First Tank Starting to Crawl

Silverrshadow · Jul 18, 2020

Right now my "build" is in the acquisition phase because, as everyone knows, the hobby isn't cheap! That being said we are gathering parts for it bit by bit. The tank is going to be a 40 gallon breeder with fish, softies, and LPS. New to the hobby (and the forum), so any advice is welcome!

sfin52 · Jul 18, 2020

Silverrshadow said:
Right now my "build" is in the acquisition phase because, as everyone knows, the hobby isn't cheap! That being said we are gathering parts for it bit by bit. The tank is going to be a 40 gallon breeder with fish, softies, and LPS. New to the hobby (and the forum), so any advice is welcome!

Ippyroy · Jul 18, 2020

Welcome to R2R! I would get my rocks right away and have them in saltwater with a pump and heater. I used Micrbactor XLM and ghost fed for 4 months while slowly collecting items for my tank. After getting the tank wet I was ready for fish in less than a week and had 1 day of diatoms and had hard green algae in three weeks. No algae issues worth talking about. I added a total of 5 fish in 6 weeks and no issues with ammonia. Rocks in a brute count as cycle time.

Silverrshadow · Jul 20, 2020

Purchased and began cycling rock last week. Cycling with pre-established rock and water. It is also my first tank and with that, first aquascape! I chose a combination of base rock, Real Reef, and Caribsea. We'll see how that pans out. I also swapped out that island piece for a "doughnut"

revhtree · Jul 20, 2020

Silverrshadow said:
Purchased and began cycling rock last week. Cycling with pre-established rock and water. It is also my first tank and with that, first aquascape! I chose a combination of base rock, Real Reef, and Caribsea. We'll see how that pans out. I also swapped out that island piece for a "doughnut"

I like it!

Silverrshadow · Jul 27, 2020

Building our tank stand. Meanwhile, our first corals came in and are staying in another established tank for the time being.

Scotty Amen · Jul 28, 2020

This tank is going to be epic!!!

Would you be offended if I suggest you reinforce the stand with more 2x4s, like this?

This would provide 4 vertical boards that stand UNDER the horizontal boards, providing their compression strength to hold the entire top up.
Without them, only the strength of the screws keeps the top from slipping down the boards.
Without these additional supports, your tank will surely hold several hundred pounds, but with them you would be able to stack about 1500 pounds on it, or more, if you wanted to.

Hope this doesn't offend! I think your aquascape is fantastic and am looking forward to seeing where it goes from here

Silverrshadow · Aug 3, 2020

Newest addition.. plus the overflow is built! Another photo to follow

Erick Armanii · Aug 3, 2020

Scotty Amen said:
This tank is going to be epic!!!

Would you be offended if I suggest you reinforce the stand with more 2x4s, like this?

This would provide 4 vertical boards that stand UNDER the horizontal boards, providing their compression strength to hold the entire top up.
Without them, only the strength of the screws keeps the top from slipping down the boards.
Without these additional supports, your tank will surely hold several hundred pounds, but with them you would be able to stack about 1500 pounds on it, or more, if you wanted to.

Hope this doesn't offend! I think your aquascape is fantastic and am looking forward to seeing where it goes from here

This is 100% accurate.
The load of an aquarium full of water, rock, sand etc etc will cause the shear strength of those nails/screws to fail.

Reinforce the horizontals so that the “load” is resting on 2x4s and not 3 screws.

Silverrshadow · Aug 3, 2020

We had planned to put more 2x4s in. We had the basic frame up for the sake of figuring out placement in our new house

Scotty Amen · Aug 3, 2020

Great! Really going to be a nice setup.

Casket_Case · Aug 3, 2020

The only advice is take it easy, be patient, do everything with as much diligence as possible. I really wish I did that when I started XD

Silverrshadow · Oct 28, 2020

A lot has happened since the last build update. We decided to jump from a 40 breeder to reviving my dad's old 180g.

We are using its original 55g sump which used plastic bioballs and bio bale. Eventually we are going to rotate the old out and replace with newer material. We have added a couple of baffles to make a refugium.

Dad had a bunch of holy rock in his original setup which is making the bulk of our aquascape. We have more live rock in the sump for now to help give bacteria places to go as well as some bio balls from Marine Pure.

For lighting we have 4 AI Vegas (any tips, tricks, or advice with those is appreciated). Our lfs was selling them at a decent price, far cheaper than what we were looking at otherwise.

We have 2 Clownfish, 2 Bangaii Cardinals, and just added a Diamond Goby. Everyone seems to be getting along well. My husband got pretty excited and with that, we have coral already. All LPS and mushrooms.

Our CUC is getting a diatom bloom under control.