40breeder plan

[fishguy2727]

Equipment:
40breeder (Open-topped)
Coralife 65 gallon super skimmer
Coralife double T5 strip (start with one, will add more as needed)
about 400gph of powerheads (possibly with cheap wavemaker attachments to the outputs)
Estes' Marine Sand 50/50 black/white mix

Livestock:
about 45 pounds of live rock (probably from liveaquaria)
some extra lace rock to become live (already have it, might as well use it)
acropora skeletons for clown gobies to reside in
pair percula clowns
pair green clown gobies
maintenance snails, hermits, etc.
sponges
mushrooms
anemone for perculas
start with simpler low-light stuff and move up as my experience, lighting, and budget allows hopefully ending up with a nice reef tank

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[BeesGoneWild]

Beef up the lighting if you plan on getting an anenome, also choose a smaller anenome like a bulb if your only going for a 40gallon. YOu may also want to beef up your circulation it should be 15-20x the tanks size so around 600 to 800gph.

[kar93]

the tank will also need to mature if you plan on keeping an anemone. The BTA's will sometimes live in newer tanks but will thrive in mature tank.

[Electrobes]

As a personal prefernce I would leave out the acropora skeletons.. to me it just looks ugly.. again IMO. I would also prob leave out the lace rock to, but again that's just me.

Your flow depends on what you want to do. From the sounds of it you're going to mainly start out with softies... so 12 to 15x would be fine. As your tank matures your coral tastes may change and you may add more flow down the road. The cheap wavemaker products yous speak of.. are you meaning the hydor turn thingies? I take it you have something like Maxijets for powerheads?

As Beesgonewild and Kar mentioned you'll need more lighting and a more mature tank for your anemone. Thing with anemones is that if something can go wrong with it, it will. The "walk" and with that they tend to run into powerheads and explode in your tank... never fun.

Clowns don't need to host in anemones.. they'll host in any number of things.. especially softies (corals).

I would avoid sponges if I were you. Our tanks (I have a 40Br as well) aren't deep enough to keep them away from bubbles and trapped air (which kills them). Their feeding habits are a bit much and their care isn't what I would suggest for a newer reefer.

[fishguy2727]

I am planning on starting slowly, not jumping in to the anemone or anything. I plan on adding lighting over time as my experience requires it (and budget allows for it). Have this lighting for now, four months (for example) after setup and stocking things are going well and I want to try stuff that needs more light, add more then.

I know they don't need the anemone at all, which is why I won't jump in to it, but I woudl like to do that for them if I can.

I was thinking of the Maxi-jets or Penguin powerheads with the little rotating plastic thing to make them a cheapo wavemaker.

Any thoughts on the skimmer?

[Electrobes]

It's actually a pretty decent skimmer, but with sponges in mind (again) it's bound to toss air bubbles in the tank.. espcially as a HOB.

[fishguy2727]

On another forum a guy said this model is hard to adjust and that his flooded his floor because it was overfilling. Are the bubbles a major issue? At least at the amount it will put out into the tank?

[jeremyj0247]

I have that same skimmer and I haven't been very impressed with it. I am going to up grade soon.

[sprinj76]

I also have the skimmer and love it. It is easy to use and has worked great now for 6 months.

The only reason it will overflow and flood is if the sponges get clogged. They just need to be rinsed quick weekly.

Bubbles will be an issue during the break in period, about the first week, but after that I have had no micro bubbles in my tank what so ever.

For the money it is really a very good skimmer.

[Moonstream]

I have that skimmer and have had ZERO issues with micro bubbles. it works well, taking out quite a bit of nastly stuff on my reef, though I would aim for a slightly larger model (I have the 65g model on my 20g reef w/ 20g fuge/sump and IMO I wouldnt put it on a system any larger them mine.

I would also suggest making a sump/fuge. it is very simple and it works very well, I will never go back to a sumpless tank ever again.