Another 40B build...

[perpetual98]

Ok, I will try to do a REALLY quick synopsis of the life-span of my latest tank.

*deep breath* Used to be set up in my office at work. 40B with a 40B sump. Went all out to make it a show tank and it was doing great, until a weekend long power outage that killed off all of my SPS. After that it slowly morphed into a FW tank as I moved everything to a 120 that I eventually sold. My wife then made some sort of voodoo deal with my daughter and she got a turtle. Then another turtle. So the 40B sump became the turtle tank at home. Then I got a free 46 bow that sat at our house for about a year and I decided to get back into SW after about 4 years off. I quickly realized that if I wanted to do SW correctly, I shouldn't use the bowfront, so the turtle tank was drained (man do those things stink if you don't keep up on maintenance) and I brought the 40B from work (sorry Mr. Goldfish) and the turtles are now in the 46.

Ok, that's about as quick as I could make that, but there's lots of other useless info about the journey.

Onto the new tank! Like I mentioned it was a 40B with a 40B sump. Drilled for overflow with split returns and a closed loop system. Here's a picture of the back of it when I was getting ready to move it from work...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/IMAG0068.jpg

It was really dirty from a few years of neglect, and I really had to scrub to clean it up. Here's some pictures of it before I added anything to it at home...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/empty_fts1.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/empty_fts2.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/empty_fts3.jpg

[perpetual98]

After the turtles were evicted from their home, I went about making the 40B they were in back into a sump. I didn't remember where the baffles were, so I just took a swag at it. Of course they weren't where I used to have them after I got it back together, which required the moving of my closed-loop pump. Oh well, a trip to Ace Hardware and $5 later I got the pump moved.

Here's a few sump pictures...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/sump1.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/sump2.jpg

Here's the temperature controller that I had laying around from before. The two outlets on the left control heaters, and the two on the right could control a chiller if I ever needed one.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/sump3.jpg

[perpetual98]

So far I don't think I've spent $100 on the tank yet. I've had a ton of stuff laying around from when I had multiple tanks in the past. Trying to keep the wife happy by keeping the cost down (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

The lighting is a 4x39W T5 with Icecap reflectors and 54W ballasts. Here's a picture of the hood that I made (on the bow at the time)...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/hood5.jpg

I will try to take some interior pictures of the hood at some point. I also might add a couple of fans to it at some point to help with bulb life.

I had a bunch of live rock that has been sitting in bins for years. I scrubbed it all off and put it into the tank on some Southdown sand (yeah, that's how long I've had that sand, since back when you could buy it at Home Depot) and then filled it with water for a week or so while I was setting up my RO/DI that I also had laying around, and as a bonus, I have a whole CASE of new filters for the RO/DI. Score!

I drained the water out, put the sump under the tank and filled it with saltwater that I made. Too many trips up and down the steps, that's for sure.

So the tank is running, the baffles held, the lights are bright and the heaters are controlled. This past weekend I got my 2 float-switch top-off system working. I had that laying around too. :)

[perpetual98]

Here's how the tank looked as of last night. I will try to get some other pictures of the stand I made too.

I don't think I've ever had as many caves in any aquascaping as I do with this tank. Should be plenty of nooks for stuff to go, that's for sure.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/fts_112711-1.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/fts_112711-2.jpg

[stifler51]

Looks good! i cant wait to get my 40b up and running, but i gotta wait for a bunch of things for it. The wife said wait till christmas to buy anything otherwise she wont have a clue what to get me for christmas. So there the 20l and 40b sit on the floor till after christmas.

Did u get that acrylic from Ace? i need to find somewhere cheap to get some. I looked at lowes but they didnt have anything thick enough.

[perpetual98]

I actually got my .220 acrylic at Menards. They had it in 24x48" sheets for $40. They had smaller sheets at Home Depot, but were only 18x24" and were $19, so I opted for the bigger sheet for $1 more :)

I did the score and snap method at work to get them to 12" high, and then when I got them home I used multiple passes on my table saw to get them to width. I have a pretty aggressive blade in my saw, that's why I did multiple passes. I couldn't find my tools to change the blade to one with more teeth.

The other thing I did with my sump was to use some scrap cut into 1" wide strips that I used Weld-On (16 I think) to set the space between baffles in the bubble trap. It aided in helping me silicone them into place, and should add some additional strength. You can see the strips in one of the sump pictures.

[Alysiak00]

right on brotha! Im a bit jelous yours contains water. Love the rockwork also. Did you gather the rock from locals or order it

[perpetual98]

If memory serves, I spent about $250 on the rock from Premium Aquatics, but it was years ago, so don't quote me. I spent several emails back and forth and they had someone hand pick some really cool rocks for the size tank I had. They were gorgeous, that's for sure. Now I'm sure they're dead, but they still look cool. I'm going to see if I can find someone local to seed some rubble for me. I probably have two 5-gallon buckets full of rubble that if I can find someone with a big system with a refugium maybe will swap me some live stuff for my stuff.

[Alysiak00]

true that. also, Im jelous of the temp moniter. is that your alternative to a pricey controller

[perpetual98]

Well, I think that the temp. controller was $90 (a while back) and I had to add the outlets and stuff to the relays inside, so it's not like it was that cheap.

I was planning on doing an Arduino controller, but I have the ATO already running, the temp controller already running, and timers for the lights, so I don't really see the need of a reef controller. Then again, it might be fun to mess around with. I'm going to keep this tank simple if possible. I don't think I'm going to run a skimmer (although I made room in the sump for one if I need to) or a calcium reactor and all that jazz. It's a small enough system where water changes should take care of nutrients/supplements. My last setup was dual 120 gallon tanks with 50 gallon sumps, and weekly water changes were an adventure in itself and more often than not got neglected. Doing 5 or 10 gallons per week or every other week should be no big deal, even if I'm feeling lazy. I've already got my RO/DI system up down in the basement with a full Brute trash can with float valve and another Brute trash can with wheels on it so I can make up about 25 gallons of SW in short order.

[perpetual98]

I think this (http://www.amazon.com/RANCO-ETC-211000-Digital-Temperature-Control/dp/B0015NTDEU/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1322522089&sr=1-3) is a link to the temperature controller I have. I have two of the 2-stage units (one I actually use for cooking, don't ask :) ) but they sell a single controller for less than half of that, and maybe cheaper if you look around.

[perpetual98]

Oh, here's another linky (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2099873) to a thread I made about my cheap-o hood that I made...

[Alysiak00]

what size plumbing is that

[perpetual98]

The two outermost pipes are 3/4" and the two inside ones are 1". The 1" are drains, either to the sump or to the closed loop, and the returns are split. The closed loop is on a SCWD (via tubing) and the return 3/4" PVC is just tee'd.

[perpetual98]

Here's a couple more pictures. My goofball daughter who has to be in the picture if I'm taking pictures. I have to clean up a few things with the stand yet. Right now I have some cords running through a fan-hole that I have to put fans back in, but I just have the wires for the lights running through them short-term.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/full_112811-1.jpg

Here's another 3/4 shot so you can see some of the aquascaping...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/full_112811-2.jpg

And it's hard to take a picture of, but this "channel" runs almost the entire length of the back wall. I have an MJ1200 running down the back wall to hopefully keep detrius and whatnot out of there.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14569758/Aquarium/full_112811-3.jpg

[perpetual98]

Had to dial in the ATO tonight. It was working fine but it was running for too long because the distance between the low and high float switches was too far. Was a quick fix, we'll see how it works. If that doesn't work, I'll need to pick up some more acrylic to make some brackets so I can put the floats side-by-side instead of over/under.

[perpetual98]

Not much going on with the tank as Christmas seems to have taken most of my $$$ that I want to spend on the tank. :)

Going through a cyano bloom at the moment it appears. Went from nice pristine white rocks to beige/brown covered rocks. Hopefully it passes soon. Should probably dust off my test kits.

[perpetual98]

Just did my first water change on the tank this week. I did 15 gallons. My algae went from the brown to green and I was getting a lot of GHA that I assume just went dormant when the rocks were dry, even though they were dry for a few years. Tough stuff.

The water change seems to have helped and the tank looked better last night. I manually pulled a bunch of the GHA out when I was taking water out. I had also dropped a handful of snails into the tank that I got at an LFS and they seemed to mow down the green on the rocks.

I'm expecting a CUC from reefcleaners.org, hopefully today. It's cold here so the less time they hang out in a shipping container the better. My wife is off of work today, so if they come I can shoot home at lunch and get them acclimated and hopefully don't suffer too many losses.