40 breeder stand and canopy build.

[D4jack]

I started my custom 40 breeder build. I have been needing to upgrade my setup. I have to tear down my 20 hex. The silicone is peeling and algae is growing under it. I'm not waiting for the inevitable.

I decided to build a custom stand and canopy in an effort to save money. Here's some photos of the progress so far. I will be adding to this as work continues. Hopefully you enjoy!

 

[Specific Ocean]

Looks great so far. I’ll be keeping an eye out on this build.
Is the tank also custom?

 

[D4jack]

Its an aqueon from petco. On sale for $50. It will have a 20 gallon sump tank. Custom overflow.

 

[D4jack]

Made my $2.69 overflow wier today out of a 3" drain elbow. I had an idea after seeing some plumbing at my work. I do wastewater treatment for a factory. The cut was hard. I used an angle grinder and laid it out with the laser on my mitre saw. It came out almost perfect on the first cut. I had to grind the surfaces flush to the glass. And scuff the pipe anywhere that silicone would make contact.

 

[D4jack]

I built the canopy yesterday and primed the cabinet. Today i will sand with 220grit and apply the first coat. Its coming together slowly. I only have a couple hrs a day to spend on this project.

 

[D4jack]

Got the first coat on! Gotta wait an hour and do it again.

 

[D4jack]

Got everything inside. Time to start plumbing!

 

[D4jack]

Finished the main plumbing. Waiting on my skimmer. Coming together nice!!

 

[D4jack]

Next up electrical!

 

[D4jack]

Built a light today. I Used 20 3watt chips 8 430nm blues, 8 7700k whites and 4 650nm reds. Each color has its own channel with ramping timer/dimmers. 6" Aluminum threshold for the frame. (The best heatsink for led setups in my opinion.)I'm using a 300watt atx power supply to run lights and fans. I will probably get a dc pump after my cheap ones burn out. This psu provides 268 watts of 12v power. Plus it has 5v and 3.3v options. They make great benchtop power supplies.

 

[D4jack]

Got the tank cycling. I put 70lbs. Arganite/oolite, Some lava rock, and some filter sponges from my current setup in the sump. Everything is working great so far!

 

[D4jack]

Got my rockwork set. Its aquacultured from a guy who has hundreds of pounds. I scored it for $3 a lb. I could not believe the price!! He's in Northern Ohio if anyone is interested. I didn't notice any parasites. I'll take the risk.

 

[D4jack]

Update. After adding live rock, and the filter sponges to the sump. My numbers have come down to decent levels. Ammonia 0 ppm nitrites .5 ppm nitrates 10ppm. I'm going to get my turf scrubber running today. No skimmate production just fine bubbles. This should take a couple weeks to get going if I'm correct? I'm going to do a 25% water change and see where I'm at tomorrow. The tank seems to be there though. I also added some snails and 3 blue leg hermits on Sunday. After adding the live rock the water transformed overnight.

 

[D4jack]

Ph 8.1 dkh 10

 

[Elpea]

Nice work!

 

[D4jack]

Moved my livestock from the 20 hex. So far so good. Now I can start acquiring some new frags.

 

[D4jack]

 

[D4jack]

I'm experiencing a diatom bloom. Added a bag of phoszorb to control the silicates, dimmed my whites and turned off the reds. Built my protein skimmer, and algae turf scrubber. I've got less than 2.5 ppm nitrates. About 5ppm phos. Hopefully this takes care of it before it gets out of hand. I have a separate thread on the skimmer build. (Diy protein skimmer)

 

[D4jack]

The skimmer is working. It's a little on the dry side. We'll see in a couple weeks when I actually start getting some waste in my system. I suspect there's not much to skim yet.

 

[D4jack]

Update. I added some new frags. A yellow birdsnest, purple stylo, lava flow and gold leptos, a red green blasto, and a few different zoas. I got them from the r2r tidal gardens sale last week. Everything is looking great my cuc made short work of the diatoms. Now I need to get my phos and nitrates stable. Phos is .3 nitrates non detect. I'm going to up my feeding schedule. I also added 5 chromis, A lawnmower blenny, 1 cardinal, 1 firefish goby, and 1 watchman goby, over the last 3 weeks. My skimmer is finally pulling some gunk out. Learned a lesson about sealing up your turf scrubber. (Water spray shorting out an led driver. Almost a total loss. Thank God for gfci technology.) I'm doing OK I think. Now I need to leave it alone and monitor my numbers.