dcreasy9880
Community Member
i was given a 40-breeder tank, and decided i wanted to upgrade my 36 gallon bowfront tank to the 40-breeder, simply because it had a wider display area.
The only thing i needed for the new tank was a stand and luckily i found one on marketplace pretty cheap, once i got the stand i painted the back glass black. I also decided to try and clean the glass with a novus plastic and acrylic polishing kit. Although for plastics it seemed to give the glass a nice clean appearance.
after a couple of weeks of talking with lfs and reading post i decided to make the transition happen this past Saturday night. It was a very time consuming process and a slight headache lol. I had a 20 gallon trash can that mixed 15 gallons of fesh salt water in that day, and while it was mixing i ran to the lfs and picked up 25 more gallons of rodi water. I had a 17 gallon storage bucket that i used to hold roughly 10-12 gallons of my old tank water and all my rock and livestock and corals with a heater and power head while i made the transition.
Once i moved the old tank and stand out of the way since i have carpet i decided to cut a peace of 1/2 plywood same length as the stand to help with leveling. I put the new stand in place and decided to test fit the lights on the new tank. I already had 1 smat farm g5 led and with the length of the new tank i needed a second so i ordered another. Apparently the light are made to mount to rimless tanks, the rim on my tank made the weight of the light really lean forward, i ended up having to notch out slightly the peace of the rim that a lid would norm sit on. Even with notching the rim the lights still wanted to lean in so i took some old hose from an old gravel vaccume i had and cut small peaces just big enough to fit in between the mount and the glass, this seemed to help and i was able to get the mounting screws good and tight.
Once i got the tank on the stand and level i started adding my new sand "caribsea live sand Fiji pink" and rocks cape. As i was filling the tank with new freshly mixed saltwater i dumped 2 bottles of copepods into the tank all aorund the rock work so they would have time to get settled in before my fish went in. I also dosed a little more than 3/4 a bottle of dr tims one and only. "the bottle was rated for 60 gallons" Once i added my 15 gallons of fresh mixed salt water i started mixing another 10 gallons. While that mixed i started to add in my 5 gallons of water i had in a bucket holding all my clean up crew, then added my 12 gallons of old tank water along with my fish. i only ended up using maybe 7 gallons of new freshly mixed water to finsih topping the tank off the rest of the way. i turned on my power head and filter and called it a night.
I decided not to go back with my protein skimmer simply because i wasn't happy with it and i don't want to over filter my tank with having such low stock. The skimmer i had was the instant ocean seaclone 100. I may later on had another but i want a better quality one for sure, ive seen plenty of other tanks with hob filters only that look great so im on the fence of do i realy need a skimmer or not. The next morning the tank was all cleared up and looking good, my rainbow bta is looking the best ive ever personally seen it. i have a couple picutes of it during sunrise setting then sunlight setting.
yesterday i was in my Lfs just killing time and telling him my progress and showing him pictures and he talked me into getting a watchman goby to help with some diatom algae im having on my new sand bed Wich is expected.
I also need better supervision in my lfs because i also loved a neon green hammer coral and was talked into walking out with it as well. So far it is doing great in my tank.
The only issue i seem to be having right now is just really dialing in my flow. On the right side of my tank near the front i have a 660gph Current loop system power head that i have set to give a random pulse wave setting through the tank at full intensity and it seems to make it to the other side of the tank and my hammer sways slightly, just enough to make it sway but not enough to beat it silly. on the left side of my tank near the back most the way down i have a fluval sea cp1 250gph power head aimed towards the back side of my tank behind all my rock work and kind of hitting the rock work. it is a constant stream only style power head. I want to know what power heads should i be using, what is some others that others use and have good luck with.
my current live stock is 2 ocellaris clownfish, bi color blenny, watchman goby, cleaner shrimp, sand sifting star fish, hand full of cerith snails about 4-5, 5 zombie snails, 4-5 hermit crabs and 3-4 trochus snails. As far as corals i have pulsing xenia on its own big island rock, a rainbow bta, some neon green gsp, neon green hammer and a Duncan coral. i keep my salinity at 1.025. I've noticed ever since the change all my corals are happy except my Duncan. it will start to open slightly during the sunrise, sunset, and sometimes lights off. but it wont open fully and stays closed up. I'm assuming its just stressed from the move my parameters seem fine.
Parameters:
salinity - 1.025
Phospahte - 0 "i know i need to get this up im assuming its just cause this tank is a new setup"
Nitrate - 3.5
KH - 8
Calcium - 400-420ppm "api test kit i have a salifert arriving soon"
i dont have a magnesium tester it is on order and on the way as well.
some thoughts i had for later down the road was taking a seachem tidal 35-55 filter and making a hob refuging.. curious has anyone ever done this before? i know ppl use aquaclear all the time personally id rather use a tidal. My lights are 2 smat farm 95w g5s with 10:30-11:30 am sunrise 11:30-8:30pm sunlight and 8:30-9:30pm sunset and moonlight i do not use. my current brightness is channel b,c,d at 30% and channel e 1% and my plan is to nump but the bcd channels 5% each week untill i reach 85-100% and leaving e at 1% what is yalls thoughts on this?
Please let me know what yall think and any advice on power heads is greatly appreciated thanks.
The only thing i needed for the new tank was a stand and luckily i found one on marketplace pretty cheap, once i got the stand i painted the back glass black. I also decided to try and clean the glass with a novus plastic and acrylic polishing kit. Although for plastics it seemed to give the glass a nice clean appearance.
after a couple of weeks of talking with lfs and reading post i decided to make the transition happen this past Saturday night. It was a very time consuming process and a slight headache lol. I had a 20 gallon trash can that mixed 15 gallons of fesh salt water in that day, and while it was mixing i ran to the lfs and picked up 25 more gallons of rodi water. I had a 17 gallon storage bucket that i used to hold roughly 10-12 gallons of my old tank water and all my rock and livestock and corals with a heater and power head while i made the transition.
Once i moved the old tank and stand out of the way since i have carpet i decided to cut a peace of 1/2 plywood same length as the stand to help with leveling. I put the new stand in place and decided to test fit the lights on the new tank. I already had 1 smat farm g5 led and with the length of the new tank i needed a second so i ordered another. Apparently the light are made to mount to rimless tanks, the rim on my tank made the weight of the light really lean forward, i ended up having to notch out slightly the peace of the rim that a lid would norm sit on. Even with notching the rim the lights still wanted to lean in so i took some old hose from an old gravel vaccume i had and cut small peaces just big enough to fit in between the mount and the glass, this seemed to help and i was able to get the mounting screws good and tight.
Once i got the tank on the stand and level i started adding my new sand "caribsea live sand Fiji pink" and rocks cape. As i was filling the tank with new freshly mixed saltwater i dumped 2 bottles of copepods into the tank all aorund the rock work so they would have time to get settled in before my fish went in. I also dosed a little more than 3/4 a bottle of dr tims one and only. "the bottle was rated for 60 gallons" Once i added my 15 gallons of fresh mixed salt water i started mixing another 10 gallons. While that mixed i started to add in my 5 gallons of water i had in a bucket holding all my clean up crew, then added my 12 gallons of old tank water along with my fish. i only ended up using maybe 7 gallons of new freshly mixed water to finsih topping the tank off the rest of the way. i turned on my power head and filter and called it a night.
I decided not to go back with my protein skimmer simply because i wasn't happy with it and i don't want to over filter my tank with having such low stock. The skimmer i had was the instant ocean seaclone 100. I may later on had another but i want a better quality one for sure, ive seen plenty of other tanks with hob filters only that look great so im on the fence of do i realy need a skimmer or not. The next morning the tank was all cleared up and looking good, my rainbow bta is looking the best ive ever personally seen it. i have a couple picutes of it during sunrise setting then sunlight setting.
yesterday i was in my Lfs just killing time and telling him my progress and showing him pictures and he talked me into getting a watchman goby to help with some diatom algae im having on my new sand bed Wich is expected.
I also need better supervision in my lfs because i also loved a neon green hammer coral and was talked into walking out with it as well. So far it is doing great in my tank.
The only issue i seem to be having right now is just really dialing in my flow. On the right side of my tank near the front i have a 660gph Current loop system power head that i have set to give a random pulse wave setting through the tank at full intensity and it seems to make it to the other side of the tank and my hammer sways slightly, just enough to make it sway but not enough to beat it silly. on the left side of my tank near the back most the way down i have a fluval sea cp1 250gph power head aimed towards the back side of my tank behind all my rock work and kind of hitting the rock work. it is a constant stream only style power head. I want to know what power heads should i be using, what is some others that others use and have good luck with.
my current live stock is 2 ocellaris clownfish, bi color blenny, watchman goby, cleaner shrimp, sand sifting star fish, hand full of cerith snails about 4-5, 5 zombie snails, 4-5 hermit crabs and 3-4 trochus snails. As far as corals i have pulsing xenia on its own big island rock, a rainbow bta, some neon green gsp, neon green hammer and a Duncan coral. i keep my salinity at 1.025. I've noticed ever since the change all my corals are happy except my Duncan. it will start to open slightly during the sunrise, sunset, and sometimes lights off. but it wont open fully and stays closed up. I'm assuming its just stressed from the move my parameters seem fine.
Parameters:
salinity - 1.025
Phospahte - 0 "i know i need to get this up im assuming its just cause this tank is a new setup"
Nitrate - 3.5
KH - 8
Calcium - 400-420ppm "api test kit i have a salifert arriving soon"
i dont have a magnesium tester it is on order and on the way as well.
some thoughts i had for later down the road was taking a seachem tidal 35-55 filter and making a hob refuging.. curious has anyone ever done this before? i know ppl use aquaclear all the time personally id rather use a tidal. My lights are 2 smat farm 95w g5s with 10:30-11:30 am sunrise 11:30-8:30pm sunlight and 8:30-9:30pm sunset and moonlight i do not use. my current brightness is channel b,c,d at 30% and channel e 1% and my plan is to nump but the bcd channels 5% each week untill i reach 85-100% and leaving e at 1% what is yalls thoughts on this?
Please let me know what yall think and any advice on power heads is greatly appreciated thanks.
