KingBling's 40g Frag Tank

[KingBlingTX]

Well, it's time for PetCo's $1/gallon sale again. The prospect of getting a 40g breeder for only $40 was enough motivation to get me started on a frag tank build that will certainly set me back several hundred dollars! LOL I'm planning to do a large tank build in my home office in the near future, so I thought I'd get a nursery going in preparation. I also thought it would be good place to get some experience using some equipment that I plan on incorporating in the larger build (e.g. Apex controller, T5 lighting, dosing and/or reactors, etc...)

After picking up the tank yesterday, I headed to the local HomeDepot to get some building materials for my DIY stand. A few hours later, here's where I am now.

So tomorrow, I hope to put the floor in and skin it.

I plan to drill the tank for an overflow with Bean Animal style drain. I'll also be doing a DIY sump. Equipment plans so far are:
Skimmer- Coral Box D300
Return Pump- Sicce 3 (I already had this pump still new the box, so i can't justify using something else.)
Controller- Neptune Apex (95% certain on this choice)
Lighting- ATI T5 (4 or 6 bulb) I wish ATI had black fixtures like Gieseman, but I can' justify $200 more for black.
Water Movement Pumps- ?? wanting to use something I can run from Apex (Jebao's or Tunze is what I'm leaning towards.)
ATO-Tunze Osmolator
Dosing-??

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

awesome build. I've had good luck with the Jebao dosing pump.

 

[KingBlingTX]

Thanks, AllSignsPointToFish. I'll check out those dosing pumps.

 

[KingBlingTX]

Got a little work done on the stand yesterday. Outer skins are on and I've painted the inside.

I have to say I was excited about how my 45 deg joints came together. I've never really done any woodworking. This was my very first 45 joint ever (and didn't have to make any re-cuts!)

 

[KingBlingTX]

Time has been flying by and I've been slacking on updating my build thread. Here's what happened over the couple of weeks.

- 4 coats of black stain (The high gloss may not have been the best choice as every pic has reflections on it! LOL)


- Discovered that "someone" obviously didn't measure twice (after staining). As a secondary finding, I learned during this construction process that I periodically suffer from similar to Tourette Syndrome. My wife noted she knew I was still working in the garage due to the frequent expletives emanating from within.


- Drilled the tank for the Synergy Reef Overflow and two returns. This was my first time drilling glass and it was much easier than I expected.


- Painted the back and bottom glass black. (sorry the pic makes it look horrible due to reflections)


- Made a sump with a $20 Petco 20 gallon tank...and three little pieces of glass that cost $60! :-/ This is also my first time to silicone glass. Apparently, glass working is another trigger for my Tourette-like affliction.


- I plumbed the drains and returns. The Synergy Reef overflow has a Bean Animal style drain.

 

[KingBlingTX]

Over the weekend, I was able to "almost" finish the set-up. Just under 40 lbs of dry-rock were added (~6 lbs of rubble in the sump and the rest in the main tank.) Since this will be a frag tank, there's no cool aqua-scaping. I filled it with 48 gallons of RODI water for a water leak test and ran for 24 hours. Fortunately, no leaks!! Salt was added (Brightwell Aquatics NeoMarine) and let it mix overnight. Just to be sure there wasn't any residual contaminants, I put on a carbon reactor to run for 24 hours before I start the cycle.

Here are pics of the tank in it's new home (in our game room). Advance warning- the electronics box is a hot mess. I just wanted to get everything in there so I knew what all I need deal with. I will attempt to "wrangle" that jungle into to some semblance of order later this week.


I also think I will change or modify the light mounting rack. It is simply bookshelf rack from Home Depot attached to the back of my stand. The little holes will drive my nuts. Here is a pic with the first test to see if the lights turned on.


The powerheads are just in some random places for when I was mixing salt. I'll move them into their appropriate spots shortly and tuck away the wiring. Not shown in pics is the protein skimmer or the DOS dosing module. I made sure the skimmer fits, but didn't want to just leave it sitting in the sump idle during the cycle. I'm also trying to decide if I will mount the DOS head inside the cabinet since it is already cramped for space. Since I will have to locate the dosing fluids somewhere else anyway, I might make a small cabinet to house them, ATO water, and the DOS head.

So here is the build equipment I ended up going with.

Tank- 40g Breeder w/ Synergy Reef Overflow
Sump- 20g DIY
Lighting- 36" ATI Sunpower T5HO x 6 bulb
Controller- Apex Neptune w/lab grade pH
ATO- Tunze Osmolator 3155
Protein Skimmer- Coral Box D500 (Jebao product)
Powerheads- Jebao PP-4 x 2 (with interface box for Apex controller)
Return Pump- Jebao Jecod DCT-3000 (DC pump) *this was a last minute change as the Sicce 3 pump I originally had made too much noise (it is obviously defective, but I don't want to wait on warranty repair)
Dosing Pump- Neptune DOS
Carbon/PO4 Reactor- TLF Phosban Reactor 150/Maxi-Jet 1200 combo

 

[KingBlingTX]

It's been a couple months since I posted an update on the frag tank, so I thought I would add a few pics. Over the last few weeks I've been adding to my frag collection...

 

[KingBlingTX]

Picked up a few more frags...

Efflo


Pink Mille


Unknown

 

[KingBlingTX]

New shipments of frags for my collection today!!


JF Rainbow Stylo


Bio Reef Green Goblin Anacropora


JF Bonsai


JF Flying Saucer Scroll


JF Party Crasher Cyph.


ORA Pink Stylo


ORA Joe the Coral


ORA Blue Voodoo

 

[hybridazn]

Awesome frag tank! Great job!

 

[KingBlingTX]

Awesome frag tank! Great job!

Thanks! I'm getting prepared to do a tank like yours!!

 

[robbie8691]

Nice build thread. Tank looks awsome

 

[stevo01]

I LOVE this build! I'm doing something very similar with a 65G DT and 40G sump. 65 is a deep blue corner overflow so my piping is going straight through the top of the stand. My challenge is fitting everything into the bottom. I also want a slim acrylic top off tank in the bottom. I'm going to study the heck out this stand, but I may PM you for building advice.

 

[KingBlingTX]

I LOVE this build! I'm doing something very similar with a 65G DT and 40G sump. 65 is a deep blue corner overflow so my piping is going straight through the top of the stand. My challenge is fitting everything into the bottom. I also want a slim acrylic top off tank in the bottom. I'm going to study the heck out this stand, but I may PM you for building advice.

Thanks. Please feel free to PM. I'm definitely no expert but I'm happy to share my experience with the build.

 

[Atrain]

Awesome build looks really good... Curious about the type of T5 bulbs you used and how things are currently going?

 

[KingBlingTX]

Awesome build looks really good... Curious about the type of T5 bulbs you used and how things are currently going?

Thanks, Atrain. I am using 3 x ATI Blue Plus, 2 x ATI Aquablue Special, and 1 x ATI Coral Plus bulbs. I have 2 Blue Plus come on and stay on for 12 hrs/day. The remaining bulbs turn on 2 hrs after the Blues turn on and remain on for 8 hr/day. I am very happy with the lighting and the results I was having. However, we have two aquariums 'mishaps' that have caused me some problems in the last couple of months.

The first mishap was completely my fault as I got lazy about testing ALK. It had been pretty stable in the 7.5-8.0 range and then i went about 6 weeks without checking it. I first noticed a problem when i had numerous frags start RTN'ing. My ALK had dropped to 5.0. I lost about half of my frags and many others lost significant color. I am now back to measuring ALK daily and will start dosing 2-part once i get a good read on daily use.

The second mishap occurred about 2 weeks ago. It actually occurred in my daughters 28g NanoCube, but as a result I had to change my 40g. One night about 3:00am, I was awoken by my daughter screaming for help upstairs. Her ATO had gone dry and her powerheads were spitting bubbles which woke he up. Since the RODI bottle in her room was empty, she went to check near my 40g to see if there was some water there. She grabbed my bottle of ALK additive which appeared clear so she assumed it was water (at 3:00am she didn't bother to read the label). After dumping about 1/2 gallon of the concentrate in her tank she realized she had done something wrong and began calling for help. We quickly moved everything we could find/catch from her tank into my frag tank in hopes to save what we could.

As a result, my "frag" tank has now become a hybrid tank where my daughter's 5+ year old Maroon clown, anemone, softies, etc... co-exist with my SPS frags. :-/ Once we get her's back up and running, I hope to get mine back to the way I intended to be! LOL (without anemones!)

 

[robbie8691]

What size is the overflow length wise I am going to be doing the same setup . Also how high is your water level of how did you place it?

 

[KingBlingTX]

The overflow is 16" Synery Reef Overflow. I used the template they include to mark and drill the holes. (I placed the template on the inside of the aquarium, level with the inside black trim piece. This is higher than the outside trim piece, so don't do it outside or you water level will be too low.) My water level when running is just higher than the black trim on the aquarium, so you don't see the water line when it is running.

 

[Ubans13]

Awesome build looks very nice. Would love to see you DT if that is your frag tank!

 

[robbie8691]

The overflow is 16" Synery Reef Overflow. I used the template they include to mark and drill the holes. (I placed the template on the inside of the aquarium, level with the inside black trim piece. This is higher than the outside trim piece, so don't do it outside or you water level will be too low.) My water level when running is just higher than the black trim on the aquarium, so you don't see the water line when it is running.

Perfect that was what I was wondering. Thanks for the speedy response