Rick's 40 gallon breeder

[Steadyreef42]

Oh man . About 3 months in the making. The easy part was purchasing a 40b and 20l from petcos 1 a gallon sale. From there with the help of reef2reef members tanks profiles I came up with a scheme for a drilled 40 gallon with a 20 sump. I spent a lot of time researching and accumulating materials needed. Starting with the stand I've slowly progressed.

 

[Steadyreef42]

What's nice is I have a 45 inch tall stand and don't need to hunch over to look inside. This also allows me a lot of room in the sump area and I was even able to make a separate cabinet area in between the sump and tank.

 

[Steadyreef42]

During test run . Found leaking bulkheads. Thank god I installed unions. 1230 at night and no leaks at the moment. Hope it stays that way in the morning

 

[Diesel]

Looking good.
Keep up your build.

 

[Steadyreef42]

I thought I'd mix salt in the tank since I have no livestock or substrate. Terrible idea. Hope this cloud cloud dissolves someday

 

[Diesel]

I thought I'd mix salt in the tank since I have no livestock or substrate. Terrible idea. Hope this cloud cloud dissolves someday

Hang a separate pump in there to mix it faster.

 

[Steadyreef42]

Hang a separate pump in there to mix it faster.

Lol yeah. I have two weaker power heads going at it. Also the protein skimmer running. I have a jebao rw8 arriving today. Hopefully that will blow everything away

 

[Diesel]

Turn your skimmer off till you're cycled 100%.

 

[Steadyreef42]

Tank and sump shot.
Bubble magus curve 5 skimmer
Jebao dct 4000 return pump
Coral box moon led light

 

[Steadyreef42]

Been fighting dinoflagellates since the tank has started running pretty much. I may have never had a proper cycle since I transferred coral and live stock right away . The live rock I had curing for a couple of months before the tank was up and going could have also introduced it. After dosing peroxide I lost all my sps frags. I've decided to not take any more chemical routes

 

[Steadyreef42]

However I've added grape caulerpa and moved some live rock to the sump. I'm keeping it lit bright 22 hours and letting any kinda of algea take off. My Dinos have gone down significantly . They are now primarly in the sump with a few stragglers in the display . Alright for the dirty natural method .

 

[Sm51498]

Nice build, very well executed and polished. I'm excited to see how it develops.

 

[Paul87]

Looks good. Tagging along in the 40 breeder club.

 

[Steadyreef42]

Looks good. Tagging along in the 40 breeder club.

Thanks! Your build really helped me in starting my tank up . Pardon the dirty sump lol.

Keep the videos of your 40 coming. I hope I can get mine that sweet someday

 

[Steadyreef42]

Im happy to say I've been dinoflagellate free for a almost a week. I've had them since almost the tanks start. Not sure how I got them . Possibly because I transferred all of my live stock from a temporary 10 gallon . I had major chaeto die off maybe due to low nutrients . Together with an improperly cycled tank maybe this caused perfect conditions for Dinos to thrive .

I attempted the hydrogen peroxide dosing method and blackout only to lose coral and brittle stars and who knows what else microfauna . Dinos disappeared for a day and still came back

Finally for the past month or so i shortened the light cycle in my DT and ran my sump light 24 hours. I dumped skimate back into the sump fed like crazy anything to make other algea flourish. I also added a handful of a caulerpa to the refugiun. In time the sump was overrun with algea and the Dinos were mostly in the sump. Just this weekend I trimmed out crazy amounts of caulerpa . . Hair algea began to develop . And Dinos have faded away completely from the entire system . Even ran without my curve 5 bubble Magnus skimmer for a bit. I'm not sure how my system has balanced out but I sure hope Dinos remain gone long term. Have patches of hair algea in display tank but turbos are making quick work of it. Corals are now recovering and really starting to show growth.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Your reef is looking good!

 

[Steadyreef42]

Your reef is looking good!

Thanks ! I turned off the blues to get an accurate picture of how clear my sandbed is . Used to be covered in brown snot. The patches of hair algea really pops out but luckily my lfs had a one day sale of turbos for 1.75 each. Grabbed four. These guys are lawn mowers even in tall patches

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Your sandbed is spotless! Turbos are a reefers best friend. They make quick work of the algae. That's a sweet toadstool.

 

[Sm51498]

That is looking great! I have always personally had more success with the dirty Natural methods as you put it so well. Doesn't work for everyone, but I always have the best luck going that route.

 

[Steadyreef42]

Red Mangrove suddenly split to four leaves . Pretty neat !