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40B rebuild!


michaelpollard
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Buckeye Reef!

I'm not sure if you still remember me, but I was last active on this form in January of 2016. 

Just a reminder, I'm Michael, a 19 year old college student out of Dayton, Ohio. I had a 20 long frag tank and 40 breeder with 10 gallon sump.

Around February or March of 2016, my frag tank was deteriorating quick, so I had moved all the corals back to my display tank. This started a down spiral of my tank. The corals started a algae bloom and a few dying frags sent my nitrates way up. I had a return pump go out on my 40 gallon breeder a few weeks later. When the pump went out the check valve failed due to built up algae and leaked about 9-10 gallons of water on my carpet before I caught it. Due to circumstances out of my control I was not able to fix the pump right away and it caused my tank to crash. All corals are dead, and all fish but two are dead. 1 Clown fish and 1 Blue Yellow Tail Damsel are currently being held in a tank awaiting a new tank. I probably could have saved some corals, but again I wasn't able to because of some time constraints and other issues. Luckily, those issues are sorted out. 

Long story short, I actually was cleaning everything to sell, but that itch got to me, and after a few months of planning and thinking, I'm rebuilding my tank. I'm retiring the 20 long frag tank for now. The 40 breeder is the main focus. Starting fresh with new sand, rock, very well cleaned equipment, a rearranged sump design, all new plumping, and a brand new, squeaky clean, check valve. I'm hoping that everything I learned last time around will help me get this tank looking back up to speed soon. My motto for the build right now is, now is the time to fix anything that I didn't like about my previous set up. Mostly everything is going to change, but be the same at the same time. I'm excited to see how it's going to turn out.

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I included a picture of the most recent picture of the tank I have before it crashed to dedicate this post to it. A memorial. I'm striving for better. :)

I'll post pictures and equipment list soon, but for now imagine a fresh, clean 40 breeder and on a clean stand with nothing in it yet. I'm headed to my LFS tomorrow to pick up some stuff and probably spend more money than I want too. Also part of the reason I'm here is I love being able to go through my build, and I know I'm probably going to need some help along the way and some refreshers. As I post feel free to add in suggestions, comments and concerns, I'd love any help and all help!

Thanks for reading, and thanks for following if you decide too!

Edited by michaelpollard
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I'm back with an update and pictures!

I probably went overkill on the cleaning but I am glad to have a clean tank again. I'm having some issues with my RO/DI system that is requiring me to change my DI resin way to frequently. I really think its a pressure issue, because I'm on a well and it's not the best pressure. I changed my resin last Sunday, and it's almost already out, and I would guess I've made 40 gallons of water at the most. My TDS going into the DI stage is usually between 8-13 TDS, so there isn't any other reason in my mind that I should have to change my DI resin after a week. Please weigh in on this, I don't really want to have to buy a booster pump. :(

With that said, I am trying my best to get some water stored.  My tank is on the second floor and my RO/DI unit is in the basement, so it really is some back breaking work. I've lugged up about 25-30 gallons worth so far and have two 32 gallon trashcans with power heads and heaters getting it ready. I have about 15 gallons in the basement still that need to come up, and I think I should be able to squeeze another 10-15 out of my resin to get me squared away for a wet tank! I'm being really anal about my TDS and wont put anything more than 1 for this initial fill. I really want a good start!

I've got tons of stuff coming in the mail that I couldn't find at my LFS. Most of it is dumb maintenance stuff (like more citric acid for pump cleaning),  but the package I'm most excited for is 45lbs of rock and 50lbs of Fiji Pink live sand coming on Tuesday. I couldn't remember how many bags I had in my old set up, so I ordered (probably) too much sand, but I wanted to make sure it was deep enough for my liking and maybe have some extra for the refugium. If I have tons left over I'll just throw it for sale. We'll see. But I'm going to seed my Reef Saver rock with a live rock from my LFS. I should have about 45-50lbs of rock plus some MarinePure Spheres, and some nice live sand.

I figured I'd give a run down of my equipment list for anyone interested!

40 gallons breeder with 10 gallon sump (with refugium)

Current USA Orbit Marine Pro LEDs 36" (with the ceiling mounting)

2 Jebao PP4 circulation fans

Eshopps PF-300 overflow

Reef Octopus BH50 Multi-Mount Protein Skimmer

BRS GFO & Carbon Reactor - Dual with MJ1200 Pump

Hydor 200W heater

Marineland Maxi-Jet Water & Circulation Pump - size 400 (circulation for refugium)

 

Philips 8W Red A19 LED Bulb for refugium light

Reef Keeper Lite with two power bars and temp probe

(Subjet to change! I'm a little embarrassed I still use this.) - Aqueon QuietFlow Submersible Pump - AQ1700

 

Here's some pictures!

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Kind of a cord mess... I'm banging my head against the wall because I wish I could fit a little bigger sump and have a little extra room for cords and power strips. It's a work in progress I guess. Any suggestions on how to free up some space for a bigger sump? :(

Thanks for keeping up!

 

Edited by michaelpollard
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After I posted I got to thinking, have I ever actually tried to slip my 20 gallon long in my stand?

Well I have good and bad news. It fits! But I lose access to my GFO and Carbon reactor. :( Even if I squeeze my hand over there, they wont actually come out that little gap. 

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Here are my ideas:

1. I could easily put reactor chambers in the new sump (?) I think that would work still, I'd just lose a few inches of tank space, but I'm gaining so much more in the process.

2. I could move my reactors to outside the stand. I have a trash can that sits to the right of the stand, I could possibly hide it behind there. IMG_1189.thumb.JPG.a197f75e453be10932347ebc6cd23759.JPG

Weigh in if you have suggestions, or anything! :)

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What is your TDS going into the membrane?  i added 2 additional DI resin chambers so I could try to squeeze more life out of the resin by always rotating the oldest DI towards the membrane.  I ended up adding a pump anyway.

on the sump is it possible to cut a square in the center of the bottom board?  This would maintain the strength but allow the sump to sit directly on the floor.  That extra few inches may make a big difference.

overall looking great, thank you for sharing!

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16 hours ago, Muttley000 said:

What is your TDS going into the membrane?  i added 2 additional DI resin chambers so I could try to squeeze more life out of the resin by always rotating the oldest DI towards the membrane.  I ended up adding a pump anyway.

on the sump is it possible to cut a square in the center of the bottom board?  This would maintain the strength but allow the sump to sit directly on the floor.  That extra few inches may make a big difference.

overall looking great, thank you for sharing!

I only have a TDS meter reading before and after the DI resin. :( 

 

Overall update: 

I moved my reactor outside of the stand and didn't mind the look of it! I was actually decently surprise. With high spirits of a bigger sump I went to Home Depot and Petsmart to get acrylic and make returns. THEN, I saw a 75 gallon tank with stand on sale at Petsmart. Marked down to $299 from $499. Measured, budgeted, and decided. I'm 85% sure I'm going to upgrade. I'm going to sleep on it. 

Either way I ordered a Jebao DCT-4000 return pump. Should be big enough to work with the 40B or 75 depending on what I decide. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/4/2017 at 4:37 AM, crimsonvice said:

Did you end up getting the 75? That's not a bad deal at all!

Thanks for asking! I'm behind on progress updates.

I bought the 75 and recently added water. :) I'll post pics and an update!

 

SO, after I posted I had a talk with my parents. I am 19 and I can spend however I want, but I do live under their roof still and wanted to see how they felt and see what they thought. They were okay with the tank, so the next day I went and bought this beast (for some it's small, but for me it's huge!) I initially had some issues with the stand that the tank came with, it wasn't very sturdy and it had odd dimensions underneath and was 1 inch off from fitting my 40B for a sump. I debated on what to do and thought of a different size sump to use, and then I ended up modifying the stand to fit my old 40B and added some extra support and places to hang power strips and I felt a lot better about the stand being able to hold all the weight.

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After some measuring and cutting I glued the baffles in on my sump. I had to wait a few days, because I wasn't sure about my skimmer. I was looking for a used one because I didn't want to pay so much, but eventually I bit the bullet and bought a Reef Octopus Classic 152-S 6" Internal Protein Skimmer. Felt good about the purchase and was actually really pleased with how well it ended up fitting. It's sitting on about a 4 inch stand to make the water level about 7-8 inches. It's still kinda breaking in.

I don't remember the dimensions off my head, but theres 3 sections. First is the protein skimmer, GFO/Carbon pump, and tank overflow line. Then the 11gal refugium with a sponge filter, circulation fan and whole layer of MarinePure Ceramic Biomedia. The last section is the return pump. the first section water level is 11 inches, second is 10 inches, and the third is 10 inches. In all the sump gives me an estimated 26.5 gallons of water, which means my water volume is about 100. Theres probably less with the rock and sand but I'm saying 100. :) 

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Not the best quality pictures, but the third baffle has some holes drilled into it and a little support so I can hang on filter floss, or screen or eggcrate. It's already come in handy a few times. 

Then all my rock came, and I started trying to aa the best I could. I've never been very good at it, and can never seem to get the look I'm going for, but this turned out pretty good I think. IMG_1288.thumb.JPG.2f4eea0a981ab649c781879c333040f2.JPG

 

After a few days of lugging 5 gallon buckets from the basement I finally got enough water. After I filled the tank I got a booster pump for my RO/DI system and I am very happy with that purchase.

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... and then about two weeks later! (still working on getting a black background to cover the cords)

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75 gallon with 40B gallon sump/refugium (about 101 gallons)

75lbs of BRS reef saver rock, 80lbs of Fiji Pink live sand.

Current USA Orbit Marine Pro LEDs 36" (with the ceiling mounting)

2 - Jebao PP4 circulation fans

Eshopps PF-300 overflow

Reef Octopus Classic 152-S 6" Internal Protein Skimmer

BRS GFO & Carbon Reactor - Dual with MJ1200 Pump

 

2 - 200W Eheim JAGER Aquarium Heater

Marineland Maxi-Jet Water & Circulation Pump - size 400 (circulation for refugium)

MarinePure Ceramic Biomedia (1 gallon box + 2 quart box)

Sponge Filter - 10 Gallon (refugium)

Philips 8W Red A19 LED Bulb for refugium light

Reef Keeper Lite with two power bars and temp probe

Jebao DCT-4000 return pump

API testing for ammonia and nitrites and pH, Red Sea testing kits for nitrate, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium. Hannah checker for phosphates and soon to be pH. 

 

I also have a sponge for my 20 gallon sponge filter for a QT tank (when needed). I'm not 100% sure I'm doing it right, but I thought if some of the bacteria grows on it it'll cycle the QT tank quickly. 

 

After a few days of water in the tank, I was having really bad heating issues dropped to 70 during the night and barely broke 77 during the day. Bought a new heater, rated for 106 gallons, still wasn't enough. So I bought two and threw them in the refugium. Every since my temp has been a solid 79.5, which is exactly what I have my Reef Keeper set too, so thats good!

It's been about two weeks since I added water. I decided to not use any live rock, only the reef saver rock. My LFS gave me a cup of their thriving pod culture, and I got some chaeto from them, and I think this should be enough to get my rock thriving, and then I'm hoping to introduce some coralline algae somehow. I hate hitch hikers and had a massive bristle worm problem in my old tank from a live rock I seeded my tank with and it never really seeded well and the rock work looked so off with one different colored rock. I'm hoping I can get away with not adding any live rock. I did add Bio-Spira to the tank to kick things off. I haven't had any ammonia or nitrites, I have 2ppm nitrates, and 0.03ppm phosphates. The bottle says I can add fish right away, but I learned so many lessons last time about being impatient, and I have to say this tank build has been a breeze. I'm going to ride it out for another week or so and see what happens. I do have one blue-leg hermit that was a hitch hiker in the chaeto. I had been target feeding him pellets to keep him going, but now I'm getting a small diatom bloom, so the little guy has been all over eating away. 

Also, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't considering buying a new refugium light. I'm looking at the Kessil H80 Tuna Flora Refugium LED Light. We'll see, I have to talk myself into it. Other possible buys are a t5 retrofit kit, and bigger circulation fans, but I'm going to wait on those until I get some coral to see if I need them. 

Sorry for such a long post, thanks for reading! :) 

Edited by michaelpollard
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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey guys! I'm here to do a short update because I'm short on time. :)

I got a very small clean up crew to combat some pretty bad diatom bloom. Got some fish, some fish died for completely unknown reasons, got some refunds and I now have 2 blue/green reed chromis and a cleaner shrimp. They've all been doing well. I'm currently waiting to add anything else until after I pay for my upcoming semester of school (tuition, books, etc.) Excited to get some coral in this thing! Thanks for following!

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5 minutes ago, Muttley000 said:

Glad to hear it's alive!  What kind of corals are you thinking?

I'm trying my hardest not to look so I'm not tempted :), but it'll probably be mostly a LPS tank with a few SPS and and small Zoanthid garden. Definite must haves would be the Elegance coral, Fruit Loop Zoanthids, Duncans, and any colored Montipora... and hopefully much more! Just gotta pace myself. :) 

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  • 1 month later...

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