40 Gallon Reef

[Fishman793]

So, this is my second reef tank, the first crashed during my 14 days without power during hurricane Irene. It is 40 gallons, and the plan is to have a variety of corals as well as fish. It is been up since February, and I don't have any pictures on hand but will post them later. The equipment so far is as follows:

-40 gallon aquarium
-Remora Pro HOB skimmer run by Mag 5
-DIY 20 gallon long sump
-PhosBan reactor 150 w/ Chemipure elite
-Jager 200w heater
-Hydor Koralia 1400
-Hydor Koralia 550
-Generic 120w "chinese" led light
-Voss water bottle biopellet reactor run by maxijet 1200
-3 DIY dosing pumps for Cal, Alk, and Mag

The basic idea of this tank was to spend as little money possible while still getting decent quality equipment. Most of the items are left over form my last tank (75 gallons). I did not have a sump in the last tank, so instead of buying a new skimmer I have the Mag 5 as a return pump from the sump, flowing into the remora which in turn flows into the tank. I also didn't want to spend money to buy another reactor for biopellets, so I made a ghetto one out of a voss water bottle (everything will be easier to see in the pictures). I am slowly adding livestock, but as of now I have the following:

-red hornet zoanthid
-purple hornet zoanthid
-armor of god palys
-colony of 3 different generic green zoanthids
-meteor shower cyphastrea
-ponape birdsnest
-montipora undata
-sunset montipora
-green and violet acan
-green star polyps
-orange ricordea
-green ricordea
-purple polyp green scroll
-violet orange montipora
-halloween chalice

-blue and purple crocea clam

-lawnmower blenny

-various snails and hermits

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated so I can improve my system.

 

[tidus10]

 

[Fishman793]

Pictures. I had to edit the meteor shower to try to get the colors straightened out. It's not exact, but its as close as I could get it.

 

[Fishman793]

The last one is the Voss water bottle

 

[Mike J.]

It looks like you're off to a good start. I have sympathy for you. I lost a tank back in the early 90's due to a hurricane in N. Carolina. Well, actually two hurricanes, Bertha and Fran, 6 weeks apart. It survived Bertha, I had a generator, but Fran put a whopping on me and damaged my house too. Had three trees on top of my barn, one of them was a neighbors tree from 100 yards away.

 

[mike007]

Looks like its going to be a great tank. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Fishman793]

Yeah after Irene we got a generator, and thank goodness, because during Sandy we lost power for 11 days! Most of the corals are frags that were added in the past month so hopefully they start growing out nicely.

 

[revsgirl]

Looking good!!


Chasing the Dream Giver, not the dream! Tonya