Aaron's 40 Breeder

aaron186 · Feb 10, 2016

Upgrading my 10 gal starter tank with budget equipment to a 40B:

Current FTS:

Tank Specs:
40 gallon Aqueon rimmed tank drilled and painted back
Maxspect Razor 160w 15k
Maxspect Gyre 130
30lbs of Reef Cleaner Rock (will be adding a few pieces LR from old tank as well)
40 lbs of Carib Sea Arag Alive Fiji Pink
20 gal high Aqueon rimmed tank for sump PVC plumbed and to be baffled
Filter sock holder (unknown brand - eshopps?)
Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer
200w titanium heater
Plan for fuge/light in the works
BRS dual reactor with BRS carbon and GFO
Jebao DCT 4000
Tunze Osmolator

Hope to add controller when I can afford it and then possibly a dosing system

Live Stock and corals will be added from my 10 gal (mostly LPS and softies) but plan to add SPS once stable

Pics detailing build process pending below

aaron186 · Feb 10, 2016

Painting back:

Overflows:

I messed up and had my LFS drill my tank before I fully researched it. I wish I would have drilled two 1 inch holes in the middle for a herbie and two half inch return lines with an overflow box but oh well. There is a 1.5 inch bulk head overflow. I have a street elbow in the tank with a low profile drain horizontally for surface skimming. The return is a 1/2 inch bulkhead with locline with integrated check valve

Sump:

I initially planned on using a 15 gal tank. However my skimmer needs ~9 inches of water to be effective. When i marked out my design (see below), I realized that the water line would be near the top of the sump and I wasn't comfortable with this. I went to petco yesterday and exchanged it for the 20H which is same foot print but higher. This created a little bit of problems plumbing and forced me to use some 90s. Pics below are of the 15 before the upgrade. I picked this footprint (24x12) because it gave me room under my tank to put some stuff in front of the stand, and room for an ATO reservoir to the right of the stand.

Plumbing:

Here is my first attempt at PVC plumbing. I was going to use flex tubes but decided to make it difficult. I tried my best to avoid 90 degree turns but unfortunately it was not possible on the drain due to the height of the sump. The drain is a Durso stand pipe with a 1.5 inch T reduced to a 1 inch line.