40B stocking ideas

[BeagleBro52]

Currently I have a 20H saltwater tank with:
1 GSP coral that's done awesome
1 clownfish (had 2 but the other one had neurological issues and did not make it)
1 sharknose goby
1 yellow clown goby
1 cleaner shrimp
Several hermits, and snails
Live sand/rock

I am planning on getting 2 40B tanks with the dollar per gallon sale, one for salt and one for fresh. What would be some good things for the upgraded salt tank?

I was thinking of just adding another clown fish and a 6 line wrasse as my fish-stock.

I love the Acans, torches, and Duncan's the most from what I have seen. My girlfriend wants a Xenia so I would love to get one of those for her if possible.
I will be adding a good bit more sand, rock, canister filter, and all the other upgrades.

I also have a blue tuxedo urchin

 

[Saltyreef]

I would stick with nano fish, your planned fish stock sounds good.

As far as corals go, as long as you are able to keep up with demand, you can put anything in there you want

Heres my 40 breeder. And its a little understocked for my liking lol.

Cheers.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I would look at what changes you will need to make for flow and lighting. I have an MP40 and small powerhead for cross flow and 2x AI prime. As far as livestock you are now open to many new options.

 

[BeagleBro52]

I would look at what changes you will need to make for flow and lighting. I have an MP40 and small powerhead for cross flow and 2x AI prime. As far as livestock you are now open to many new options.

What would be some good things to look at for upping my flow and lighting? Right now I have the Fluval Marine light, and the Fluval current maker.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

What would be some good things to look at for upping my flow and lighting? Right now I have the Fluval Marine light, and the Fluval current maker.

Loaded question so I will follow up with a question back. What do you plan to keep and what do you not want to worry about? If you wanted to eventually get into SPS or clams then lighting will need to be bumped up considerably and flow will need to be random and very high. Hydor, Gyre, Vortech, Tunze all make great flow generator options. Lighting you mostly hear about Kessil, AI Prime/Hydras, Orbit Marine or Radions.

The rough part is that everyone runs a different combo with varying level of success. I have only tried my setup and variants of my setup. I can tell you that a 24" light will not illuminate a 36" tank and you will likely need a few more points of flow. 2x AI Prime are a good lighting system which I upgraded from 2x Aquatic Life Reef Edge lights which gave little growth and bad coloration. Flow wise I upgraded from cheap laminar flow powerheads to an MP40 and one of my cheat powerheads set on a random schedule pointed toward the front.

 

[BeagleBro52]

Loaded question so I will follow up with a question back. What do you plan to keep and what do you not want to worry about? If you wanted to eventually get into SPS or clams then lighting will need to be bumped up considerably and flow will need to be random and very high. Hydor, Gyre, Vortech, Tunze all make great flow generator options. Lighting you mostly hear about Kessil, AI Prime/Hydras, Orbit Marine or Radions.

The rough part is that everyone runs a different combo with varying level of success. I have only tried my setup and variants of my setup. I can tell you that a 24" light will not illuminate a 36" tank and you will likely need a few more points of flow. 2x AI Prime are a good lighting system which I upgraded from 2x Aquatic Life Reef Edge lights which gave little growth and bad coloration. Flow wise I upgraded from cheap laminar flow powerheads to an MP40 and one of my cheat powerheads set on a random schedule pointed toward the front.

I'm not really looking at SPS or clams any time in the near future. I'm a lot more into the softies and LPS corals that just have really good coloration, and some that wave in the water current. I am for sure getting a bigger light, my little one now will not stretch over the tank or get light all the way down the tank. The only reason I would put my current light on the tank is if the bigger light either broke, or I planned bad and it got delayed in the mail. I have another current maker that's rated 25-40 gallon that a friend gave me. I might look at getting another one and using the cycling period as my time to get the set up perfect. I looked at Kessil lights, they are just out of my budget right now. I'm still in school (one semester left) so I'm looking for a light that I can upgrade when I can but still looks good for the next year to year and a half.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I'm not really looking at SPS or clams any time in the near future. I'm a lot more into the softies and LPS corals that just have really good coloration, and some that wave in the water current. I am for sure getting a bigger light, my little one now will not stretch over the tank or get light all the way down the tank. The only reason I would put my current light on the tank is if the bigger light either broke, or I planned bad and it got delayed in the mail. I have another current maker that's rated 25-40 gallon that a friend gave me. I might look at getting another one and using the cycling period as my time to get the set up perfect. I looked at Kessil lights, they are just out of my budget right now. I'm still in school (one semester left) so I'm looking for a light that I can upgrade when I can but still looks good for the next year to year and a half.

Look into getting a Neon Toadstool, Blue Cespitularia and Duncan. All have tons of movement

Orbit Marine name gets tossed around and Photon V2 are good budget lights. Chinese Blackboxes (Visparspectra?) are probably the cheapest option that work but have some drawbacks when it comes to safety/customization.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

...I think its Mars Aqua not visparspectra. Check out a ton of build threads for more ideas and you can search for keywords for 40B. Good luck!

 

[Coastie Reefer]

A single 16" 165w Mars Aqua or Viparspectra (both UL listed) will give you plenty of light for whatever you want to keep in a 40B. You might have to hang the light 10-12" above the water but it'll cover easily. You'll have a little lower par on the ends, but from what you have listed for coral it'll do just fine.

I'd avoid the canister filter and use a HOB filter like a aquaclear 50. It's easy to maintain and the surface agitation helps with surface scum to a degree...

 

[Saltyreef]

Good advice above from everyone.
I run 2x hydras on my breeder. It was plenty of light with 2 hydra 26s and now possibly a bit overkill with two hydra 52s.
A blackbox as mentioned above will be your top choice for budget and good lighting to grow pretty much anything you want.

Before you get too deep into one single detail....
Did you decide how the tank will be plumbed?

If youre going to go with a canister filter or HOB filter, youll want to get one rated at least 3x the size of the tank to even consider running one.
And youll need to maintain it regularly.

I started with an All in one tank and slowly moved to a sumped system. The HOBs are saved for my temporary quarantine tanks.

 

[BeagleBro52]

Good advice above from everyone.
I run 2x hydras on my breeder. It was plenty of light with 2 hydra 26s and now possibly a bit overkill with two hydra 52s.
A blackbox as mentioned above will be your top choice for budget and good lighting to grow pretty much anything you want.

Before you get too deep into one single detail....
Did you decide how the tank will be plumbed?

If youre going to go with a canister filter or HOB filter, youll want to get one rated at least 3x the size of the tank to even consider running one.
And youll need to maintain it regularly.

I started with an All in one tank and slowly moved to a sumped system. The HOBs are saved for my temporary quarantine tanks.

I want to do a sump/refugium with all the plumbing and stuff, just don't know how and I haven't done all the research on one so starting with the canister or HOB until I feel a little more confident in myself to take that on.

 

[Saltyreef]

Well the way i did it was a crash course but it came out great.

I bought a 40 breeder and a 20 long. The 20 long served as my sump.
I bought A DIY baffle kit for the sump to give me a few different chambers. Sump complete.

The overflow from the tank to the sump is an easily installed hang on overflow. eshopps pf300.
At first to make it easy, i connected an eshopps flex line from it down to my sump, and in the return chamber connected the return pump to locline nozzles that i siliconed to my tanks rim.

Ive made some changes since by plumbing my overflow in rigid pvc but its essentially setup the same.
Let me know if you have any questions. Youll likely want to start by collecting things you need to build and dont start until you have everything for a complete build or at very least, plumbing, flow and lighting.