First 40G tank.

[EBNewbie]

Hi all,
Happy to have found this forum. I keep freshwater fish and always had an itch for a marine aquarium. The PetCo $/gal sale was the catalyst for me and I bought a 40B display tank and a 29G sump. I'm in no hurry to get the tank started and I enjoy doing some DIY things. I've read a lot on the forums and watched the 52 weeks of reefing twice. The goal is to have a Soft + LPS tank with the option in the future to try some SPS.

Equipment List (Updated as I make progress)
Bold for things I've purchased, Italic for items I'm not sure. Most items are hyperlinked to the vendor. I'm located in Livermore.

Tank: 40G Breeder
Sump: 29G Sump kit from eBay The seller has agreed to give me a 2 hole plate instead of the standard 1 hole one since I'm doing a Bean Animal. Installed fine!
Stand: 40G Imagitarium - Thinking about adding a 3/4 plywood top and "skin" the front/sides without attaching it to the stand. Probably will screw some plywood on the back to support the PVC pipes
Stand paint: Behr Oil based primer and paint. It's very thick but dries very hard over a week.
Overflow: Eclipse L - I want to do a Bean Animal
Plumbing: Bean Animal, 3/4" loc-line return. Schedule 40 PVC, Silicone tubing from the return pump, 3 outlet manifold for future proofing.
Rocks: Reef Saver
Sand: CaribSea Special Grade
Light: Orphek Atlantik V4 (Gen 2)
Powerhead: 2x Ecotech MP10WQD
Skimmer: ESSENCE S-130 INTERNAL PROTEIN SKIMMER
Return Pump: Varios-4 DC Pump. Got a deal on an open box device on eBay
Refugium (In-sump): Marine Pure 8x8x4. Goal is to have chaeto in the future
ATO: Tunze OSMOLATOR UNIVERSAL - Universally acclaimed and seems reliable. Thinking about an Ottoman+Food container for the reservoir.
Controller: Apex
Leak Detection: 3x Apex Probes. Email/SMS very helpful
Heater: 150W EHEIM JAGER AQUARIUM HEATER Set 2 degree above the desired temp, let the Apex control it. Also have a spare
Socks: BRS mesh socks Not too keen on socks and don't have space for a rollermat so this seems like a good compromise. Also purchased the felt ones to compare.

RO/DI: BRS 6 STAGE DELUXE PLUS 100GPD Works really well with 0 TDS and good flow. Got a brute 32-gallon trash can for storing RODI and another one to mix salt
Additives: None? Did not plan to pre-purchase any additives yet.
Dosing: BRS 2 part kit
Salinity meter: Milwaukee Ma887 Lighted refractometer seem imprecise and prone to (my) user error.
Salt: HW Reefer for its purity.
Reactors: BRS GFO/Carbon mini reactor with ROX 0.8 carbon.
Test kits: Again going with the BRS recommendations. Some are cheaper as part of a kit like the Reef foundation and Marine Care:

• Alkalinity: Hanna Seems easy enough for daily checks
• Calcium: Red Sea
• PH: Res Sea
• Nitrate: Red Sea
• Phosphate: Hanna low-range It appears like traditional kits are hard to read in low phosphate.
• Magnesium: Red Sea
• Chloramine: Lamotte Insta-Test
• Ammonia: Res Sea

Fish Food: Hikari Marine S Pellet + Hikari Seaweed Extreme and occasionally frozen cubes I can procure nearby (Mysis shrimps?)
Coral food: Reef Chili
Automatic Feeder: I have the EHEIM.
Coral Glue: Superglue gel + Tunze Epoxy
Quarantine: TBD. I have a 10-gallon tank with a HOB Fluval filter. Planning to quarantine and freshwater dip the new fish and corrals.

Other stuff:
- Flow detector for the Apex
- Mesh for the tank
- Prazipro + Copper and other quarantine gears

 

[EBNewbie]

The tank has been drilled and painted. Overflow box attached.
It took 1+ hour to drill the very large holes for the Eclipse L, and about 15 mins for the 3/4" returns. I used this drill guide and the Eclipse L guide to keep the bit steady. Dewalt clutch was set to 2 and the small battery was plenty to drill these 4 holes. I put duct tape under the glass to make sure it didn't crack when it got too thin.
For anyone with a rimmed tank and an Eclipse L overflow, mount the guide INSIDE the tank or your water level will be too low. It expects the guide to be aligned with the top of the tank.
Once drilled, I protected the holes and painted with Rust-Oleum Enamel paint. It took 3 coats to get a good finish. I cleaned the holes and bulkhead seals with denaturalized alcohol, hand-tighten them and gave them a 1/4 turn with a tool.
Tank so far:

Overflow:

 

[SPR1968]

That’s a good list of equipment and it looks like your off to a great start

And welcome to R2R!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looking good! Welcome to R2R!

 

[Wonderboy]

Very nice plan, very nice work on the tank - there is no correct assortment of equipment, just the time you're willing to put into circumstance - from what I can tell, I think you are going to do quite well - looking forward to the updates!

 

[EBNewbie]

Thanks the the encouragements everyone! Next step is getting the sump built and "skinning" the stand with plywood.

 

[EBNewbie]

Post Black Friday update.
Overflow has been dry fitted to the sump and waiting for parts for the manifold and the return. 29G DIY sump kit installed and while the silicon job is not great, things are sealed and sturdy Cabinet is built and the tank is on the cabinet in the middle of my office while I work on the plumbing. Got 50 pounds of dry rocks in RO/DI water to check for Phosphate leaching but Hanna low-range read it at 0.00. Planning to leave them in salt water + heat for a couple weeks until I'm ready to aquascape.

What do people recommend for mounting the Orphek? I was going to mount it on the ceiling (9ft ceilings) but I see people using shelving brackets as well.

 

[Wonderboy]

Nice! My vote is the ceiling so you can keep the LightRail (that moves the Orphek back and forth 6 inches) out of sight