40G breeder grow out with canister

stingeragent · 08/27/2015, 10:24 PM

Ok, So recently I had to move my 40G breeder from one room to another in my house. Was previously ran with a sump but I plumbed too small and so the flow rate through the sump was terrible. After doing a bit of research I'm gonna just run it sumpless. Also against many nay-sayers I'm also gonna run a canister filter with UV. Ok, onto the details.
40 Breeder, 2 Kessil A160WE ( will post my spectrum controller timing later), Eshopps HOB skimmer, sun sun hw303b canister,(currently running two hydor PW's in the tank, but have a RW4 on order to replace my rw8 that died. Most likely will be running the RW4, and a hydor 600gph), 40 LBS pool filter sand, 25ish lbs live rock, 1 clown, 1 six line, 1 hippo (he's still tiny and has a future home, sue me).
This tank was a continuation of my 20 long that I moved everything over to the 40B about 4 months ago. The clown was the only original fish, the other 2 were added after upgrading to the 40. My main purpose with this whole thread is to show a weekly updated tank, running a canister, with my said lighting, and what sort of results I get. I finally got the the tank setup tonight. Moved it seperate. Had my fish and corals in two temp tanks, but they are all back in the 40 in the new spot in the house. I'm going to come up with a schedule fore water changes, my lighting schedule, feeding, periodic water parameter tests, etc. Will add more tomorrow. My overall goal for this whole thing is to give a newbie, or someone curious about a piece of equipment in my setup an possibility of what they can achieve. Now also keep in mind, lately I've been lacking on water changes and a couple of my corals aren't in the best shape. I've been re-energized and I plan to change all that. Tommorrow I'll get pics up of the tank pre and post move from one room to the next, and lay out the schedule for the weekly updates.

stingeragent · 08/28/2015, 04:36 PM

Ok, got some pics uploaded. First one in the set was the tank in it's previous location about a week after I moved everything from the 20L to the 40B. Was march 21st. Other 3 pics of the tank taken today. You can see the 3 heads of the candy cane that were just about gone. They have some tissue left so I'm hoping they recover. The other one that was not looking good is the galaxea. My new water change schedule will be 8% every sunday. Will be posting pics of the progress of the tank every sun after the wc. The lighting schedule I'm using starts at 10am. Ramps up to a max of 50/50 blue/white at 50% intensity and then ramps down to 0 at 6pm. The canister filter will be cleaned sun as well. I'm currently running a blue coarse pad, 4 polishing pads. Forgot to get to it today, but starting tomorrow will also be running chemi pure elite, and phos guard in the canister. I also haven't got the skimmer moved over yet but that is going to happen in the next few days. I'm going to be testing for nitrates twice a week, sun right before I cleanout the canister and do wc, and then again on wed. Because the tank moved caused me to use about 60% new water, I will not being doing the first water change until next sunday. I am also gonna wait until next sunday to add the HOB skimmer. I want to see if there is any kind of correlation between the nitrate level with just the canister, and also with the canister + skimmer. Have a Jebao Rw-4 coming in tuesday, replaced all filters, di resin on my rodi setup today. Will be getting the ATO setup in the next day or so.

stingeragent · 09/01/2015, 08:09 PM

No one's replied yet, but I'm gonna keep my progress going if only for my own benefit. Haven't added the chemi pure or phosban yet. Decided I'd wait until the WC next sunday. Tank is still looking crystal clear. Haven't had to scrape the glass yet. Tomorrow is glass clean day so I will do it anyways. Will also be checking nitrate and po4 tomorrow. Fish still looking great, eating good. Every coral in the tank is looking great. Candy Cane which was the worst off is looking good for where it's at. The 3 heads that were intact seem to be doing better. The other 3 that had tissue still left, I can't tell yet if they are gonna come back or not. The galaxea which was almost completely gone is doing better. Heads are still there and seem to be getting more poofy by the day. Still gotta wait and see on it also. RW4 came in today, but it's been a long one so it won't go in until tomorrow. Also got in my refacto calibration fluid today, it was off by .002 ( my decimal may be wrong but it was reading 1.025 when it was 1.023). Boosted it up to 1.024 today, and will bring it up a bit higher on the next top off. As of today, no sign of bubble algae. Fingers crossed. Overall though everything is much better than it was.

stingeragent · 09/02/2015, 07:27 PM

Ok. First maintenance day here we go. Was supposed to only be cleaning glass today. Did that. Checked nitrates.. Woaaaa 40ppm. No big deal. I am attributing it to my sand bed getting stirred like crazy when I moved the tank. Forgot to check phosphate. Since I need to adjust my salinity anyways, I did a 5gal w/c and brought it up to 1.025. I also decided to go ahead and clean the canister just to get an idea on how its looking inside. Overall it was cleaner than I expected. Filter pads all still white, went ahead and rinsed everything anyways, as well as dumping the water in the canister (i'd guess almost 2 gallons), so i'm in about a 7gal change for the day. Total time considering I cleaned the glass, checked nitrate, made saltwater, did the water change, checked salinity, cleaned the canister, made some more saltwater, few more salinity checks, was about an hour total. Oh , I also went ahead and added in some carbon.

stingeragent · 09/05/2015, 05:53 PM

Sat update. Water change and filter cleanup coming tomorrow. All the corals looking great. 1 of the 3 almost dead candy cane heads has completely regenerated. The other 2 still have some tissue, but not sure if they are gonna make it yet or not.

Dkuhlmann · 09/05/2015, 06:01 PM

You have a nice looking Kenya Tree can you post a picture of just it?

stingeragent · 09/06/2015, 03:16 PM

Sunday FUN DAY. Did a roughly 8-9 gallon water change today. Dumped the canister, cleaned all it out, scraped glass, and also did a quick vac of the sand bed. Tested the water before the change and realized I grabbed the ammonia bottles and not nitrate. Test after w/c is showing between 10-20ppm nitrate. Not bad considering I was at 40 last wed. Canister was honestly almost clean as new. I think I can go a week or 2 without cleaning it. Also, does anyone know if you can post pics on here from google drive? Was trying to do it that way so the quality will be better but tis not working. Anyways, link below is to my drive folder where the 4 pics are in higher quality if anyone wants to see.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx...1hvUHgyZHdxOHM

stingeragent · 09/06/2015, 03:20 PM

Which kenya did you want to see? The one on the far right? Added pics of both to the google link in the post above.

stingeragent · 09/12/2015, 03:46 PM

Ok, water change fun day express. Total W/C was 9 gallons. Remembered to do the nitrate test before the water change this time. Sitting right about 10ppm. Canister was a tad dirtier than last week but not too bad. Decided to pull out the DSLR for pics today. Also, you can see I added 2 new things. The green bta, and a orange zoa frag. Thanks.

Edit: Love the 2nd to last pic of my clown. Looks like he's yelling at me for taking his pic.

stingeragent · 09/20/2015, 06:20 PM

Sunday fun day folks. I know few people pay attention to this thread, but it has honestly helped me to keep on track getting my tank in shape. Nitrate test was pre w/c again this week. 10ppm again for this week so no gain or loss. Cleaned the canister out, and the filter pads were considerably more dirty than last week. Not super filthy, but for sure pulled more gunk. As my original plan was to do 5 gal w/c's but with the canister it always ends up being closer to 8 or 9, I decided today to just dump the canister, and take out 1 gallon from the tank, and ended up just under 5 gal change. Glass was pretty clean so not much work there. I have kind of made it a habit, every time I walk by and check out the tank, if I see something on the glass I just scrape it then. Since my last post I have purchased a 125 drilled with sump. This tank plus my 55 will soon be combined into that one so I'll prolly stop updating this thread at that point. I plan to keep the 40 up and running as a QT with the canister minus the live rock. Didn't get pics today as the previous corals didn't have much change. Candy cane is still hanging in there with maybe a tad bit of growth. The 2 almost dead heads still have about the same amount of tissue still trying to hang in there. With my new tank purchase I also got 11 new corals, which all went into the 40 for now. Couple days in , they are all fully open and looking great. For anyone thinking of running a canister filter long term, I for sure think it can be done. I'd probably look into replacing the filter pads about every month or 2. Mine are still able to be rinsed to almost pure white but a few more weeks will take its toll.

Edit: forgot to add, my bta moved again a few days ago, to the backside of the highest rock in the tank. Can't even see him anymore without turning off the powerheads and looking top down, but hes been open so i'm leaving him for now. He's about to have a much larger tank to roam soon anyways.

Mark75 · 09/20/2015, 06:30 PM

Nice job with the aquascape! Your clown looks like he is saying something in one of the pictures. LOL

stingeragent · 09/20/2015, 09:17 PM

Haha. Yes I love that pic. Thanks. Between my 55, the 20L I had before , rescaped that a few times, moved that to the 40 and rescaped, then moved that to a dif room and rescaped I like the current scape the best. I have so much room in this 125 the scape is gonna be my undoing. I'm trying to use all my existing rock to make for a short cycle, but its hard to do with corals attached.

08/27/2015, 10:24 PM	#1
stingeragent Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 1,032	40G breeder grow out with canister Ok, So recently I had to move my 40G breeder from one room to another in my house. Was previously ran with a sump but I plumbed too small and so the flow rate through the sump was terrible. After doing a bit of research I'm gonna just run it sumpless. Also against many nay-sayers I'm also gonna run a canister filter with UV. Ok, onto the details. 40 Breeder, 2 Kessil A160WE ( will post my spectrum controller timing later), Eshopps HOB skimmer, sun sun hw303b canister,(currently running two hydor PW's in the tank, but have a RW4 on order to replace my rw8 that died. Most likely will be running the RW4, and a hydor 600gph), 40 LBS pool filter sand, 25ish lbs live rock, 1 clown, 1 six line, 1 hippo (he's still tiny and has a future home, sue me). This tank was a continuation of my 20 long that I moved everything over to the 40B about 4 months ago. The clown was the only original fish, the other 2 were added after upgrading to the 40. My main purpose with this whole thread is to show a weekly updated tank, running a canister, with my said lighting, and what sort of results I get. I finally got the the tank setup tonight. Moved it seperate. Had my fish and corals in two temp tanks, but they are all back in the 40 in the new spot in the house. I'm going to come up with a schedule fore water changes, my lighting schedule, feeding, periodic water parameter tests, etc. Will add more tomorrow. My overall goal for this whole thing is to give a newbie, or someone curious about a piece of equipment in my setup an possibility of what they can achieve. Now also keep in mind, lately I've been lacking on water changes and a couple of my corals aren't in the best shape. I've been re-energized and I plan to change all that. Tommorrow I'll get pics up of the tank pre and post move from one room to the next, and lay out the schedule for the weekly updates.

09/05/2015, 06:01 PM	#6
Dkuhlmann Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: NW Iowa Posts: 8,823	You have a nice looking Kenya Tree can you post a picture of just it? __________________ Previous tanks: 200 gal fowlr 9" Emperor Angel and many different butterfly fish 4" maroon clown and several other fish, 50 gal sump, 40 gal mixed reef/fish mostly softies and LPS. Current Tank Info: 40b 750 gph 45 lbs lr, 2"-3" sand, 165w full spectrum dimable LED, 20 gal sump/refugium 30 lbs lr, Bak Pak 2 skimmer, 4" sock temp 79-80, sg 1.026, NH3 0, NO2 0, NO3 <10, ph 8.2, calc 400, mag 1300

09/06/2015, 03:20 PM	#8
stingeragent Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 1,032	Which kenya did you want to see? The one on the far right? Added pics of both to the google link in the post above. Last edited by stingeragent; 09/06/2015 at 03:31 PM.

09/12/2015, 03:46 PM	#9
stingeragent Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 1,032	Ok, water change fun day express. Total W/C was 9 gallons. Remembered to do the nitrate test before the water change this time. Sitting right about 10ppm. Canister was a tad dirtier than last week but not too bad. Decided to pull out the DSLR for pics today. Also, you can see I added 2 new things. The green bta, and a orange zoa frag. Thanks. Edit: Love the 2nd to last pic of my clown. Looks like he's yelling at me for taking his pic. Last edited by stingeragent; 09/12/2015 at 03:51 PM.

09/01/2015, 08:09 PM	#3
stingeragent Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 1,032	No one's replied yet, but I'm gonna keep my progress going if only for my own benefit. Haven't added the chemi pure or phosban yet. Decided I'd wait until the WC next sunday. Tank is still looking crystal clear. Haven't had to scrape the glass yet. Tomorrow is glass clean day so I will do it anyways. Will also be checking nitrate and po4 tomorrow. Fish still looking great, eating good. Every coral in the tank is looking great. Candy Cane which was the worst off is looking good for where it's at. The 3 heads that were intact seem to be doing better. The other 3 that had tissue still left, I can't tell yet if they are gonna come back or not. The galaxea which was almost completely gone is doing better. Heads are still there and seem to be getting more poofy by the day. Still gotta wait and see on it also. RW4 came in today, but it's been a long one so it won't go in until tomorrow. Also got in my refacto calibration fluid today, it was off by .002 ( my decimal may be wrong but it was reading 1.025 when it was 1.023). Boosted it up to 1.024 today, and will bring it up a bit higher on the next top off. As of today, no sign of bubble algae. Fingers crossed. Overall though everything is much better than it was.

09/02/2015, 07:27 PM	#4
stingeragent Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 1,032	Ok. First maintenance day here we go. Was supposed to only be cleaning glass today. Did that. Checked nitrates.. Woaaaa 40ppm. No big deal. I am attributing it to my sand bed getting stirred like crazy when I moved the tank. Forgot to check phosphate. Since I need to adjust my salinity anyways, I did a 5gal w/c and brought it up to 1.025. I also decided to go ahead and clean the canister just to get an idea on how its looking inside. Overall it was cleaner than I expected. Filter pads all still white, went ahead and rinsed everything anyways, as well as dumping the water in the canister (i'd guess almost 2 gallons), so i'm in about a 7gal change for the day. Total time considering I cleaned the glass, checked nitrate, made saltwater, did the water change, checked salinity, cleaned the canister, made some more saltwater, few more salinity checks, was about an hour total. Oh , I also went ahead and added in some carbon.

09/05/2015, 05:53 PM	#5
stingeragent Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 1,032	Sat update. Water change and filter cleanup coming tomorrow. All the corals looking great. 1 of the 3 almost dead candy cane heads has completely regenerated. The other 2 still have some tissue, but not sure if they are gonna make it yet or not.

09/20/2015, 06:20 PM	#10
stingeragent Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 1,032	Sunday fun day folks. I know few people pay attention to this thread, but it has honestly helped me to keep on track getting my tank in shape. Nitrate test was pre w/c again this week. 10ppm again for this week so no gain or loss. Cleaned the canister out, and the filter pads were considerably more dirty than last week. Not super filthy, but for sure pulled more gunk. As my original plan was to do 5 gal w/c's but with the canister it always ends up being closer to 8 or 9, I decided today to just dump the canister, and take out 1 gallon from the tank, and ended up just under 5 gal change. Glass was pretty clean so not much work there. I have kind of made it a habit, every time I walk by and check out the tank, if I see something on the glass I just scrape it then. Since my last post I have purchased a 125 drilled with sump. This tank plus my 55 will soon be combined into that one so I'll prolly stop updating this thread at that point. I plan to keep the 40 up and running as a QT with the canister minus the live rock. Didn't get pics today as the previous corals didn't have much change. Candy cane is still hanging in there with maybe a tad bit of growth. The 2 almost dead heads still have about the same amount of tissue still trying to hang in there. With my new tank purchase I also got 11 new corals, which all went into the 40 for now. Couple days in , they are all fully open and looking great. For anyone thinking of running a canister filter long term, I for sure think it can be done. I'd probably look into replacing the filter pads about every month or 2. Mine are still able to be rinsed to almost pure white but a few more weeks will take its toll. Edit: forgot to add, my bta moved again a few days ago, to the backside of the highest rock in the tank. Can't even see him anymore without turning off the powerheads and looking top down, but hes been open so i'm leaving him for now. He's about to have a much larger tank to roam soon anyways.

09/20/2015, 06:30 PM	#11
Mark75 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: East Tenn. Posts: 740	Nice job with the aquascape! Your clown looks like he is saying something in one of the pictures. LOL

09/20/2015, 09:17 PM	#12
stingeragent Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 1,032	Haha. Yes I love that pic. Thanks. Between my 55, the 20L I had before , rescaped that a few times, moved that to the 40 and rescaped, then moved that to a dif room and rescaped I like the current scape the best. I have so much room in this 125 the scape is gonna be my undoing. I'm trying to use all my existing rock to make for a short cycle, but its hard to do with corals attached.