Millticket's 40B build

[Millticket]

I wanted to share my 40B build that I've been working on. A few years ago, more like 6 lol, I had a 28 Bowfront reef, however I broke it down due to a leak and never messed with any other reef tanks.... until now !

After a lot of looking at tanks, i decided a 40B would be a large enough tank for me to get my feet wet again.

List of goodies:
40 Breeder drilled with a 1500 gph glass***es kit.
Custom DIY Stand/Canopy (Special thanks to rocketengineer's thread for help)
20H Sump with refugium
Ecotech Radion (hopefully will add another in the future)
Ecotech Mp10W es(contemplating adding another in the future)
Reef Oct NW 4
Mag 7 for return
Ehiem Jager 150w heater
PA Refractometer
API Master Test Kit

42lbs of marco key largo rocks from premium aquatics
approx 45/50lbs aragonite sugar sized sand
approx 5 to 6 lbs live rock rubble from premium aquatics in refugium

Hopefully I didnt miss anything. Onwards to pics.

This is my second attempt at building my stand as my first frame, I didn't allow enough height for my sump lol. ( I should make a big disclaimer that this is my first DIY project. At times it was very frustrating, but overall very fun and educational and its nice to say hey I built that now haha). Materials used were 2 x 4s with 3/8 inch (?) plywood.


skinned

doors (which were freaking hard to make lol

after i completed the stand, it was on to building a canopy for my radion. I don't like the looks of have it hanging from the ceiling or curving metal over the tank to hang it.

Progression on the canopy, i made a small opening in the center that is attached by 4 magnets so i could have easy access to the tank.

Painting the back of the tank, i just used rustolem universal flat black from HD, works really well

Shot of the plumbing which was another first, pretty fun but kinda frustrating at times lol

[Millticket]

edit

[Millticket]

Both stand and canopy together with stain

Here's the sump, which was made with 1/8 inch glass from ACE, super friendly staff.

Putting it all together

shot of the access panel on the canopy

making fresh batch of ro/di

I noticed how i treat the pure ro/di like gold and try not to waste a single drop lol. It sucks having to discard all that waste water. i've used as much as i can to water my plants, but that's about all i can do during the winter. hopefully in the spring i will get more use out of it.
System up and running, DOB 1/22/2012

[Millticket]

sump

I added the live rock rubble a couple days ago and i've already seen some small pods scurrying around, a baby bristleworm, and a tiny bit of what i believe to be cheato grow. Below is a pic

Another rock looks like it is budding with some type of algae as well. Can you see it? its in the center of the picture right before the snail shell.

big shout out to premium aquatics, this live rock rubble was super nice. full or critters and coraline algae.
speaking of rockwork, close up on MT rock

I'm happy with the scape so far, might add some more in the future
here's a shot of the night mode on my radion


That's about all for now. I'm using the old fish flake cycle method, I didn't have any spare cocktail shrimp around.

I've tested the water on 1/26 and today. Readings are:
SG 1.025
Ph 8.2
Ammon .50ppm
Nitrates/Nitrites Zero

Temp 78.6 Degrees
I'll test again in a couple of days and hopefully i'll see a rise in the rest.

[Reef264]

Nice setup bud!Very Awesome!Gotta Love The 40 Breeders!!I am diggin the Canopy and Stand, and the Rockwork...I Like it all!

By the Way...Nice German Shepherd!My Personal Favorite!

[reefermad619]

Everything looks great... Except those sump panels. 1/8" glass is a pain to work around. One tiny tap and it will crack. That stuff is meant for picture frames. I speak from expirence. I had one crack on me once when I removed my return pump from the sump. I wasn't paying attention and then I heard it... CRACK! Now I use 6mm for sump baffles. Much more klutz friendly

[Millticket]

Originally Posted by Reef264

Nice setup bud!Very Awesome!Gotta Love The 40 Breeders!!I am diggin the Canopy and Stand, and the Rockwork...I Like it all!

By the Way...Nice German Shepherd!My Personal Favorite!

Thank you for the kind words. Its been a very educational and fun experience. I kind of wish i had made my stand a bit bigger, but oh well it'll do for now

As for my helper, that's Bentley. We adopted him from the human society when he weighed less than 20 pounds, now he's pushing 90. Super smart dog and absolutely loves people, especially my 4 yr old niece that chases him around, as well as other dogs.

@Reefermad619 I've been lucky so far that when I've bumped the panels with my protein skimmer they haven't broke or anything. I think they are fairly sturdy. I had looked for 1/4 inch but couldn't find them anywhere and prices for 1/4 inch acrylic were insane. I think all four baffles cost around 12 bucks. Hopefully I don't get clumsy anytime soon



Nothing much really going on today, i added another pinch of flake to keep the cycle going (I've just been adding a little pinch everyday). I can see some of the flakes getting "fuzzy" which is a good sign. I will test again probably tuesday to see if I get any nitrate/nitrite action. I've been playing with my MP10 a bit. I like to alternate from reef crest mode to lagoon mode. It moves a heck of a lot of water. I'm loving my radion too. I used the graph that Johnathan provided from Ecotech Marine and its very neat. Other than that, I'm just gonna go watch the refugium and see it i can spot anymore critters. Cheers!

[gmate]

Wish I had some macro algae growing on my rocks, I needed to get it for my sump! Nice build, looks good man

[Reefobsession]

How quiet is the 1500 gph kit?
Does the radian light spread over the entire tank? Or do get dark shadows on the edge?
Really nicely done!!

[Millticket]

@gmate Thanks. I'm curious to see what those stubs will turn out to be. Hopefully it will keep growing so i can get a decent pic of it.

@Reefobsession The 1500gph isn't all that bad. I don't even have the baffle installed in it, just the cover. I don't know if the baffle would make it any quieter, but the loudest part of my tank is the Mag 7 i have for the return. Holy crap does that thing buzz. I read that the 9.5s weren't as loud, so if it ever dies on me I'll be switching over to that.

[Reefobsession]

Does one radion cover the entire tank?

[Millticket]

Oh sorry I completely missed that part. I have my radion mounted on the left side of my tank as if I had 2 units, effectively splitting the tank in half. ( I am planning on getting a second radion in the future). As it is now, with my rock work, there is a little bit of darkness to the right side of the tank. However i do believe that if i wanted to go with just one radion I could absolutely get by with it if i had it mounted over the center of my tank. I might even do it for the time being to see.

I have a good amount of room on each end of the tank, which leads me to believe i could get by with one radion. but, I want to try my hand at some sps and clams so I think 2 would be more beneficial.

You can kinda of tell from this picture about the darker side I was talking about.

[m12x13adass]

Have you considered supplementing the Radion with T5s? I've seen a couple of tanks utilizing T5 as supplemental lighting to Leds and they look amazing.

[Millticket]

I think I'm just going to go with radions. I have different settings popping up during the day. Whenever the blues are out in force they definitely pop. The pic above was just whites and reds. But those are my observations based on my lifeless, pale rock. I'm anxious to see how it will look when I have some coral in there, but that's not for awhile.

[Millticket]

Tested the water today. Ammonia is still at .50 but the exciting thing is that my nitrates have risen to just under the shade of 5. Nitrates are still reading zero. Gave the tank another pinch of flakes to keep things going. Anyone ever had any experience in cycling with flakes?

The live rock rubble in the refugium is doing nicely. The top parts are starting to get a brown pigmentation to them. Still seeing a few tiny pods here or there and the small strand of macro algae is trying to grow. I'm still running the light 24/7.

As for the display tank, the rocks and sand are still as white as ever.

[saltyQban]

The white rocks and sand won't last, LOL. Diatom blooms are a dead giveaway. Your over the cycle hump. MAN, your canopy makes mine (DIY) seem like junk. Oh BTW what Skimmer is that/ size rating?

[iMob]

wow tagging along this amazing build

[Millticket]

@saltyqban Yeah the refugium is taking off with what looks to be diatoms as well as some green algae growth. I can't tell as to what type since they are just nubs right now Thanks for the compliment on the canopy, i kind of used the same structure build as the stand. The actual top panel of it isn't nailed down or anything so i have the ability to take it off and put in other panels to change my lighting around. Which i'm thinking about doing so that I can center my radion over the tank until i get a second one. As for my protein skimmer I am using a octopus needlewheel 110. It is rated up to 100 gallons. I like it so far, its barely a week old and is already trying to pull crud out of the tank.

@iMOB thanks!

[allsps40]

Aw the old 40B got to love them, then you out grow it within a year LOL. I just upgraded from one a few months back. Good looking build.

[Millticket]

@allsps40 Hahaha that's the plan. I want to show my wife, who has absolutely no idea what a reef tank can look like, how gorgeous they can be. That way hopefully in a few years time she will let me upgrade to an even larger tank thats the master plan anyways! *fingers crossed*

[Millticket]

I got diatom action
Shot of the left side corner of the main display

Refugium


Interesting readings in tonight's testing:
SG 1.025
AMM .50
Nitrite .25 (Zero on 1/30 test)
Nitrate 10 (5 on 1/30 test)

Should i stop sprinkling in flakes at this point and give the system time to catch up or keep going?

[Millticket]

Diatoms are having fun! Seeing a burst of copepod life in the refugium.

Readings for today:
Temp 79.2
SG 1.025
Amm .50
Nitrite Zero
Nitrate ~7.5 (its b/w the 5.0/10.0 colors)

I'm going to test again on Sunday. Hopefully if all goes well I can place a small order for some snails. Sunday will mark the 2 weeks since the start. I'm impressed with the overall progress, I think adding the live rock rubble really helped.

I've been debating whether or not to remount my radion in the middle of the tank, but I think I will leave it as is. Planning on doing sps/lps on the side of the radion and softies/zoas on the other side as they don't require as much light.

[Millticket]

Copepods are breeding like crazy, I'm starting to see them in the main tank now
My single strand of cheato that hitchhiked on my live rock rubble has probably tripled in length. I'm noticing other forms of algae spring up as well. One almost looks to be the beginning of a feather calerpa but its too early to tell. The other looks like halimeda.

Exciting readings for today!
Temp 79
SG 1.025
Amm ZERO!
Nitrate ZERO!
Nitrate ZERO!

I am going to order a small cleanup crew and see how that goes. As for fish, I'm going to wait another 2 weeks to be safe. My wife has a royal gramma picked out as our first inhabitant. I'll post pics of the CUC tuesday as that's when they should arrive

[Millticket]

Went to LFS today to pick up supplies for a QT. Got an aquaclear 20 filter, 50W heater, cheap thermometer and ammonia alert. I have a spare 10 gallon lying around so i figured why not put it to good use? I decided to wait on my snail shipment til next tuesday (valentine's day lol) since i will be ordering my first fish as well for the QT (royal gramma). Looks like my diatoms have over exerted themselves, but there's still a fair amount. The Halimeda in the refugium is up to 2 buds.

Temp. 78.6
SG 1.025
Amm .13 (just a tiny shade about Zero)
Nitrite Zero
Nitrate Zero

[Millticket]

Tank is doing good, all readings are where they should be. I received a shipment from reefcleaners last friday and they did a wonderful job. Got some nerites, nass, ceriths and 4 hitchhiker hermits that are fun to look at. I also picked up a ball of chaeto and 5 mangroves from them. The chaeto had several large amphipods in it and my copepods enjoyed their new playground. I now have an insane amount of copepods on the main tank glass.

I went an bought a royal gramma yesterday from LFS. He ate live brine there and looked really healthy and active. I got him home and situated in the QT and he glued himself to the back corner. He hasn't really moved much or explored the tank. I have 4 pvc elbows in there for him. I tried feeding him today but no luck, i also noticed what I am pretty sure is ick I pulled the carbon out of the AC20 and threw in some stress coat and api super ick cure. I really hope this works.