because I get a good discount on it (It's either Instant Ocean or Oceanic Sea Salt).

 

[tdo]

Very nice start! I have the same 40b with 20l sump. Good luck

 

[SpencerG]

Nice start! What are your plans for fish, rock, corals, inverts etc.?

 

[sponger0]

Looks good so far, but I have one comment to make. Your sump doesnt have much room for draining in case of a power outage. Have you tested it yet to make sure it doesnt flood if your power goes out?

 

[griebs18]

Very nice start! I have the same 40b with 20l sump. Good luck

Good taste!

Nice start! What are your plans for fish, rock, corals, inverts etc.?

Mixed fish with reef. I'll probably have around 4-5 small fish in there and some LPS and softies.

Looks good so far, but I have one comment to make. Your sump doesnt have much room for draining in case of a power outage. Have you tested it yet to make sure it doesnt flood if your power goes out?

Yeah it's pretty close but it works out. When the return section of the sump is at its fullest, I come within a half inch or so of flooding.

 

[sponger0]

Ok....I figured it was either close or a flood waiting to happen

 

[griebs18]

Got all my water made and filled up the tank. I went and picked up live sand at work because that's what I got a really good deal/discount on. My refractometer came in the mail today from BRS so I mixed it all together.

Found out I had two small leaks on my plumbing for the tank. Hopefully took care of those. Once all the salt is fully dissolved I'm going to add the sand to both the tank and my refugium. If anyone has any tips on how to add the sand to a tank with water in it the easiest and 'least dusty/cloudy' way, that would be GREATLY appreciated. I've read to leave the protein skimmer off and turn off all powerheads. I'm not sure if I should turn off the return pump as well (I would assume so?)

 

[tdo]

What are u doing for the drain? Did u drill the tank?

 

[griebs18]

What are u doing for the drain? Did u drill the tank?

I'm currently using an Eshopps 300 overflow box.

 

[griebs18]

Also did another "poweroutage" test after adjusting my overflow box, and I now have more than enough room for water to drain into the sump (The water level only goes up about an inch and a half) - I'm very pleased with that! Looks like my math (volume calculations) paid off!

 

[tdo]

Very nice... Better safe then sorry on the room in the sump. It is looking great

 

[saltwatertanker]

nice

 

[griebs18]

So tonight I checked the salinity and got it exactly where I want it, so I went ahead and tested my leaks in the plumbing again - still leaking.

Also I noticed I had quite a bit of "burping" coming from the lines from the overflow box to the sump. I cut the pvc piping that runs into the sump so the exhuast is just about an inch or so from the top of the water level in the sump. After messing with my ball valves to get the flow how I want it (in each the refugium - slower, and in the skimmer compartment) I got rid of the burping and got my desired flow.

Now I'm fixing the leaks again and turned off everything and am going to add my sand. Going to go with the "put the sand in a bowl and slowly lower it towards the bottom" method to try and reduce the cloudiness.

 

[griebs18]

Got the leaks taken care of! Yay! And the sand is in and settled for 2 days now. It's still cloudier than hell which leads me to my question that hopefully somebody can answer. I have no problem being patient with this tank, but I also like efficiency.

I did not add the packet of solution that came with the live sand to "clear it up." Should I do so?

Second, I was thinking about adding a smaller power filter to my sump somewhere (most likely the return compartment or refugium for now) to help me with two things: One being that this power filter can be used as a means of mechanical filtration - to help clear out the smaller sand particles, and, Two this filter can easily be moved back and forth from my sump to my 10 gallon quarantine tank, where it can transport some of my biological filtering bacteria so that way I'm not just sticking a new fish in a unestablished 10 gallon quarantine tank.

I would love to hear some thoughts on this!

 

[griebs18]

Nobody?

 

[griebs18]

Your sump doesnt have much room for draining in case of a power outage

There is plenty of room. This is the overflow test I did while my pump was off with the sand settling. This was also with my return section pretty full and skimmer on for the added water volume.

 

[griebs18]

Little update!

Fixed my leaks (had a cracked bulkhead) and let the tank run for a couple days to ensure there were no other leaks. Got some chaeto a couple days ago for my refugium from someone at work, and then today I got about 60ish pounds of live rock from a friend taking down a tank - there's also a little clump of cabbage coral that I didn't really want but I got the live rock and a good deal so I wasn't gonna complain!

Here's a picture! I'm still not set on the aquascaping, and the tank is still a little cloudy from moving the sand around, but I think it's a good start!

 

[JHawlz9989]

Really like the aquascape! I'm also a big fan of your treatment of the stand in case the sump overflows. Great idea, and should probably be considered a best practice for many.

Josh

 

[sponger0]

Looks good bro.....