THE Upgrade from 1g to 40g

[jpshoemaker46]

THE START:
Hey everyone!! I hope all the reefing fam on reef 2 reef is doing quite well. First and foremost I want to thank everyone who inspired me to start a saltwater/reefing aquarium. I have been so addicted and have been having so much fun on this forum ever since. I started with a 1g mag tool aquarium and I didn't know what I was getting into. Long story short I'm in medical school and recently just graduated YAY!!!!!! and going into residency soon in AZ!

During my last year of school I decided I wanted to start reefing because I love the ocean so much and I've always been around it my whole life (Thanks Mexico). I started with the 1g because I had no idea how to get into reefing and not wanting to kill anything. Since then I have done pretty well with some easy soft corals and CUC during this time, but always wanted to get a bigger tank. So since around December of 2023 I realized how much I love reefing and wanted to eventually upgrade to a larger tank.

I ended up getting a 40g IM tank w/ a stand thanks to a member of this forum. I got the tank and stand earlier this spring and wanted to set it up so badly, but first I want to thank my lovely partner in crime for dealing with my addiction as she has to deal with my craziness of the ocean (Thank god she loves it too). So I started with a 40 gallon because I thought it was a great a first upgrade from my 1g magtool aquarium, especially because I was moving back to AZ from CA.

With my 1g aquarium I started out with a couple of zoas, duncans, GSP, and a hammer with a couple of snails and hermit crabs. I realized I really wanted to start getting into the hobby (Thanks to Ocean Aquatics in Redlands from San Bernadino) and try out a larger tank when I moved home.

I ended up setting the tank up earlier this year (Spring of 2024) and as I was setting up, my significant other really didn't like the black stand. So she decided to decorate it with a wallpaper design that goes with our house. I am very thankful for her and her mom as they did a phenomenal job with redecorating the stand and it looks fantastic.

TANK IDEAS:
I really wanted to try a mixed reef (I know I started but I did my research and loved all of the corals I have seen so far from many vendors, especially AQUASD, SBB, TCK and many others). I wanted to have a couple of euphyllia, SPS and softies to start out and make it like an actual coral reef.

For fish as I know my tank is on the smaller side, but I wanted to have a couple of clowns, a six line wrasse and possible a juvenile tang or a diamond goby, but im not quite sure. Im always up for ideas from all of you.

For the clean up crew I decided obviously to go with multiple species of hermit crabs (blue and red hermits), tiger conch and cerith/nissarius snails. Love how they react with each other because they are hilarious. Once algae or coralline is an issue I was hoping to get a tuxedo urchin in the future but im not quite sure.

ENDING:
Anyway I am very excited to get this process going and I can't wait to get started and hear back from all of you reefers and the opinions that you have! Can't wait to get this started and see all of the progress. Also can't wait to see all of your tanks and grab some ideas from all of you! Glad you are all a part of my reefing journey! Cheers!

 

[randomfishdude]

We need to see this 1g

 

[jpshoemaker46]

We need to see this 1g

Back in the day haha. I have the 40g set up already and transferred all of the corals!

 

[carol3]

How's it going? How about a picture

 

[jpshoemaker46]

UPDATE: March 24, 2024
Since I lived in San Bernadino at the time I left my empty tank back home in AZ and had to buy all the equipment via R2R from multiple vendors (Thank you everyone who sees this). I ended up getting the rock from someone from LA as well as my NICREW 50 LED aquarium light w/ controller.

Since the rock was live and I didn't want any pests or unwanted critters I decided to bleach the rock. I left the rock sit in the bleach water for around 1-2 days. After the bleaching I left the rock out in the sun to dry out all of the bleach. I then took the rock back home to AZ to get it ready for aquascaping.

Before I set up the tank w/ the sand and dry rock, I did a water leak test, which showed no leak thank goodness, and after that the sand went in and put the light bracket on. This was exciting as I had the new equipment ready to be put to use.

 

[jpshoemaker46]

TANK GETTING WET W/ SCAPE and CYCLE: JUNE 2-4th, 2024

Equipment:
Once I got home again it was time to set everything up. As I stated in an earlier post I had purchased a NICREW LED Light w/ controller for lighting. This was very simple to set up and very easy to use. I currently run around 50-55% Blue and 10-15% white at peak.

For my skimmer I'm running a mag-tool nano AIO DC-SQ50, which I got from amazon. This is my very first skimmer and i'm still trying to do some research on how it works and what the best solution is. During the cycling process I kept it running for a couple weeks to break it in.

I'm also running an innovative marine media reactor as well with filter socks from IM as well. I plan on running carbon and de-nitrate if I have to. I plan on having anemones and want to make sure carbon is running just in case if it dies and spread toxins in the water. I also want to run carbon because I want to keep the tank nice and clear.

Since I do have a skimmer I wanted to get an ATO to keep water and salinity in balance. I bought my Magtool ATO sensor and pump from Amazon. I then bought a water jug from Walmart and I created my own DIY ATO system.

Since I live in AZ I needed a chiller of some sort. Since I don't have the funds for an actual chiller I got a fan instead. I purchased a DaToo fan from amazon. This fan was worked wonders so far from when I travel and am away from the tank. I also have temperature sensors in the back to make sure the temp was where I wanted it to be.

WET TANK/SCAPE:
Finally after a long process and journey I finally got the tank wet. I used RODI freshwater from my LFS and used instant ocean for my salt. I heard great things about instant ocean and I have had no complaints thus far. For my aquascape I really wanted to have an arch and let some corals develop caves and crevices for when they grow. I do want to have a lot of hiding places for when I get fish. I want to have a a mix reef tank w/ acros, euphyllias, softies and anemones.

CYCLE:
For the cycling process I used Dr. Tims for ammonia and bacteria to turbo start the cycle process. I also added Copepods for the algae once the cycle was underway.

 

[carol3]

Good luck with this, it will be fun

 

[jpshoemaker46]

Good luck with this, it will be fun

Thank you im really excited

 

[jpshoemaker46]

TANK UPDATE SEP 10 2024:

Good morning from AZ everyone! It's been awhile since I posted on here. So I have a few updates for anyone reading my tank thread.

1) I transferred my corals from San Bernardino to AZ (very stressful as I didn't know if they would survive). Long story short my GSP and all my zoas survived including all my snails and hermit crabs. Sadly my torch and hammer did not.

2) The stock you see I got from are AQUASD, Cali kid corals, TCK corals and mostly SBB corals (Go check them all out). For acres I currently have an SBB lightsaber, RRC Marvin the martian, ARC master Yoda, TCK avalanche tenius, TSA tricolor, SBB bicolor rainbow and SBB candyland. For my torches I have an indigo gold tip torch from SBB, another one from TCK corals and a no mane from SBB. I have a few mushrooms all from SBB that includes a King Kong yuma, swamp thing and a rainbow rhodactis from Cali Kid corals.

3) After awhile I wanted to get some starter fish. Since I have been traveling a lot I haven't been able to get the fish until I settled down a little bit. So my first fish that I got was a six line wrasse, and a pair of ocellaris clown fish. They have been doing awesome so far and are eating pellets, mysis and flakes. For inverse I have a pair of cleaner shrimp and they have an awesome personality. I also have a pair of tiger conches and one pincushion urchin and they are all funny to watch. I also have many blue/red hermit crabs and verity/nissarius snails.

4) With the fish I added an EHEIM auto fish feeder and it was worked wonders. I will try to upload more pics (hopefully better ones as trying to take with iPhone doesn't do it justice) of fish and coral as time progresses!

FUTURE IDEAS:

Some future purchases that I would like to make include a couple of more fish. The main fish that I really want is a white birstletooth tomini tang. Since they don't get too large and I want to explore tangs, I think this would be a great start. I also would like to add a lawnmower blenny to pick the algae off rocks, a diamond goby to keep the sand clean and a royal gamma. What are your thoughts? Eventually I would like to upgrade to a bigger tank, but unfortunately that is not in the cards at the moment!