New 40 Breeder

[STsONpERs]

Whats going on guyz,

I am setting up a new 40 breeder, and just wanted you guyz opinions.

It should be a sound set up for a student, so here goes what i have or am planning.

40 breeder w/durso standpipe
20 long
es5-2 euro reef skimmer
mag 7 return
wave make with 4 maxi jets

400 watt halide with vho supplement
ebo jager 250 watt heater

biotower filled with LR rubble.

Most of this should be setup in the next week oe so i will post pics.

just wanting opinions on the planned setup.

Also anything i am forgetting or would help the system would be greatly appreciated

Chris

[msn711]

Looks good to me, but why the 400w MH? Overkill just a bit? You may also want to consider some type of ATO. I just built my first sump and that's one of the 1st issues I'm noticing. There'd be no way to leave the tank for more than a day without an ATO.

[STsONpERs]

ATO?

I kinda wanted the 400 cause it eliminate the dark corners

[Dubbin1]

ATO = Automatic topoff

400w is way over kill for that tank.

[STsONpERs]

so thats 2 for him and zero for me.

I Havnt set any of this in stone yet and the lighting was the think that i am now really really thinking about.

keep em coming thank you

[Dubbin1]

A couple 175w MH's would be much better.

[STsONpERs]

is 2-250's to much then, should i do one 250, w/vho.

i dont wanna do 175's in case i upgrade the tank, dont want to have to buy lighting again.

[msn711]

I understand where you're coming form on not wanting to upgrade later. I would go 1x250 10K and VHO or PC actinics.

[Salty Brother]

hey, I just upgraded to a 40breeder a little over a month ago. You can look below my signiture to see all my parts and stuff.
I have a jbj ato, but have just read about these (http://www.aquahub.com/store/autotopoffcomp.html) . Cheap and ive heard that they work pretty good.
400w is over kill, I have 1 250w 20k and i have to dark spots, i also have 2 65wpc actinic.
I have also invested in 2 seio m820, expensive but they work really good, you could probably get away with 2 620's cause i still have some probelms with sand blowing around
Good luck

[Salty Brother]

sorry it is supposed to say "no" dark spots

[STsONpERs]

thats definatly something to think about..

I guess that i am going to seriously have to look for a 250 halide

[Electrobes]

I have a 40Br (my red house on top has info about it). I went with a 250 watt Halide with 2X39 watt T5's and no dark spots whatsoever. I have a mixed reef and my corals (SPS, LPS, and Soft) are doing just fine. When going with a halide I would go with an electronic ballast like ARO or Icecap, and as for a bulb you really need to take a look at different spectrums and find the one you like best. At 250 watts you'll have enough lights at any spectrum to grow whatever you would like.. but of course you want to like the color so go look around at some shops that have them and pick your favorite. I went with a 14K Hamilton... but like a moron I went through a lot of other bulbs before finally getting to this one!

As for a top off I would go with a float switch wired to an Aqualifter, it would be cheaper and it takes about 5 minutes to do, plus you don't need to be an electrician to know how to do it.

I would look into cooling if you go with an enclosed canopy (I did not). There are a bunch of fans out there but my favorite one is the Lasko fan that you can find at Lowes... http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=9133-39646-4904&lpage=none

It's compact, has two settings and moves a lot of air at a lower volume (sound).

[Salty Brother]

If you dont mind building your own canopy. oceanencounter.com has a great 250w retro fit kit. It is about $170 and is really good. And if you dont like the bulb, when it dies you can try another one.
Good luck

[xtrstangx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7959842#post7959842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Salty Brother
If you dont mind building your own canopy. oceanencounter.com has a great 250w retro fit kit. It is about $170 and is really good. And if you dont like the bulb, when it dies you can try another one.
Good luck

http://hellolights.com has good cheap retrofits too.

[STsONpERs]

ya, i am looking into building canopy,

I am going to start looking around for some 250,s

Electrobes-how safe are those legs,

My girl liked the idea, and it doesnt look to expensive, you have any plan or dinensions for it.

thanx

chris

[Electrobes]

Everyone asks me that and here is a short history... I intended on building something much studier than those legs. But like Melev with his woodwork I just left it... and left it... and after bumping into my tank many times, hitting the canopy, changing the bulbs in the canopy while it was still on the tank, leaving objects on the tank, wiping the canopy off, etc.. it has NEVER so much as budged.

As for dimensions, this project was completely spur of the moment. I didn't want heating issues so I wanted open top. I finished with the actuall "Tiki" Canopy but that night I hosted a poker game and sure enough I needed a quick way of getting the canopy on the tank. Voila.. the legs were made and slapped onto the tank. As you can guess the canopy has 5 sides. The top piece and the two longer sides were hardest to cut (When I say hard I mean I merely had to use the diagonal tool attachment on the hand saw I was using). I used screwes to put the canopy together and wood glue to fill in the cracks and holes that light could still pass through. HTH